THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH

Friday June 24th has been designated “Take Your Dog to Work Day” by Pet Sitters International. Begun in 1999 with a goal of encouraging adoptions, Pet Sitters Int’l suggests that we all take our dogs to work to emphasize the human/animal bond, and indirectly encourage people to adopt homeless dogs.

This could be a great thing to do; many of us take our dogs to work regularly.  If you work in the dog world, it’s almost a gimmee, and one of the perks that I love about my job is that I can take Willie to work whenever I want (except, of course, when he is recovering from surgery). However, there’s nothing like being an Applied Animal Behaviorist to stimulate the waving of red flags when we read about something that, in some cases, could also be described as “take your dog into a completely novel and highly distracting environment and where you have no time to work with her if it flips her out.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m in favor of taking some dogs to work, but it’s truly not appropriate for some dogs.

Curious about how Pet Sitter’s Intl handled the potential of trouble, I went to their website and read their articles on “Preparing Your Dog for the Office” and “Introducing Your Dog to New People and Pets.” There was some very good information in them, including being sure your dog has basic manners and being sure your dog has had “practice calming down in a public place.” Yeah for them for making it clear that dogs need experience to be comfortable in new, stimulating places, and that their training needs to be “proofed” in highly distracting environments. They also advise teaching your dog to sit before greeting people or other dogs, and wisely advocate for loose leashes when dogs are greeting one another. All good, especially the statement “practice taking your dog out into the world.”

This is a key comment, but I do worry a bit that they buried the lead. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve worked with who owned “bold,  slap-happy” dogs who cowered and shivered and refused food when taken to a new environment.

The fact is, it’s hard to predict how your dog will behave if he or she has never been in a public place. That’s why I love that the website suggests “practice taking your dog out…”. But, their emphasis is on manners, and not on the dog’s comfort level. I’d love it if they added some lines like: “Not all dogs would enjoy leaving the comfort of home into a new and potentially frightening situation, so don’t bring your dog to work unless you have already determined that he or she likes going out and about with you.”  The point being it’s not just about manners, but also about your dog’s comfort level.

On a related note, I’m reminded of the time I took Cool Hand Luke to the radio station and was doing a live show with Larry Meiller on Wisconsin Public Radio. Luke was lying quietly under the table while I answered questions from callers about training and behavior. Luke had been the perfect dog up to that point (you know what’s coming here now, don’t you?) but mid-way through the show a workman stopped to look through the large glass window that separated the studio from the reception area. I hadn’t noticed him because I was facing the  other way. What I did notice was an eruption of high-pitched barking from Luke as he lept to his feet, slammed into me and the table and sent the show’s producer in a panicked attempt to modulate the amplitude.

For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why Luke had responded as he did (remember, we’re live on radio now), until I observed that the workman had on knee pads–large, black circles that looked exactly like the fixed, hard eyes of a dog about to attack. And right at eye level too. Luke calmed down right away, and we all had a great laugh about it. Not long afterward I was told that the station had created a “no pet in the studio” policy. Go figure.

What about you? Do you take your dog to work? Is it harder for you to get work done when and if  you do? (It is for me, but I also love it. Willie hasn’t come to work since his injury in February and probably won’t be able to until August or September. Ouch. Miss it.) Do other people bring their dogs and you’re glad? Wish they didn’t? I’d love to hear any stories you have. . .

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Willie had a bad day yesterday (gut trouble, no idea why) and was too sick to do his PT. I spent hours last night just cuddled with him on the living room floor, me watching the Perfect Storm and stroking his belly. I am so thankful he is such a cuddly dog, not sure what I’d do if he wasn’t.

Outside it’s like a jungle right now, rain is frequent and the vegetation is growing visibly. Honest, you can almost see it grow. I feel such sympathy for the people in drought affected areas, wish we could send some of our rain down to you. But you don’t want the lightening–we had a horrific storm this weekend that got all of us up at 4 am, a riot of thunder and lightening that burned down the very special cabin of a friend just a few miles away from my farm.

