Leader of the Pack

The Adventure Pack

Sputnik is maturing quickly.  Today, he greeted another dog on the trails with the most restraint I've ever seen.  There was an energetic American Staffordshire Terrier coming up the trail behind us on a leash, panting heavily and pulling to catch up with us.  She got the whole pack's attention and they all just wanted to go say hi so we stopped to let them pass by us.  Benny and Sputnik were both off leash.  As the other dog approached, Benny got distracted by a stick on the other side of the trail.  Meanwhile, Sputnik lied down.  I thought he was getting into position to pounce, but he stayed lying down until the pulling, panting, hyper dog was standing directly in front of him.  Then he very slowly and very calmly stood up, and gave the other dog a few licks on the face.  It was very sweet, and his restraint was very impressive.  Rucksack and Oliver were much more eager to say hello to the passing dog when she came by us.  Benny was occupied with his stick, with which he and Sputnik proceeded to play alternating rounds of keep-away from each other.

The Play Pack

Isaac fell into the same fetching pattern at the park as yesterday - looping around me and dropping the ball, and then continuing around and back out to get the next throw without a pause.  He was beat to the ball a few times by Coco, who was also very diligent in bringing it back after each throw - though not in the fluid style of isaac.  Meanwhile, Benny and Oscar played keep-away from each other with another tennis ball.  Oscar's attempts to bark while his mouth was stuffed with a tennis ball were very entertaining.