Progress and setbacks...

Harry did a great job again yesterday at the store. He clearly loves people and loves to be pet! I've been keeping him on the leash and preventing him from jumping so we aren't reinforcing that behavior. This morning I took him for a long run, and I used the gentle leader harness. It was amazing the difference it made. It was kind of hard for me to use that harness though, because it was Gonzo's. It was adjusted to fit him perfectly, and I had to enlarge it for it to fit Harry's chest. I felt like I was erasing another memory of Gonzo. That was the last thing I had that was a document of his size. I know it's kind of silly, but it was still hard. All of Gonzo's leashes and collars are sacred. Those won't be used for any other dog. But the gentle leader I look at as more of a tool. And it worked wonders on Harry! Rather than running in front of me, pulling and weaving back and forth in front of my path, he ran next to me or behind me the whole time. I was feeling pretty good about my leadership. When we got home, I asked him to sit before we went inside, and he tried to bolt in (a bit of a setback, he's been good about sitting at doors). I closed the door a bit so he couldn't make it in, and accidently pinched his paw between my leg and the door and he yelped. He foot was fine, but he seemed to think I'd done that on purpose. I felt his leg, gave him some love, then fed him breakfast, but he won't eat it, and he put himself into his crate. So now of course I feel awful, and I can't reason with him or explain accidents. His stomach is making terrible rumbling noises too. I think he must be hungry. Or maybe he doesn't feel well. Gonzo's stomach made those noises at the end, so that kind of scares me too. The woman who had been watching him was surprised he ate the first few days he was here. She said generally when he leaves her place and is fostered elsewhere, it takes him about 2 days before he will eat. So maybe he just had a delayed reaction. I hope that's the case. I may try to entice him with a little tasty meat scoop on top. We'll see... ok. That worked! Harry has eaten and is ready to be store dog for another day.

PS. Don't forget to come in on Saturday and see all the new goodies from AZ! Oh, and I had been overcharged at the Amber booth, so I'll be reimbursed for the overage...in amber! I'll keep you posted as to when that comes in...all the way from Lithuania.