Leader of the Pack

The Adventure Pack

The pups were all on different pages today and wanted to pull me in all different directions from the moment we got out to the trail.  Coco kept veering off the side of the trail to sniff around.  Benny was back at his habit of stopping suddenly in place.  Rucksack wanted to rush ahead at every chance he got.  Wesley was the only one who stayed at my side pretty consistently, though he sometimes vied for the lead with Rucksack.  As a result, we made slow progress today and didn't go up the Flatiron.  I kept everyone on leash for the day because I expected that they'd be all over the place if I let them off.  The one time everyone was on the same page was when we came across a robin who was perched on a rock in the middle of the trail.  The whole pack was at alert then, and started straining at the leashes every few steps.  As we made our slow progress forward, the robin hopped along the trail, keeping about 5 yards ahead of us.  It was good practice for heeling!  Nobody tried to bolt, but we had to stop and regroup every few paces when one or more of the pack started to pull forward.  Eventually, the robin took flight, but it had spent a good while hopping along the trail just out of reach.

The Play Pack

Surprisingly, there was no three-way tug-of-war today!  Instead, Oscar and Coco played fetch for a while, each getting their fair share of retrievals; and after a bit of that, Coco started taunting Oscar with the tennis ball.  She walked over to him and bumped him right in the head with it while she held it in her mouth.  She proceeded to bow and throw her head around while Oscar jumped at her and tried to pry the ball away.  Later on, Coco gave Benny the same treatment.  Instead of jumping around at her face like Oscar, however, Benny just opened his mouth and held Coco's entire snout in it.