Happy New Year

Just got back from a short run with KD (about 2 miles). I changed her collar to the Martingale collar that I picked up at the shelter when I picked her up. I put on the running belt/leash that I had bought back with Hermes and let the leash out a bit so that she had some room to run and off we went. Within a block or so, it became obvious that too much leash was just a good way for her to become tangled, so I shortened the leash back up. She fell in behind me and ran with me the whole way. We took it nice and slow. I had taken KD out on the flexi-leash the other night to run off some energy and she was off like a shot. I ran along behind her and after about 3/4 of a mile, she was running alongside me instead of off in front of me. From that, I knew that if I kept the pace slow and even, we wouldn't have any problems.

I was somewhat inspired by what I have been reading in Cesar Millan's first book that I am now reading. He takes his pack out for about 4 hours of exercise each morning to get them in tune with him and to run off their excess energy. I haven't been getting up early since I am on vacation, but with no where to be, I figured that we would start off the morning (after a bit of lazing around and checking my email) by running off some energy. KD is a low to medium energy dog, so 2 miles is about the distance for her, at least at this point. KD fell in behind me just under the leash length and there was enough slack that I wasn't pulling her and she was "migrating" behind me. I stopped twice to let her sniff a bit and then we got back to it. She never challenged me for the lead, she just took her place behind and followed along. We came inside and she grabbed some water and wandered the house for a minute and then laid down on her dog bed.

Yesterday, after the cleaning ladies came and all the dog toys were piled up in one spot, KD found a bone in the pile that had been lost since before she came to the house. She seemed to like it a lot. She wanted to take it outside, so I let her. She ran around the yard with it looking for a good spot to bury it and then decided to bury it under the tree behind the pond (which is dry for the winter). The area under and between the 2 trees directly behind the house is dirt covered with crushed limestone. She dug a spot at the base of the tree with her front paws and then set the bone in and adjusted it a bit and then started to cover it over by pushing piles of stuff on it with her snout. She would bury her nose into the ground/rocks and push a pile of stuff onto it until it was mounded over. I was surprised that her nose wasn't more sensitive.

Yesterday, I also found an outside toy that she likes. We had played ball a bit with the tennis balls in the backyard and she would run after it, dash back and then carry it around a bit near me and then drop it. She played a bit, but didn't seem overly enthusiastic. Well, yesterday I was working on the grill and I noticed that I still had the little green squeaky football on top of it from when Watson was here. I took it down and squeezed it so it squeaked and her head turned and she perked up. I squeaked it a few more times and then threw it and she dashed after it. She picked it up and squeaked it while she ran and brought it back near me but wanted me to chase her or play tug with it, but I wasn't having any of that. Finally she let it go so that I could squeeze it and throw it again and we went on this way for a while longer. She also played with it later in the day. This seems to be the first outside toy that grabs her interest. The toy is the green (small or medium?) Toy Shoppe Rubber Football. When you squeeze it, it kind of sounds like a duck. (http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2750767).