Leader of the Pack

Adventure Pack

Roger Roger enjoyed jumping all over Benny on today's hike.  Benny enjoyed the playful puppy attention for the most part and galloped around with an enthusiastic bounce.  At one point, Benny was standing still as Roger Roger stood with his front paws over his back from the side.  I tried to snap a photo of this very cute scene but didn't get the camera out in time.  Later on, Milo and Rucksack spent their off-leash time walking politely with the group and occasionally lingering behind to sniff out interesting spots.  When Coco had her turn off-leash, I picked up a stick to get her attention and keep her with the group, as she tends to race ahead and try to lead the way.  It worked wonderfully and she walked at a heel, eyeing the stick, for a good long while.  I then gave her the stick and let her frolick with it for a few minutes before I picked out another, bigger stick and repeated the exercise.  A while later, when I finally gave her the second stick, she calmly and dutifully carried it the rest of the way back down the trail, obviously proud of her prize.

Play Pack

I've seen Thompson do some playful hopping on a few occasions but for the first time with the pack he went a an honest-to-goodness chase with a group of dogs.  It was spurred on by a little Chihuahua who was chasing after two much larger dogs.  Thompson perked up when they whizzed by him and then he took off and joined the chase as they made their way through the park!  Later on, Thompson watched Milo slip under the tree stump and waited for his turn.  When Milo came back out, Thompson took his place while Benny stood outside and waited.  When Thompson came back out, however, Benny just stayed by the entrance for a minute and then came over to me.  Meanwhile, Mamacita was having a blast running with some other dogs.  She chased after one dog who was playing fetch; she had a run with another dog in more of a back-and-forth-style chase; she rolled in the grass and wrestled around with a Vizsla; and she played rabbit in a 3-dog chase.