March 11, 2003
Not only is she bigger, but she's longer too!
3:30 p.m.
We took a very brief jaunt over to the dog park last night - Dusty in her sweater and me bundled in several layers. It was a mostly a Big Dog night, I guess the little ones stayed home because of the cold. Still, Dusty did well and even greeted one of the medium-sized dogs.
This morning, I prepared Dusty for her first walk. The sidewalks in our neighbourhood are really nasty - covered in either salt or ice. The icy parts look very weird, like lumpy brown plastic instead of ice. The salt is everywhere.
I put on her sweater and her muttluks (doggy boots) and we set off on our first walk. I didn't go very well. She doesn't like the muttluks at all and she was sliding around on the ice. I think she liked sniffing, but those sidewalks were a pain. When we got back, her collar was coated in a thin veneer of salt. I washed her feet and face, but I have a feeling she's still salty. Yuck.
For the afternoon walk, I decided to avoid the sidewalks completely. I picked her up and *carried* her to the dog park and we made loops around the park, on the snow. She liked this a lot. I let her sniff around and play (all on-leash - I'm not ready for her to be off-leash yet). We practised recalls (coming when called) and played tag.
The Cookie Lady (our neighbourhood dog walker) stopped by with one of her charges - a Schnoodle named Harpo. Harpo and Dusty greeted one another in typical dog fashion, by smelling each other's bums. I was so excited! This is one of Dusty's first experiences with doggy socialization and she did really well.
Dusty and Harpo played for awhile and had a great time. The Cookie Lady is going to be walking Dusty on Friday while I'm away on course. She said she would walk Dusty with Harpo since they seemed to be friends already.