Leader of the Pack

Coco and Toskey ran up and down the trail side-by-side once they were let off-leash on today's hike.  Every so often during the rest of the hike, Toskey would start to lag behind a bit; when she picked up the pace to catch up, Coco would pause while facing her, poised for ambush, and leap on her as soon as she caught up.  This usually resulted in a short run together, until later in the hike when Toskey was getting tired and just shrugged Coco off.

Luna had her first day out with the Play Pack today!  She is a black and white Australian Cattle Dog mix who is very sweet and, it turns out, very fast!  When Luna met Coco and Rucksack, they were all very interested in one another.  Coco was particluarly exuberant about her new playmate, which Luna found a little overwhelming at first and she hopped into the passenger seat of the packmobile to get a break.  After a few minutes, Coco settled down enough that Luna felt comfortable hanging out in the back of the car, and then the two of them rolled around and gnawed playfully on each other on our way to the park while Rucksack gave Luna a good sniffing.  At the park, Luna and Coco's wrestling continued until Luna became curious about her new environment and went all around greeting the other dogs.  After she greeted everyone, I took all three of them for a walk around the perimeter of the park so Luna could bond with her new packmates.  During our walk around the park, we were accompanied by another dog who had fun playing tug-of-war over a rope toy with both Coco and Rucksack.  After the other dog headed back to her owner, Luna decided it was time to really have some fun and she zipped ahead right by Rucksack.  Rucksack immediately picked up the chase and Coco soon followed as she led them all over the park.  Neither Coco nor Rucksack were able to keep up with her!  After that run, Luna seemed pretty tired out.  Rucksack found his soccerball, which I guess was just hiding yesterday, and he trotted around with it for most of the visit after I gave it a wash.  Coco played with her friend Zeus later on in the visit.  Luna spent the latter part of the visit wandering around and getting herself better acquainted, while occassionally come back to me for some petting.