Update

Aug. 13

No pictures this time but an update on how Kruiser is doing. First of all, he's getting even more relaxed and comfortable in public places. When we waited for Matt and Liyun to arrive at the airport, Kruiser lay down and rolled over to sleep on his back, belly exposed. I thought this might be too casual for public, but Deborah said it was great because it showed his lack of stress. And then last weekend we spent an hour or more at Best Buy and I forgot at times he was even with us--he sat whenever I stopped and if we were in one place for very long, lay down when I told him to. (After meeting with Deborah, we had to work on his 'sit' and 'down'--because he slides on smooth surfaces, I had been letting him go into a down without asking, and his sit was getting lazy as a consequence. I got on him right after that, and after an initial period of being confused and even a little scared, he finally understood. I'm at lot more careful now about keeping him in a sit and being sure to say 'down' if he has to keep it for very long on slippery floors.)

Kruiser's love of chasing balls and frisbees keeps growing. We still sometimes have to work with his bringing them all the way to us and dropping them (or "giving" them to us in our hand). Best method to get him to bring them all the way is to walk away and then he comes with them the rest of the way. Food doesn't begin to work when retrieving is involved. He likes the ball/frisbee and chasing after them way more than any treats.

Kruiser had his first bout with giardia a week ago. We hiked up to Columbine Lake, close to Arapaho Pass on the western side of the Divide with plenty of still water along the way and in the lake as well; he and Pat also sampled scat as usual (yuck), either of which could have been the source. They're both fine now. Kruiser's first shot against giardia meant he had it less severely than Pat. No fun regardless.