Relaxing

Those of you that know Monte personally rarely see him in this state and those of you that only read about him rarely read about our calm, sedate dog. As he matures, more and more of his day is spent relaxing.

We repositioned his PLACE from near our feet to a spot across the room. He appears to prefer the cushy comfort versus the proximity to us.

In addition to maturing, he has had a busy day. Grocery shopping in the morning which offered a multitude of distractions. The most challenging on this trip was the smell from the meat case - Monte's nose was in overdrive. We took a long walk, about 45 minutes, in the afternoon and we worked on pivots every chance we got. He seems to be progressing very well.

Monte appreciated the opportunity to have dinner with our goddaughter, Avery. She inadvertently shared some of her corn dog with him. He is still trying to figure out how food magically appears on the floor like manna from heaven. Food has been a theme of late - stealing food, licking plates, surveying the garbage can, and cleaning the floor of crumbs. We had cut back on his food for a week to deal with some GI issues, but that doesn't justify acting like a normal dog.

This week, I hope to get another experienced raiser or a Dog Den trainer to spend some quality time working with Monte. He could probably benefit from a change of environment and exposure to different stimulants.