It has been a while since I've updated about Winston. On the mobility side he's doing wonderfully, sometimes he's even too confidant. He'll hop down the stairs still not knowing where his back feet are at and gives me heart palpitations, then he'll blow up the stairs in the evening quick like a bullet. He comes down every time we go down the stairs, in fact it was getting to the point that he'd follow even if we were just running down to get something so I had to put the baby gate up. He doesn't have the ability to stop and turn around so getting him back up took a few extra seconds and some days I just don't have the time.
He'll walk on all floors of the house with no hesitation or falling and he'll squeeze past things without freaking out. He still doesn't like the office, but I don't force that issue. That's where Enna & Makoa's crates are so it's nice to just have a room for them to get away from him. He also doesn't like the bathroom and we have to drag him in by his harness to give him baths, but I'm sure that's why he doesn't like it.
If I leave our bedroom door open I will find him sleeping on our bed, so he doesn't have a problem jumping up on things. The bedroom door always gets closed now.
Luckily he doesn't jump up on people and that never was an issue, but since he already comes to most people waist I'm sure he doesn't feel like he needs to be higher.
He still has a tendency to be annoying when downstairs, but I think it's because of his short attention span. If he settles down and sleeps then he's not getting on every one's nerves. It's nice having three dogs again and letting him join in on our lives.
Last Saturday we went with Derek & Jonessa and their dog Mya to walk the gated road in Millcreek. No more trails for Winston, him almost rolling off the mountain was a big enough scare for me, but my friends were nice enough to agree to a light stroll in Winston safe zone.
As that Saturday got closer I got more nervous. Winston hasn't been around other dogs since our Bear Lake Trip and I didn't know how he'd react. John and I agreed that Winston would need to stay leashed until he showed that he could handle it.
He was perfectly fine with Mya, but I think he knows her well enough to not care about her. He practically shoved her out of the way to say hi to Derek. Other dogs were an issue though, he growled at them if they were close to him and John had to walk him off to the side and we'd shield him from other dogs. I wanted to take him back to the car, but John said he had him under control and he did. Just shows that training is something that has to be consistent and life long. Just those few months without the dog socializing put him back a few steps.
We hope to start back at K9 Lifeline in the next couple of weeks.
During the snowy winter months we left Winston inside while we were away from the house, but now that's it's getting warmer he'll start staying outside again. He prefers to be out there anyway since it usually takes some calling from me to get him to stand up and come in.
For a while there I was thinking that his time was coming to an end so it's so nice to be able to write positive things about him. I think the beads stabilized him now and he just needed to come out of his breed's fear stage to make the real progress.
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