A week with Mikayla

We just finished a week with my former foster, Mikayla. It was a great week, taking away the soreness from doubling my walks each day.
Duke and Mikayla got along well from the start. We went to the VGSR Annandale Adoption Day an for the 4th time in a row, Duke stayed for the whole day.
Duke and Mikayla played together which was good for both since they are "only dogs". It also makes me feel better about my dog coming here at the end of October. Almost makes me want to get another foster (one that will find a home quickly) to keep him company until then...
Now back to my shorter walks. Maybe I will pick up the distance over time.

Another good week

Duke has had another pretty good week. I have started to try to get him to not pull on the leash when I walk him. He is too alert looking for cars to really heel well so I am really just looking for a loose leash. He is picking up on it pretty quickly. If he starts to get too far ahead I will stop. He walks on until he gets to the end of the leash then stops abruptly. When I started I had to do this about 15-20 times in a mile. Now he is down to about 5-10. When we got close to home today he was watching me as much as he was looking for cars. Had it not started to rain (and I was not prepared) I would have loved to keep going. Maybe he will pick up again on his walk tonight.
Yesterday he attended his 3rd full Adoption Day in a row. No whining to leave at all at this one. He also was good when I held Sullivan for his foster. Sully is a 1 year old active dog who has not had much socialization (http://www.vgsr.org/availableDogs.php#av3684). Duke growled a few times and nipped a bit but did not really go overboard so I was really happy. He had a few growls and bared teeth at some other dogs but overall did pretty well.
A couple were (are?) interested in him but in true Duke fashion he nipped at one of them (a warning and he did not make contact) so we will have to see.
I have been painting today and Duke has been respectful of the room and left when told. I am hoping to clean the rug next weekend and try and let Duke out of the crate when I am not here. That is mostly dependent on me not being lazy which is a challenge in itself...
The week after the 4th of July I will be dog sitting one of my former fosters. This will be an interesting test for Duke to see how he may deal with my dog when I bring her from the UK. Fingers crossed that it will work. I do have a back up plan just in case. You know, "plan for the worst, hope for the best".

Springfield Adoption Day

Well, this now makes 2 adoption days in a row that Duke survived the whole 3 hours. On top of that, the location for this one is busier and had more people walking past. Duke did well and growled at fewer people. He even managed to tolerate attention from some people. He also got along (well, tolerated) with more dogs than he growled at. He met a mother and her adult son who were interested in him and, while not perfect by any means, put up with most of the extra attention they gave him. He even managed to give one visitor a kiss on the mouth when I was not looking.
It was, all in all, a productive time for him and hopefully he will start to learn that not all people are out to hurt him. Although I will not be able to attend the next Annandale Adoption day (July 6th at noon - Petco in Annandale...Mark your calendars and be sure to stop by), and the next Springfield Adoption day will be cancelled due to a VGSR event, I will try to bring him to both local adoption days in August with my son and nephew.
After the stressful day for him, luckily there were very few cars on our walk tonight. I am sure he appreciated that. I know I did.