In a quieter moment, here’s a native plant that loves shade and moisture, wild ginger at the base of a Maple tree. I just love the shape of the leaves…

Here’s Sushi at the living room window, watching me and Willie do his exercises. (When I brought her in right after I took this I was concerned that she had a tick by her eye. See the black dot? But it was just a speck of dirt, so don’t worry if you noticed it too.)

If you’ve written a book, you know what it’s like to hold the final version in your hand for the first time.

Love Has No Age Limit, the book I co-authored with Karen London about adopting an adolescent or adult dog, was delivered yesterday morning at 8 AM. I pulled up just after Denise had spent heaven knows how long carrying boxes from the truck into the office. (The delivery man’s comment, while first refusing to unload the boxes, was “Do you know how many books there are in that truck?!” That’s a line that will live forever in our office as “comments never to forget.” As will Denise’s answer: “Yes, I do. I ordered them.”) But thanks to Denise’s herculean efforts, there are now thousands of copies of our new book sitting in our office. (But a lot less than yesterday, we’ve sold hundreds and hundreds already!)

But right after it came, I entered my office to find a closed box of the books sitting on my desk. I took a breath and parted the cardboard panels. It’s scary to look at the book for the first time. Is it okay? Color right? Some horrific mistake that somehow passed through all the proofings? But, ah, when you pick it up and it’s okay and it’s good and you like it and all that work sits lightly in your hand? Priceless!

Here’s what I’m especially happy about:

*** Karen and I combined our combined years of experience working with clients who adopted dogs as adolescents or adults, with that of your wisdom, dear readers, and that of colleagues who have spent years helping to place dogs into their forever homes. We have high hopes that the book will not only encourage adoptions, but also increase the number of successful ones. (One research project found that almost a third of all adopted dogs were returned in the area studied.) It’s very clear that there are patterns to the adoption of older dogs, including in some of the problems that arise,  and we’ve learned that a little bit of advice can go a long way toward helping families adapt to a new dog with a minimum of problems. Often the problem relates to expectations, and once expectations are aligned, things go much better than before.

*** We asked you and Facebook readers to send in a photo of a dog you rescued or adopted for the cover, and received over 800 of them. 800! Seriously! We loved every single one. It wasn’t easy, but we finally chose a dog named Theo to grace the cover, and a more compelling dog couldn’t be found. Theo was picked up by animal control on a New Jersey freeway, languished in a shelter for months, and is now a licensed therapy dog and beloved friend of Kimberly Wang in New York City.

*** So many fantastic photos, along with heart-swelling stories, came in that we decided to select more of them to introduce each new chapter. You can read about them and see some of their photos on our website.We’ll get more of them up as soon as we can.

*** We set a goal early on of creating a book that was thorough enough to be helpful but concise enough to be accessible. As importantly, we committed to creating a book that would be affordable for shelters and rescue groups so that they could hand it out with every dog they place. I’m thrilled with how it’s worked out: The printer, Suttle-Straus, graphic artist and typesetters, Jam Graphics,  all agreed to take a substantial amount of their fee off of the price. We are truly grateful to them and thank them for their generosity. If you feel like it, send them an email and thank them too, we think they stepped up to the plate above and beyond. Because all the actors have been so generous, Love Has No Age Limit, if purchased in quantity, sells for a seriously ridiculous price. It’s barely covering our expenses, but it feels really really good nonetheless. We know how strapped shelters and rescue groups can be, and it feels wonderful to do our part to help dogs, as well as the people who want to adopt them.

*** We have a section on the website to help groups brainstorm ways to buy the book in bulk (when it is the least expensive, $2.95/copy) I’d love to hear your ideas about it. I think the best idea is for groups to ask donors to purchase books and donate them to the shelter. We know from research that people are more likely to contribute money for something specific rather than just cash toward a general fund.

