8 State Hurricane Kate

This evening I took all three dogs out in the yard and they did fine, so I decided to take them up on the hill. I let the boys run up the hill as usual (inside the fence). I needed to be able to keep track of Cayenne to make sure I picked up all of her poop, and I was concerned that she might get out of the field fence if she tried hard (or possibly she could jump over it). I put on her collar with ID tags, hooked the leash to her martingale collar, and walked her up to the field via the south yard. Once the gate was closed, I let her go. She can run very fast. She bounds more than gallops most of the time. Her legs are longer than the boys’ legs and she covers a lot of ground quickly. 

I was concerned that Cay doesn’t know how to come when called, but she mostly stuck close to the other dogs and sometimes imitated them. Chase comes on a whistle. Bandit comes when called. Mostly, Cay followed them and I was able to get the leash back on her when it was time to return to the house. 

I had predicted that Cay and Chase would play together while Bandit obsessed over his ball, but I was wrong. Cay takes off after anything that moves, and after being so quiet and reserved here for almost a week, she went after the ball and shadowed Bandit most of the time. Bandit put up with it rather well. He growled at her if she got in his face, but even once when she tried to pull the ball out of his mouth, he put up with it pretty well. He guards the kiddie pool and chased her out of there, but she complied right away. So it was mostly normal dog behavior from a teenager (Cay) and a sometimes grouchy adult (Bandit). Chase was poking around at the edge of the fence and eventually flushed two pheasants, which aroused all three dogs. They all ran for the same spot, but did so peacefully as the pheasants barely got off the ground and out of reach. 

It was a beautiful spring day and all the dogs got worn out. It was fun to see them all running and playing. All three dogs are pretty well worn out tonight, as am I! :-) 

On the way back to the house, I put Cay back on leash and took her along with me. Back in the yard, Bandit nudged her in the butt and growled at her when she stuck her head in the Dogloo (a.k.a. the toy box). She backed off right away. I don’t have Cay loose with Bandit in the house yet—-too many tight spaces. She likes to collect all of his toys and put them in her crate. I think we’ll have some conflict over that eventually! 

When we went back in the house, I took her in first and got her settled in her crate, then brought the boys in. 

Cay is getting more comfortable here. As she gets more active, she’s starting to eat more instead of just flipping her bowl over and spilling the kibble all over her crate. She’s letting me handle her more (I put Frontline Plus on her tonight). She’s a very sweet dog! 

Now I’m starting to tell that much of the conflict between Bandit and Kate was due to Kate’s reactions. I’m glad that Bandit is able to accept a new dog fairly well. So…maybe she’ll stay…we’ll see… :-)