Dog days

Who am I kidding - most of my days are dog days. Not in the dictionary sense of the term: hot weather, lazy days. But really, my days are filled with dog stuff. Chief is 8-ish months old; Charlie is almost 4 years old. One would think that things were settled at my house. Not so much.

I'm walking them separately now since they're both so big and they really deserve time apart. But that means 2 hours a day of dog-walking. That's a bunch of time, especially since school has started for my kids and my schedule essentially revolves around their school and sports schedule. My work, fortunately, fits in around all of this.

And now that I've started giving them each their own walk, I can't imagine going back to walking them together. Someday. Maybe.

Chief is still a puppy. It takes him about the first 15 minutes of a walk to get his crazies out. He sniffs everything, zig-zagging along the sidewalk, usually behind me. Then he settles in to walk beside me (in order to get those treats) or calms down enough for me to enjoy the scenery. I'm trying to focus on doing a 'heel' with him for several blocks during our one hour walk. That seems to be fine with him.

Charlie has been a challenge. We adopted him at 5 months old to keep our Malamute company. We'd just lost our older dog and the whole family was out of sorts. Charlie did well, as long as Floyd was around. But once Floyd was too old for long walks, Charlie started to react to every dog he saw. I didn't have a clue about what was happening. In hindsight, I believe that Charlie didn't trust me to take care of him the way Floyd had. He was right. I wanted Charlie to meet other dogs, to have some doggie social life.

After 6 months of tips and training at UnLeashed, I now have a better understanding of dog behavior, especially with my own dog. Charlie would be happy to never meet another dog again, as long as he lived. (And here I was trying to get him to 'like' every dog he met.) So we have definite routines for Charlie. He only goes to the dog park when there are very few dogs there. And he has to have a job to do - chase his ball! And he will be removed if he gets tense and stiff and territorial about the place. When we walk, we will always cross the street when we see another dog. We will do some 'sit' 'wait' 'down' when a person is walking by. I have also promised that he will never meet another dog on leash, ever again, never ever ever.

At first these things seemed like a lot of work. I wished that I owned an easy dog. But now that I have the hang of it, I realize that I've learned so much. And my relationship with Charlie has deepened. He and I have connected in a way that's different from other dogs I've known. We're a team.

When we adopted him, I had no idea how this would all play out. I had no idea that I would be immersed in dog stuff to the extent that I am. I'm no expert, but I'm more aware of dog behavior so that I can give my adopted dog the kind of life he deserves.