I noticed that the Editor of Bark Magazine encouraged everyone to foster a dog this summer in their latest issue–a great idea that I’m all in favor of. Yeah for Claudia! However, it’s not something that each of us can do, no matter how much we’d like to. In April I had a foster dog scheduled to come to the farm in a few days (excitement reigned!), but then Willie’s injury was diagnosed at the Vet School, and we had to back out because I knew having a dog to play with in the house would make his recovery even more difficult. (The little girl found a good foster home soon after.) I’ll start again once Willie is recovered, but it’s not in the cards for us this summer. But it feels good to have spent over 8 months working on this book… we all can only do what we can do.

What can you do? Foster? If you can’t, there’s always a way you can help those millions of dogs out there who need homes. Be a volunteer dog walker? Contribute money for the general fund? Sponsor a dog? Buy the group or shelter some copies of Love Has No Age Limit? That feels self-serving to write, but the truth is, we did write the book to help, we do have a dream that every dog who leaves a shelter or rescue will leave with this book and that it will help at least a good number of them have an easy transition from “new dog” to “best dog ever.”

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Great news! Willie and I just got back from physical therapy and it looks like Willie is doing really, really well. Yes, it’ll still be three more months before he can be off leash again, but his range of motion is good, he is striding well, the swelling is gone and he’s doing well with all his PT exercises. Yeah Willie boy. We are even relieved of the 10 minutes of heat before each session, which will make doing the new, more active exercises easier to do. He also loves doing the active exercises the best, rather than the passive range of motion ones we’ve worked on so hard for the last month (are we surprised?). Here’s some photos of  him and Courtney Arnold, Willie’s physical therapist extraordinaire.

Here are some photos: Don’t you love how engaged she is with Willie? (He adores her, how could he not?)

As many of you know, when I went to pick up Willie after his surgery, he walked past me, greeted 4 other people, and would not make eye contact with me. This continued for 2 days after his surgery. It did not appear to be a consequence of the anesthetic or pain, in that although he was clearly a bit dopey, he enthusiastically greeted everyone else. The morning after surgery, as I sat beside him on the living room floor, he refused to lie down next to me, turned his tail to my face and lay looking longingly up the stairs toward my friend Meg. This continued, full throttle, for two days. Gradually he warmed up to me, and I’d say we are now back into the relationship we used to have. He loves me, I love him, and he loves everyone else just about as much. I say this because he greets me enthusiastically, snuggles against me when we lie down together, and does his charming little moan’y thing when he lays  his head against my cheek. But I find myself fascinated by his reaction when I picked him up from surgery, and it has me thinking about what goes on in the mind of a dog.

There are two (at least) obvious explanations for his behavior:

1) He was able to instantly pick up on my anxiety about how he had done through the surgery, about the poor diagnosis and how his recovery would go. Thus, he sensed my anxiety, and consciously or not, he avoided me to avoid it.

2) He consciously “blamed” me for what happened to him.

The second explanation feels the most “anthropomorphic” and perhaps the one that might be immediately dismissed. I was betting on #1 at first, but as the days went on I began to change my mind. First off, he would have had to have sensed my internal state without any visual cues, since he never looked anywhere near my direction. Rather, he appeared to choose to avoid looking at me as he entered the room. However, surely he could have used other sensory information … chemical cues being the obvious ones, given the ability of a dog’s nose. I should add here that although I was indeed more concerned about his recovery and care than anyone else in the room, it is not as though I was agitated about it. I expect I was in about the same state that most owners would be in when picking up their dog from major surgery. I don’t think my behavior was especially “nervous” but that doesn’t mean that my scent didn’t change because of an internal state. So, I’d say we can’t dismiss that he avoided me because he sensed some internal anxiety on my part and it made him nervous, but neither can we presume that this was the case.

