It’s been a hectic few days/weeks, hence the lack of posts, but don’t fear! Gizmo has not ceased to exist :) Last Sunday we went on a 6 mile hike with my friend and her husband who were visiting from Boston. The picture was taken toward the end of the hike. He’s quite a hiker-dog though! He loves it! He was jumping over logs and fallen branches, hopping over rocks, climbing up boulders, trudging through little streams cutting through the trail (though that last part took some convincing. Still not a water dog). He survived the whole hike. Anyone think Gizmo will be climbing Mt. Everest by summer next year?

In the doggie-age-milestone area, he’s lifting his leg more consistently now when peeing. Still a little off on his balance, but he’s figuring it out :)

I love how he looks like he’s smoking a cigar.

BTW… he now looks forward to going on walks. No more dragging him down the driveway! Lets hope we don’t go through the walking-refusal-phase ever again.

Gizmo is refusing to go on walks. It has been hot outside, which is why I waited until after the sun went down (but was still light outside) to go on a walk - in fact it cooled down enough I brought a light hoodie with me.

We made it to the end of our neighbor’s house and he stopped. Then we backtracked to go the other way, made it to the end of our other neighbor’s house, he stopped again. I tried offering him treats, I clicked when he’d come my way, then he’d stop again. He is not a very food-motivated dog, so treats rarely work as lures. In fact, if he’s really stubborn about something, he doesn’t want one at all.

Also, I know it’s not the harness because he has no problem wearing it all day. In fact he doesn’t even notice it’s on.

This is driving me crazy! We can’t spend all summer not walking… Any clues or thoughts as to either why he’s gone on strike or how to get him to move?

We went for a short walk during lunch, and since today is much warmer than it has been for the past few days, as soon as we got back to our cool shady front lawn, someone decided to lie down and play dead.

Now that Gizmo is in super-teething mode, he’s gone nuts. Now he is actually working through the bully sticks that at first were just slightly chewed. He keeps trying to get to the shoes. Extension cords. Clothing. Training is extremely difficult, as food doesn’t even distract him. While he had a short attention span before, it is really short now. I’m lucky if I get 5 minutes out of him. And walking… he is really difficult to walk now. Pulling, running around in circles, trying to pick up every leaf, stick and piece of trash he can find. He even tried to get the pebbles out of the old, worn down, concrete sidewalk (which was pretty funny). Solution? I give him a stick to hold/chew as we walk. Every now and then he drops it, but we pick it up again and keep going. At least that way, I no longer look like a madwoman with an out-of-control pup.

We went on our first real walk today! It was actually two walks: a short (1/4 mile) walk after I got home from work, and then a mile after dinner. He was awesome! The whole time he was heeling, occasionally looking up at me when I told him he was being a good boy. He waited patiently every time we stopped to check for cars before crossing the street. We came across our neighbor and his german shepherd Duchess, and Gizmo tried to play with her but she wasn’t in the mood. This is progress! A few weeks ago he was extremely fearful of bigger dogs and never would have approached one, let alone try to play.

He was so very happy, trotting proudly, finally outside the confines of our yard. If I could really show you how happy he was, I would.

PS. Yes, his other ear is now up. That didn’t take long at all…

Update: The ear didn’t stay up. False alarm.