The Dog Days (and Nights) of Summer
Ah--the joys of walking the dog in the summer. Neither of us need a jacket or boots when the air is balmy and the sidewalks are clear of snow. Evening walks are the best, when the cool breeze blows away the heat of the day, and the only sounds are the train in the distance, and a few cars on the highway.
Hah! And the neighborhood dogs barking every time we walk past, and the car stereos blaring, and the kids yelling to each other as they play on the sidewalks.
But, I love it all, anyway, and Jackson does, too.
For nearly a month, we got to share our walks with the "granddogs," Bowie and Bella. Bowie is a black Pugapoo, and Bella is some kind of Beagle mix. They both just finished a couple of weeks of intensive training in Wisconsin, with the dog trainer who lives across the street from Erin, Reed, and Will. Bowie, who received a little extra training, was on his best behavior most of the time, walking sedately, rarely tugging on the leash or attempting to chase any bunnies or cats that happened to exist near our path.
Bella, on the other hand, is supremely stubborn, always looking out for other animals, chasing them whenever she gets the chance, and pulling hard on the leash whenever she spots a poor little rabbit or the neighbor's outside cat. Bella was a rescue who spent the first few months of her life on the streets, hunting for her food. Those early instincts will probably always remain with her, no matter how well trained she appears to be.
It was rather gratifying, though, to receive a compliment from our own neighborhood dog trainer, who lives across the street from my house. As I set off one evening with all three dogs, I couldn't help but laugh to myself when he commented that they were doing so well, with no pulling.
Nevertheless, at least 95% of the time, all of the dogs behaved appropriately for our evening walks. Even Jackson, who often lunges in the direction of any big dogs he sees or hears, usually behaved himself as he walked alongside his two, new, best friends.
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| Jackson, Bella, and Bowie |
Bella and Bowie stayed with us for nearly a month while their people visited relatives in Denver and New Mexico. The dogs were good travelers on the long car trip from Wisconsin to western Nebraska, but Erin and Reed were convinced that their pets would be happier staying with us as their human family continued their trip to Denver and New Mexico, before returning to Nebraska to pick up the dogs.
I think Bella enjoyed her stay with us the most. She fell in love with her new pals, our backyard chickens, always heading straight to the chicken coop whenever we let her out in the backyard. She loved to chase them from one side of the coop to the other, perhaps hoping they would soon become her dinner, barking as they tried to escape to a more private part of their safely enclosed home. I worked hard to find a way to train her to just look, and not bark. After some trial and error, and a lot of frustrated yelling, I grabbed a long piece of last year's pampas grass, and slapped the ground with it whenever she chased or barked at the chickens, assertively saying "Bella, No!" Surprisingly, that method worked well, and she soon learned to get away from the chicken coop, or just stop to look at the hens. Before too long, she responded well to the verbal command alone, and eventually, she even left the coop long enough to accomplish her normal outside tasks. (My carpet and I both breathed great sighs of relief.)
Jackson enjoyed being the old man of the pack, often sitting on the window seat to watch the evening antics of the younger dogs, as one chased the other around the house. Jackson never condescended to play with his new friends, but he really appreciated their company.
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| Walking at night |
Our extra dogs have been gone for a couple of weeks now. It seems like I barely mastered the art of walking three at once, and then I was back to walking one lonely dog.
And yes, Jackson, has been a little lonely. We have settled back into our regular routine, though. He starts gazing at me longingly in the late afternoon. If I haven't grabbed his leash soon after supper, he follows me around the house, ever hopeful. Then, when he sees me start to put on my shoes, he is immediately ready to get outside and walk, invariably pulling on the leash when we get close to any other dog.
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| Just Jackson, looking longingly out the window |
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