But by the next day I can imagine no sensory-related reason why he would continue to shun me, and make no mistake about it, behaviorally it was the exact equivalent of shunning. He simply refused to greet me, acknowledge me or make eye contact with me in anyway. He would take a piece of food from me, but without enthusiasm. The word “grudingly” comes to mind. All of his behavior fit what would be a “cognitive” explanation, in that he was “blaming” me for what happened to him. He behaved normally to everyone else, but behaved as though I was not in the room. It might be relevant (might not?) that I am his primary caretaker, I am the one who has taken him to all his vet appointments, restricted him to leash-only activity 4 other times in his life, and the one who took him in to the vet school, talked with numerous people about the diagnosis and surgery and eventually the one who  handed him off for the procedure.

So. Is it possible that a dog could “blame” another? If we agree that “blame”is the “act of censuring, holding responsible, or making negative statements about an individual or group that their action or actions are socially or morally irresponsible” is a dog capable of it? (Not the speech part obviously.) I have to say that I have seen several cases of cat behavior that looked more like this than from a dog. It’s not uncommon for cats to ignore their owners when they return from a trip (but also be the kind of cat who loves visitors, so it’s not about being unfamiliar.) But I’ve heard less about this in relation to canine behavior. I know that many will argue that “blame” is a human construct and that we must avoid attributing it to dogs. But let me throw this out there: How much cognitive complexity would it take to hold another responsible for their behavior and act on that knowledge? Some of you commented on this when I first mentioned Willie’s behavior, with some arguing any thoughts of blame from a dog would a classic case of mis-placed anthropomorphism, while others argued that perhaps it’s not so radical to propose that a dog could make a “negative judgment” about the behavior of another and act on it accordingly. I’d say the trickiest part of this possibility is the requirement that a dog would have to hold a memory in his mind for a considerable period of time and continue to experience the emotion associated with something that happened in the past. Your thoughts? Your own experiences? I’d love to hear.

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: It’s 97 degrees outside Farenheit, so I’m happy to be inside right now. Willie is sleeping in the crate, the sheep are lolling up the hill in a shady, breezy area, and the flower buds are opening and crumbling in the same day. Willie is on week 3 now after surgery. He is more animated than last week; I can’t say if that’s because he is adapting to his new life, or recovering from the exhaustion (and pain) of surgery. I’m guessing it’s some of both. His PT takes 1.5 hours a day — we had to keep up the heat (before) and ice (after) because there is still quite a bit of swelling around the surgery site. I have to admit I’ll be glad when each session no longer takes 30 minutes. It’s getting a bit old. We have another PT appt tomorrow, maybe we’ll be freed of the heat and ice?

We’re all doing okay with our new routine. When I’m not working I’ve been doing a lot of gardening instead of dog training and herding, Sushi has kept me and the medical profession busy — she had 2 teeth extracted yesterday and her kidney values aren’t so good, so besides the blood in her urine we are starting an entirely new protocol for her. (And yes, I’m hoping her kidney values improve after the teeth have been removed, but I can tell you I’m a lot more hopeful than my vet.) The orphan lambs are doing well, they are thinner than the other lambs but research suggests that they’ll catch up eventually.

Here they are right before I gave the lambs their grain for the day:

And here’s an Iris that bloomed this morning:

So many great points being raised in the comments to my last post! One thing I want to be sure I am clear about: I am NOT suggesting that we should advise people to cut out neighborhood walks or giving their dog enough exercise to ‘wake’ them up. I hope it didn’t sound like that was implied in my comments. Rather, I think we need to make the general public aware that the exercise they do give their pets is often not enough to satisfy the dog’s exercise needs, and help the owners figure out what type and level of exercise the dog needs, as well as what they are able to provide. As I mentioned in the first post, my favorite solution for the owner who can’t manage more than a thirty minute walk is to add in lots of mental exercise for the dog through trick training.

