Backyard

I don't know what it is but I won't complain. Baxter never poops on a walk. He does pee, but he only poops when he is in the backyard. We went for an hour and 20 minute walk this morning to tire him out for the Petco adoption day and we got home and he went right out back and did his business. I like it because I have a scooper out there and don't have to bag on the walk. It is the little things in life.

Wow, a week

Since my last post. Baxter spent the weekend at the shelter from Fri-Sun since I was doing marathon course stuff all weekend. He was really happy to see me on Sunday. He spent most of Sun. evening and Mon. morning just laying around. My friend Lori came over Monday night and I was out getting groceries for dinner. When I got back and started prepping, I heard Baxter on the treadmill. She had gotten him on there with no incline, but moving along at 3.0 mph. She didn't even have real treats, just pieces of his regular dog food.

I went to the office on Tues. and he was really glad to see me at the end of the day. He was bounding with energy after hanging out in his crate all day. I took him to Petco to buy some bones and took him for a walk. He was off the wall with energy later in the evening and then calmed down. Today he was enjoying the warm weather and hanging in the yard mostly. We went for a couple of walks and he crashed in his crate while I did conferences calls. A few status charts and I will call it a night. He goes into his crate to hang out and lay around and if I don't go close the door when I go to bed, he is still in there in the morning. I have left the door open a couple of times in the last week with no problem.

I can learn

I have been full of meetings lately. But, after the deck chewing the other day, I have been trying to be mindful of what the dog is doing and not just let him go out. I have been trying to play with him off and on and also get him out for his walks when I get a chance in between calls. He really likes to play with tossable things in the backyard. I have the MegaTuffy ring, I have a flying disk that is a 1/2 thick ring on the outside with a mesh of fabric inside that he likes to rip, a plastic frisbee and some rope pulls. He chases after them and then stops to chew them. He will bring it to me to play tug or I can walk over and he lets me grab a hold and pull. He will let me take it from him and throw it again.

I was thinking last night that I used to want a doggie door so that the dog could go in and out at will, but now that I consider it, it would be a mess. The backyard doesn't have good grass right now and is muddy and if the dog was bored and went out and started chewing, I wouldn't know.

The dog does go and get on the treadmill and wait for me because he knows he gets treats. I was on a call yesterday and couldn't handle the noise from the treadmill, so I couldn't let him do the treadmill, but he went off and played by himself and it was fine.

Worn out

Baxter and I went for a short run this morning (our normal walking loop) and he hung out while I worked from home until midmorning and then he went in the crate while I was at work. When I got home in the late afternoon, he and I went for a walk for 40 minutes or so and then he lay around a little but seemed a bit antsy. I took him out back and threw the flying disc toy (well, a couple) and he chased them and chewed them and played tug with me for good while until he was huffing and so I brought him in for some water. Now he is wandering about, laying on the tile and deciding whether to go hang in his crate or to find a bone to chew. It sounds like bone is going to win out. Now dinner wins. At least he is getting some energy expended.

Chewing

I got Baxter a new chew squeaky toy. He seems to really like it along with the head of one of the other old stuff toyed which I keep restuffing. It was very rainy yesterday morning and I took Baxter for a walk during a break in the rain. We got drenched on the last 3 blocks. I had a meeting downtown at lunch and crated Baxter for couple of hours and then was busy here and then had an appt. away and he was crated for a couple of hours. Then dinner and a long conf. call. I let him out back and played frisbee with him for a bit but then left him there. Well, this is why he was returned to the shelter. Destructive boredom behavior. He was chewing on some sticks and then decided to chew the baseboard of the deck. I went out and stopped him and brought him in. I dropped off my conf. call and took him for a 30 minute walk and he settled down for the evening. If I had been thinking instead of so busy, I would have put him on the treadmill while I was listening on the conf. call, but I got absorbed.

Foam cover

Nevermind that comment about foam faucet cover intact the other day. It was, but not anymore. Dogs do love to tear those things to pieces. Oh well, only costs like $2.

Baxter on treadmill

Finally took some video with digital camera tonight. Uploading one to YouTube right now and another piece on Facebook. Will post links later when uploads are completed. The YouTube video should be at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6uQ3mNL7A8 when it is finished processing the upload.

More muddy feet

Just went to close the backdoor because Baxter had come in a minute or so ago and I noticed that his paws were awful muddy. I took him out with a towel to clean his feet and I heard water. I looked over and there was water pouring down from the faucet cover out back. The cover was still on (freeze cover) but water was coming down and the dirt underneath it had big foot prints in it. I took the cover off and turned the valve to shut off the water. It must have been running for a little while because it is very muddy right there. Not sure how he managed to get the water on with the foam cover still intact.

Antsy

Baxter seems energetic this morning. I took him for the usual 1.5 mile loop earlier. He played out back a bit also, but it is windy and cool. I was on the phone with my boss and I had to stop him from nibbling on the corner of the molding. Twice. I took him out back and threw him a stick. He has plenty of sticks to chew on out there. He did that for a bit and then came in. I gave him a kong with some treats in it and he messed with that for a while and finally I decided it was time for some treadmill. He did 7.5 minutes at 5% incline and 2mph. I am experimenting with more incline and think I can go a few more degrees with no problems. The pace is a tough one, but incline also makes it tougher, so I think that is the least innocuous way to do it for now.

I meant to mention that Cassie was doing much better on Sat. when I saw her. Of course then she was running around more and starting favoring off her bad leg again, but it seems that some crating did her well, but she gets totally stir crazy.