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

I remembered, you rememberd?

This past weekend, I conned two friends of mine to drive the 5 hours down south to San Antonio and visit the Alamo with a bunch of other Shibas for a meetup. Koji did very well, though he hardly got an ounce of sleep the night before (motel freaked him out a little) and he was a nervous little leaf until we actually started walking on the Riverwalk, he was well behaved and greeted some of the Shibas as old friends he hadn't seen in quite some time, which was great to see. I made Texas flag bandanas to show off our proud Texas doggies at THE Texas landmark. I replaced the star with a paw.

We took pictures at the Alamo, walked along a scenic river, got asked what dogs we had countless times (and even overheard someone remark that we were a Corgi club...) and ate lunch out on a patio, where Koji insisted on sitting in my lap for a while, though he can never stand to do that at home. By the time the meetup was over and all the pictures had been taken, we walked back to the car, chatting up with Carina (the meetup coordinator and who I picked Koji up from those months ago) Koji was more than eager to get back into the car and his crate, despite the fact he panted the whole way down the night before. My little guy was so tired that he pretty much slept in the car next to his buddy, Dug, the whole ride up to Austin (for a few detours and dinner) and almost the whole ride home north of Dallas. I think he had a great day and was even tired the day after. Can't wait until the 5th for that hike we'll take at McKinney Park in Austin, I know he's going to have a lot of fun.

Some of the Alamo pictures can be seen here: Alamo Meetup 2009. You can tell which one Koji is since he was the leggiest and skinniest of all the Shibas there, as well as the one with the uncurliest tail. Everyone else seemed to have more of a donut tail while Koji was one of the only ones with a samurai tail (Crockett had one, I believe, though his is kept curled more than Koji's ever is.) He is average weight, too, so I don't know what to tell you. ;)