The comments to the last post about increasing fitness, and therefore how much exercise it takes to ‘tire’ a dog out, are extremely interesting. It makes great sense that as any individual’s fitness increases it would take longer and longer durations to tire them — within boundaries however, as noted in the comments. That said, I very much agree that dogs need an “off” switch. Part of what I would call a “good life” is the ability to regulate one’s own arousal levels, and I’ve seen too many dogs at my office who were simply incapable of relaxing. The causes, of course, are many, from diet, to lack of exercise, to the type of exercise (constant stimulation while being constrained for example), to medical conditions, to being surrounded by families flying around like crazed frisbees in a convention of flying discs. Add on: Never being asked or told to just settle down. That’s actually one of my cues, and I don’t know how I would survive without out. It means: Stop dropping the ball in my lap or pacing around the living room like an expectant father from a 1950’s sitcom, go lie down anywhere you want, and chill out. Thank You.

This issue also raises breed differences, also highly relevant here, as some of you have noted in your comments. Surely there is not one category of “high energy” dogs, but subcategories of dogs who were, for example, bred to work hard sporadically and then rest, versus dogs who were bred to go all day long (For the later category I would include Huskies of sledding lines. Do the Husky owners agree? And can you spell Wirehaired Pointer?). For the former I’d say Dogo Argentino & Irish Wolfhounds, for example, who seem to behave like predatory cats: huge bursts of energy followed by long periods of slumber.  I’d actually put many of the herding dogs in between. The BCs I’ve had all had lovely “off switches” and I think it was easier to teach them to relax than some other breeds.

There are so many other factors, including the type of exercise: mental versus physical exercise for example. Herding requires a tremendous number of difficult, nuanced decisions, and I wonder if that isn’t more tiring than just plain running full out? More tiring also than seeking prey? What do hunting dog owners think… any sense to that speculation on my part?

Most relevant to most American pet dogs is whether the exercise is on or off leash. Surely there must be a certain amount of stimulation and perhaps, frustration, in being restricted by a leash while encountering a vast range of stimuli. If someone asked me what dogs most want, beyond safety, shelter and social companionship, I say “Freedom” to make some of their own decisions. To go right instead of left. To stop and sniff as long as they want. To run with they feel like it and walk when they don’t

Of course, some dogs absolutely can not be allowed off leash and simply do not have that alternative. (I would never have taken my Gr Pyr Tulip on a long walk in open woods off leash for example.) Those dogs need other alternatives, different types of exercise in addition to leash walks and lots of mental exercise.  I am reminded of clients I had who owned Dalmatians. In my office the dogs were OOC (my symbol for Out of Control) – and as I described to the owners, that meant the dogs were out of their OWN control, much less the owners. We trained them to indoor treadmills and they got low stimulation but highly repetitive exercise (can you say aerobics?) and calmed down profoundly after just a week or so.

It would be such a joy if everyone could take their dogs on 2 to 7 hours walks everyday, would that we all had that life (some of the people who commented to the last post manage that!). I think our challenge is to keep in mind that “exercise” is not a simple category measured only by duration, but also by the type of exercise. Some exercise relaxes and some stimulates; some is too much for one dog and just right for another. We would do well when advising the general public to keep these things in mind. And one last, but I think important point: Trying to give our dogs a great life is a wonderful thing, but sometimes I think it’s also important to remember that we do not owe them a life profoundly better than our own. Are you eating as well as your dog? Are you feeling guilty because your dog DOESN’T get a 3 hour off-leash walk every day. If so, remind yourself what the lives of most dogs, and most people for that matter, are like. Then go tell your dog how profoundly lucky she is and relax knowing that you are probably doing the best you can.

