Leader of the Pack

Adventure Pack

No sticks or pinecones for Rucksack or Roger Roger today.  They just stuck to hiking through the mud alongside their packmates Milo and Benny.  Toward the end of our hike, Rucksack took to licking Milo's ears as he has done from time to time.  Milo didn't react to the attention from Rucksack and just trotted along while Rucksack made his ears wet.

Play Pack

Our walk along Boulder Creek started out pretty well today.  Everyone wasn't quite on the same page but we were walking along alright.  Stella took a little bit of prodding to leave off sniffing at the side of the path and keep up, while on the other hand Thompson needed frequent reminders to stop pulling ahead and walk with the pack.  But we were moving along and the rest of the pack was sticking together.  Then, on the return leg of our walk, Sadie started barking at passing dogs and Sputnik in turn got very agitated and started to growl and lunge, so we took a pit stop off the side of the walking path by the Justice Center to settle down.  I had Sadie lie down facing away from the path and blocked her from hopping up and barking at passers-by by squatting down over her with one shin extended over her back.  I had Sputnik lie down as well while occasional people and dogs passed for a little while.  The rest of the pack sat and waited patiently.  It took some time and corrections before Sputnik stopped staring intensely and sneering at every passing dog.  Apparently while we were there a concerned citizen saw how I had restrained Sadie and thought it looked like I was crushing her, or 'sitting on' her, so they alerted the police at the nearby Justice Center.  A few officers came out to check on things and talk to me about it, and while I demonstrated Sadie's position, Mamacita decided it was her turn to get into trouble and she lunged at one of the officers, pulling the leash from my hand while I was distracted with my demonstration.  Thankfully, Mamacita didn't actually bite him and the officers didn't overreact, and I was able to get a hold of Mamacita's leash again quickly.  During all that, Luca had been behaving himself very well.  However, the whole pack was very agitated afterwards and even Luca joined in to pull and bark at the next dog we encountered on the path - a Bernese Mountain Dog - so we went through the whole settling routine off the side of the path again - this time with fewer complications - and then finally made it back to the packmobile to call it a day.