Snippets

The other day Josie and I walked to our neighbors across the street to drop off some mis-delivered UPS packages, and as often, the pup was a great conversation ice-breaker. They immediately began to dish out: their daughter, soon to be getting married, owns seven dogs, including a German Shepherd who's a national champion. What's more, the dog will be walking her down the aisle at her wedding next month...!

Josie continues to oscillate between being saint and sinner. She's learning to lie contentedly under my desk as I work in my home-office. Conversely, most of her badness these days has the unlikely target of Elizabeth. Yes Elizabeth -- who handles her so ably, who has this natural feel for animals, who is aware of the dynamic of dominance in the pack, who of course is also the smallest of all of us. Josie's been nipping at her regularly, and Lizzie does all the text-book corrections, but to no avail. She is gradually getting pretty dispirited. We're hoping it's a phase, but are seeking advice.

Last snippet before shut-down tonight: in prep. for training Josie to our newly-installed invisible fence we're adding to our existing visible fence, including putting up a fence and gate near our front door. This, we hope, will work well with the invisible containment, and certainly ought to signal her that something new is happening. It'll be great to let her off the leash entirely when in our yard. But that's taking more fence work, and several weeks' training...