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Hot humid day, Willie and I are in the study, the coolest room at the farm. We just got back from Phys Therapy at UW, his first since his surgery. The new is mostly good: both surgeon and PTist think he’s doing very well in terms of how he is using his leg. His range of motion is almost normal (that’s what we’ve been working on every day, so that feels really good) and he’s putting full weight, at least briefly, on his left leg. He has had a few regressions: He now has a seroma under the incision (fluid-filled swelling, relatively common from shoulder surgeries) and there is still quite a bit of swelling around the surgical site. Darn! The incision looked just perfect until yesterday! Also, he’s had 3 incidents of what appears to be extreme and acute pain –something catching on something? Each one is less intense however, so really all we can do about that is hope they disappear as time goes on. The seroma is small enough that draining is not advised, but I’ll use heat and massage to try to counter act it. It showed up the morning after I let him greet some girls helping me in the garden, and even though he had on his hobbles he was excited and did way too much flapping and flailing around. No more visitors for Mr. Willie, poor guy. But his PT is going well, he doesn’t bark at all anymore if I’m outside while he’s in the crate and he seems to be adapting to his new routine. I suspect that he is a bit depressed, but since it makes him quieter I just look at the calendar, remind myself that mild depression is not fatal in a dog, and repeat One Day At A Time.

Here’s a new peony I just planted. Such a classic in the mid-west now. Not native, but still so beautiful!

This blog is inspired by Willie, and all dogs who are recovering from injury or surgery, who are on total exercise restriction programs. Willie spends about 20 to 22 hours a day in a crate, 1 to 1.5 hours doing passive physical therapy and the rest lying down beside me getting his belly rubbed. He goes outside to pee and poop, and otherwise I do everything I can to keep him immobile. We’ll be doing that for about 5 more weeks, and then can begin, slowly and gradually, adding in movement like 5 minutes of leash walking, or very gentle exercises that target the right muscles. He’s expected to be able to have some off-leash freedom about three and a half months from now.

That’s all background for those of you who haven’t followed the story, and it’s important because his behavior is illustrating something I’ve been thinking about for the last few years. Here’s the bottom line, followed by an explanation:

HYPOTHESIS = Most companion dogs in the U.S. get just enough exercise to hype them up, not calm them down. Here’s what leads to that thought:

1. The less exercise Willie gets, the quieter he becomes. This makes a great deal of sense if we allow ourselves to be anthropomorphic for a moment. “Couch potatoes” are warned that a lack of exercise results in a lack of energy. We are told that getting up off our duffs and getting some exercise will energize us, not tire us out. I know the few times that I’ve had to stay inactive when I didn’t feel sick, I’ve felt increasingly lumpy. Nothing like a brisk walk to wake us up, right?

Before Willie’s surgery I emphasized to the therapist and surgeon how active and reactive Willie is. How he had a tendency several times a week to leap up, twirl 360 degrees and take 2 steps forward in less than a third of a second to who knows what stimulus.  (I did not make that fraction of a second up, he can move faster than I am able to perceive, much less respond to.) The vet suggested that when he was out of the crate I lay beside him and keep my hand on his collar. I did that in February when he was less restricted, and he almost broke my hand. To keep my hand from being broken I had to flip over him like one is advised to do when a crocodile begins its death roll.

After explaining (whining?) about how hard it would be to keep Willie from abusing his shoulder after surgery, I imagine that Willie’s health care team left the office thinking “OMG, she’s just like all our other clients! Everyone thinks their dog is special and will be harder than all others to keep quiet!” I wouldn’t blame them. I did explain that out of all the dogs I’ve had, Willie is the one who has been the hardest to keep quiet. He’s just an especially reactive, high energy BC, more so than any other I’ve had. And so we had lengthy talks about how to manage his reactivity in order not to damage his healing body. They prescribed the Hobbles to keep him from extending his leg too far forward. I worked out extensive plans to use his training to keep him quiet.

Well, never mind. Willie is profoundly quiet and easy to manage. I actually think he’s a bit depressed, but for whatever reason, he is not especially reactive, and sleeps or lies quietly except when greeting me, Jim or visitors. Because visitors get him excited, he sees few of them. What gets him happy and excited are toys (all hidden), meeting new people (rare), running and working sheep (out of the question.) What’s left are belly rubs, trick training (he learns readily for treats, but doesn’t really adore the process), food treats, and being with the people he loves.

