Tired yet?

OOF!


Well, THAT wasn't very nice, now was it?


Dexter is game for just about anything. He has no fear of new stuff - all of my socializing and taking him everywhere possible has made him a very confident young man. He's never seen a tire suspended from a rope before ... but that didn't stop him from trying to take it down ;-) Even when it "attacked" him, he came back for more. Brave little soldier!

Salt water

Not so tasty, akshully.

The face

He really wanted to play with Piper on The Forbidden Bed

First I said "no."


But Piper said "yes."


Then she changed her mind and said "no."


So I think he was confused.

And then, after all that, he was pouty.

I can't explain

this face either.

Excuse me, Dexter

Yes, you.


Do not jump on your sister.

(Really wants to jump on his sister)


He'll have to be satisfied with open-mouthed excitement from a couple of feet away.


Piper is one of those dogs who triggers other dogs to pounce, probably because she's hyper-focused and also vibrating with energy. Since he was small, Dexter has liked to obsess on her. But as all good dog trainers strive to do, we make the "right" thing easy and the "wrong" thing difficult. He's only allowed to 'obsess' on his sister if a) he calls off when asked and b) he doesn't touch her. If he violates those rules, he is often put on a leash and not allowed to have any fun at all. As a result, about 90% of the time now he will creep around her and run *beside* her, but not jump on or bite her. This is acceptable.

He's not perfect yet, he's just a baby after all. But he's learning.

Do Not Want

First walk of the year

and we shared it with Dexter's sister Ginny, and his brother Ace! Ace is smaller than Dexter - shorter I mean, as Dex is all giraffe legs and Ace is more proportionate. He is VERY sweet and friendly. And all my hard work socializing Dexter has paid off, as he played nicely with Ace instead of trying to kill him.

Ginny ran circles around them both!

Unfortunately, it has been monsooning more or less all day, so my camera had to stay home. Here's a photo of Dex from yesterday, looking concerned about something. He tends to get this expression on his face when I don't throw the ball right away. It's hard to watch ALL the other dogs and anticipate where they're going to run at once, you know.


ETA - Ace's dad just sent me this photo he took with his cell phone from this morning:

From L-R: Dexter, Ace and Gin
(see how tall Dex is compared to the other two?)