A Trip to the Dog Run

I took Maggie and Henry to the dog run at Memorial Park today. It was an eventful trip over. Maggie got in the car and as soon as Henry got in, Maggie moved to the front seat, and would not renegotiate that. At a stoplight, I got out of the car to put my purse in the trunk. Maggie wanted to get out with me, and once the door was closed, Henry started moving into the front seat. I could not get him all the way back. I pushed on him hard for 5-10 minutes till he agreed to go to the back, but most of the time he just stayed there. Maggie was clearly scared of him.

At the park, Henry was either slow moving or not moving on the leash. Stubborn. Unwilling to go, except where he wanted, which was not where I wanted him to go. I dragged and cajoled him to the dog run and let him off the leash. When other dogs came up to check him out, he tucked his tail and got nervous. Ha, my big humping boy. Eventually he got a little chesty with dogs, looking like he might be about to hump, but he came away when I called him (a fluke?). I wonder if his back legs are strong enough to support him without the front ones on the ground.

He found several people to make a fuss over him, and that went well. He enjoyed a couple of cookies when he did good things. He peed and eventually pooped. When I got a little bit closer to where he was pooping he moved up 5 feet or so and continued his business. And if he pooped far away from me this morning (he probably did), it may be that he's shy, and won't ever poop on the leash. Hoo-boy - the dog run is 20 minutes away, and I don't want to repeat our morning romp through the woods.

At the end of our stay, and the reason that was the end of our stay, he went trotting off to the top of the hill and came back quickly, legs really shaking, all of him shaking. I'd seen his leg shake, but this was weird. I tried to give him cookies (because I'd called him when I saw he was coming back, and I was trying to build some sort of recall pattern - ha). He wouldn't have a cookie. I tried 3 times before we got back to the car, and he would have none of it. It scared me to see him so shaky. I couldn't figure out if he was cold (it was cold but not so cold), if his legs were overtaxed (but his whole body was shaking, and he seemed shaken a bit (I mean, he didn't even want a cookie)). We made it back to the car, though, and when we stopped in the ladies room, he went under the other stall door and got to know our fellow park-goer. When we got home, he didn't get out of the car - I had to airlift him. I think his legs were shaky. I hope we didn't overdo it for him, but who am I kidding - of course we did.

Good news is, his ear stopped bleeding overnight last night and has stayed scabbed over through today's adventures. Last night after the dripping-blood phase, I squirted a lot of the powder the vet gave me right onto the cut, and today there's a solid scab there that has lasted all day. That feels good. Progress.

I missed my favorite Sunday show (This Week) this morning, so I fired up the video on the computer. As soon as I did, Henry woke up from his collapsed state, sighed, and relocated. He started by going into the kitchen, then relocated into the guest bedroom. Sometime Saturday, when he was feeling better, I lay down on the floor with him and rubbed his belly and said nice things to him. And he sat there for a minute or two, then got up and went about 8 feet away, just inside the door to my bedroom, where he could rest unmolested.

He still does his helicopter-wagging of his tail when you talk to him.

We finally got the bathroom thing right tonight! Yippee! Number one at least. If I take him out and stay out about 10 times as long as I need to with Maggie and bring him back upstairs, he'll come back up. But tonight he wouldn't come in. I was using the extenda leash with him so I don't have to tug at him so much and he can have a little more independence. So we went back downstairs (took a cookie to get him to tackle stairs again - his legs are really tired). Walked. And walked. And stood. And cajoled. And walked. But eventually, in a dark place, he found a corner to pee on. Yes it was a corner of the building. But I didn't really care at this point.