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It has been quite awhile since the pups had been out or a walk, in fact it was some time last fall when they were last taken out. Between breeding season stuff, time constraints, weather, Maya getting sick and Erin's not wanting to go out on a leash, time just seemed to slip by.
At first Jill and I were just going to try Erin by herself, but Marion really insisted on going and we realized that having Marion along side would probably help give Erin some confidence. We were doing great getting them leashed in the double gate and there were not problems and then Bill did a very loud territorial yip howl which startled Erin. Marion just wanted to go. I led Marion out first who immediatly went over to see Bill. Bill was not very happy with this. Marion then found the hose buried in the snow, but fortunately did not clamp down hard so the hose survived. Joining us as I was disengaging Marion from the hose Erin immediatly tried to submit to Bill. Jill explained to her that this was not a good idea and we led the two out onto the road. Marion was very excited, did lots of leaping and was being grabby. Erin had a few bouts of shyness, but well timed treats got her over this and she ended up being much better than Marion on the leash. We just walked along the road to the dam and back.
Although at first both seemed to resent the restraint and had to get used to the feel of a leash again, they both seemed to have a lot of fun and they both wanted to go back out when we took them back and were trying to sort out the other two pups.
I took Tristan and Jill took Maya. Tristan was his usual goofy self. Maya, though not scared, seemed to resent the restraint and wanted to rush about. She needed a lot of work. By the time we got half way to the dam though, she had settled down and was walking reasonably well. Actually quite well; well enough that we continued down to the gift shop. Of course on the first walk, going into the gift shop was out of the question, but over to the foxes was not. Basil and Angel both came over and thought the puppies were pretty cool. The puppies thought the foxes were pretty good looking too, good in the snacky sense that is....
Rather than try to walk them back around and possibly not end on a good note, we put them in the holding pen and let them back into the pack that way. We then realized that the car was back at Eastlake and we had to walk back. Seneca and Miska really wanted to go so we walked them back around the pen. Miska actually got a bit scared and tucked his tail. First John's car was scary, then he just seemed to lack confidence. He walked OK, but he certainly lacking in confidence.
Seneca and Miska were not satisfied with a simple walk around the pen, so we walked them over to see Ursa, but she was not very happy with seeing them and just looked like she wanted to be scary.
