Take a hike!

Last weekend, Koji and I drove down with two of my friends and two of their dogs to take a hike around McKinney Park in Austin. It was a great day that left Koji's tail wagging while he walked toward the end of the trail that stretched a couple miles. A little cool during the day, but comfortable with a few shirts and a scarf protecting me from the slight chill, and seemed perfect for all of the dogs there. I was also proud that Koji did not pant in his crate the whole way down, as he did to the Alamo. He seemed a little more calm and relaxed, with only a few panting episodes, which is most definitely an improvement. He already gets excited by being in a car, and is a little nervous in crates in general (though will calm down after a few minutes to go to sleep when not in addition with the car.) Again, the dogs were all zonked for the ride home, and Koji didn't wake up until the race in the complex where we went over a few speed bumps (oops!).

The only tragedy was that Deshi, one of the Shibas, apparently is going through a Teenaged-Turd age and just suddenly decides he doesn't like some dogs sometimes, but is okay a few minutes later. It resulted in Baker's ear being bit, a little blood, and a few angry barks at Deshi (who completely deserved a telling off) but she didn't seem bothered with the injury and let us touch and handle it to help the clotting. I think she was just more surprised and upset more than hurt.

In other news, Thanksgiving at the in-laws actually went really well since we let Koji off the leash in the house. He was very well behaved, stayed nearby most of the time (except when he just HAD to run on the stairs) and got spoiled with lots of turkey. Maybe we need to just let him off leash in houses more often and he might behave better. Still going to take it slow and not have him go over all the time, though, for my sanity at least. Test #2 of off leash sleeping went REALLY well last night (as opposed to the first time we tried and he ate my favorite sandals...), he stayed in his bed the whole time and only came out of the bedroom when we called him out. I'm getting proud and pleasantly surprised with the small steps of progress my little fuzzbutt makes in being a well mannered member of our family.

As always, photos of the meetup can be found on the meetup page here: McKinney Falls Hike