But no activity whatsoever. And he’s quiet. Really quiet. Of course, part of this is because he’s almost five years old. When he was on leash restrictions at 8 months it was MUCH harder. But not as hard as I thought it would be, and I think it’s because a lack of activity leads to a lack of energy in dogs, just as it does in people.

2. Surely the reverse is true. We take our dogs on a thirty minute walk and voila! [Aside: I once typed viola! -- note the spelling difference -- in a book Karen London and I were writing, and now it's one of my favorite expressions. Try it, it's fun to say. "VI OH LA!"] After a thirty minute walk the dogs are energized and motivated to move, learn, and interact. But wait! We took them on a walk! Aren’t we done now?

Jim and I were treated to a trail ride before a seminar out west a few years ago. We went about 12 miles, up to a mountain lake, on horse back, accompanied by two dogs who must have traveled at least twenty miles. The dogs ran at least half the time and showed no signs of being tired when we returned. Ah, if only everyone’s dog could go on walks like that!

I’ve had a number of clients whose dogs began to leap up and nip at their arms on walks. Almost all the dogs began the behavior only after the person turned and started walking back to the house. “NO NO, NOT YET!” I imagine these dogs saying in desperation, I’m JUST GETTING STARTED. The problem was usually resolved by lengthening the walks, and turning back and forth so that the dog never knew when the walk was almost over. Not to mention more exercise in general, especially mental exercise.

Mental exercise is my most common recommendation to people who can’t get their dog the physical exercise that they need. But increasing physical exercise is a wonderful thing for us all, it just takes more time than some of us have. (But it’s so good for us too!) I had 3 clients with Dalmatians who got treadmills and we trained their dogs to run on the treadmill. That’s not a solution for every dog, but it sure helped them.

I’m curious: What do you think? Do you think that many of our dogs are getting just the amount of exercise they need to wake them up (rather than tired them out? I’m not saying we should advise less exercise, heaven forbid, but that we do need to be aware that a thirty minute walk around the neighborhood in the evening is a perfect prescription for energized a dog, especially a working breed.

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Willie and I are coping okay, as I mentioned above. I’m so lucky that he is so good in his crate, and is adapting so well. It sure will be good to see his happy face again though. Trick training provides some exercise, and he is now obsessed with food (what else is there?) but it’s not what makes him truly happy. We are spending some time when I can grab it lying outside together, me listening to the birds, him sniffing the breeze. Precious time together! We have a physical therapy appointment on Friday, and I look forward to hearing how the therapist thinks he is doing. We’ve been doing his PT religiously, although there are a few days I only managed two sessions instead of three. But his range of motion is much much better and the swelling has gone down, and at least I know that this all might lead to a life of no more pain, and no more leash restrictions ever again. And maybe, maybe.. could I dream? Frisbee? Probably not, but at least working sheep for a good long time!

It’s gorgeous weather tonight, wish I could package up a Wisconsin spring and send it along with the blog. I’m looking out the window at what must be 45 different colors of green (bright chartrouse – Sunburst Locust Tree; British Racing Green – Spruce Tree, Easter Grass green – Japanese Maple….). Tomorrow and Friday it will be hatefully hot and humid, but tonight? Sweet sweet weather! Low 60′s, fresh baby leaves unfurling everywhere, Rose Breasted Grosbeak singing his heart out. Here’s the view as I walked up the hill last night to bring the sheep down.

And here’s what was waiting for me. Normally I’d have Willie herd them into this area of great grass that is usually avoided by the sheep (in a little valley, close to the wood’s edge = not safe for prey animals, in their mind anyway). Jim set the fence up for me, and I lured the sheep in with a bucket of grain. Works well, except the sheep body block you, no, they actually throw themselves in front of you to try to stop you and get the grain. Much more fun with a dog, and a lot easier on your feet! (Sheep have sharp, pointy hooves. Ow ow ow when they step on your feet….)