Leader of the Pack

The Adventure Pack

Coco was much more respectful of Rucksack's right to carry a stick today.  He started off with a smallish chunk of wood that he carried around for a while until he dropped to do a full-body shake to rid himself of some of the specimens he had gathered while trotting through the brush.  Coco didn't harass him for that piece of wood up to then, but she couldn't resist the opportunity to steal it out from under his nose.  Wesley didn't romp around with Coco at the beginning of the hike and instead just trotted along, sniffing around.  Near the end of the hike, however, Rucksack decided it was time to get Wesley moving; he started whining, hopping around Wesley, and pawing at him and Wesley started playing back.  They played a game of pouncing and dodging with one another for a little while.  Coco was on leash at the time and very restless watching the two of them have fun without her.

The Play Pack

I've been working with Fletcher on his on-leash pulling when we come down from his apartment to the car for Pack Activities, and he's improved noticeably in the last couple days.  He's much quicker to stop and come back when I stop in place after he starts pulling ahead of me.  I'm glad that he's learning, because hes a strong guy!  At the park, Fletcher, Brady, and Coco all played fetch for a lot of the time.  They all love chasing tennis balls and they're all very good at bringing them back at least to my vicinity.  Every throw is a race to see who gets their first.  When one of them has lost out a lot, I try to time and place my throw so they have a good chance of beating the others there and it usually works.  When the other dogs don't bring the ball all the way back, Brady often scoops it up.  Once in a while he gives up on his chance to get to the ball first when spins around and sees his packmates are already ahead of him.  If they get distracted and don't come back with the ball he'll go out in search of it.  He runs to each ball he sees in the area and gives it a good sniff to figure out if it's the same ball we were using.  If so, he grabs it up and either comes back to me or lies down with it; if not, he forgets about it and continues his search.  Coco found a Dalmation mix that she had a lot of fun with today.  Before we left the park, the two of them were chasing each other back and forth over a frisbee.  After the other dog eventually wandered off, I came over to Coco to leash her and as I approached she proudly placed her paw on the frisbee - which was on the ground next to her - beaming, "This is my prize."  I was impressed when I came all the way up to her and she didn't try to protect or run away with it.  I put my foot on it, too, and she looked up at me with her head slightly tilted then let me put the leash on her and followed me out without complaining about leaving her prize behind - very mature!