The new dog bug that is. She allows her patients to bring their dogs to their therapy sessions if they choose. Apparently a number of us have new dogs and it's made her long for a new dog herself. She had to put her beloved dog down about 18 months ago.
I never thought I'd be a sucker like that until I met Max. I'm not a dog person, I've ALWAYS been a cat person but Max was special. When I was so sick during chemo all I coud do was lay flat on my back he laid on the floor on my side of the bed every single day from morning to night until I recovered. He was protective of Larry but especially protective of me. I thought I'd never even like a dog as much as Max after he died. I really wanted another Pyrenees but the fates were against us at this time. Larry, wheelchair, walker, crutches ... Thus we ended up with Colin.
A brief interlude ... we went to meet the dog trainer last night because we had missed the first class, orientation. Our main event for the evening was going to a friend's for a dinner of choppino, OMGF it was go good but I digress. As we arrived at the designated spot, Copperfield's in Healdsburg we realized we'd forgotten the walker and the wheelchair. How could we have possibly forgotten not ONE but both. As a result Larry and Colin spent the hour I spent with Mike in Copperfield's in the car.
The three of us headed off to dog school this morning. We knew we needed a training collar because 1) Colin paid no attention to the training harness and 2) he chewed through part of it so it's off for repair. Apparently the hot new training collar is the Martingale . It's basically a cloth choke collar that's easier on the dog than a traditional metal collar. We purchased our collar and went off to class. He was less than impressed with the collar and got bored toward the end of class because he already knows how to sit, is so smart that most of the training bored him - RAPIDLY. The most hysterical was the one where you place a treat on the ground and as the dog goes for it you cover it with your foot. If the dog looks away it gets rewarded. He was very excited the first 2 or 3 times. After that he laid down and looked at us as if to say "how stupid do you think I am? I know you're going to cover the treat with your foot so I'm not even going to bother making an effort" I personally found it quite hysterical and he got rewarded for it.
As it turns out Colin has converted me again to being a semi-dog person again. He's big, only 13 months old and 110 lbs. He's expected to gain another 20 to 30 lbs and grow a bit taller. Currently he stands 31" at the shoulder and 36" at the head. Yeah he's going to get bigger. But he's the most mellow guy. In fact one of the people we had dinner with last night tried to smuggle him out and Mike doesn't even like dogs!
Everyone at Western Farms, our go to place if Healdsburg dog house doesn't have what we need, fell in love with him. He's generally calm and approachable for kids up to adults. Now If we could just get him to stop using his giant feet when he's excited. I have bruises down both thighs because he gets so excited and he doesn't realize the power he has.We're greatly looking forward to the next six weeks of dog school. We may ever cure him of a kid's version of "I didn't do it". His version is "duck did it" Every time he does something he knows he's not supposed to do he runs over to duck (who was once fluffy and white) grabs him and either shakes him for all he's worth or makes him squeak. You know he's feeling particularly guilty if he makes duck squeak - riotous. He is a great lift to my spirits which as you know have been sinking of late.