Day 17 - Veteran's Memorial Park

I went into work for a half day again today. I left home around 7:30 and this was Jedi's first time being left in the big (36") crate. I opted to once again take advantage of my dad's generosity and asked him to let Jedi out mid-morning. I believe he came around 10:15 or so, and then I got home from the office a little after noon. Everything is going well during these short days. Maybe one of these days I'll go ahead and see how he does with a half-day without being let out by my dad. Then we can save his trips for when I need to start doing full days again.

So far the only one of my dogs who hasn't gone on a one-on-one outing with Jedi is Kaiser, so today was a day for the little guys to get out together. Kaiser mostly ignores Jedi except for when he's being a posturing jerk, so I figured it would be good bonding time for them (though I doubt these two will ever be best buddies and Kaiser's behavior will improve once Jedi gets bigger than him).

Because Kizzy wasn't along, I decided to see if I'd be able to make her harness work for Jedi. I've got a cheap nylon harness around the house somewhere but was unable to find it, so Kizzy's harness was going to have to work for Jedi's introduction to this piece of equipment. There's definitely still room for him to grow into it a bit more, but it fit well enough to work for our walk.

Today the boys and I went to Veteran's Memorial Park in West Salem for a walk around the lake. I knew there was access to the walking path into the park near where I teach classes, but I had no idea where it was --- So I parked in the park and we walked up to the path so that I could figure out the access point. We might be able to use that for one of our outdoor walks in class some night.

This was also Jedi's introduction to a flexi leash. While I know this piece of equipment can be controversial in some circles, I find them to be incredibly useful tools when used correctly. Namely, I use them a lot when we travel. The Klee Kai live on them because they can never be off leash -- hopefully that's not an issue with Jedi, though.  :o)

I was glad to have the leash on him around the pond! There were several times when I had to give him a little "encouragement" with my recall cue to get him to leave the edge of the pond. This particular pond is pretty scummy (already!) and the one time Secret went swimming there I had to stop and give her a bath at the dog wash on the ride home because she smelled THAT BAD. I didn't want that to happen again!

The walk around the pond wasn't that long, but there was a big hill that we had to go up to find the trail entrance and that seemed to poop the little guy out a bit. Never fear, he always recovers quickly. I always find it comical to see the flair with which he flops himself onto the ground when he's tired.

We walked around the playground area a bit before heading home and I made the boys pose for pictures. Apparently Jedi wasn't tired enough, because he was a bit of a pistol for posing today. Kaiser, who is a pro at such things, was a bit disgusted with him.  lol  He'll learn eventually.

Susan Garrett had a post on Facebook today asking for some specific measurements of 10-week old male border collie puppies. Well, I have one of those! I didn't think I'd ever be able to manage it on my own, but I found out that peanut butter smeared on the fridge actually does a really good job at distracting a puppy into holding still for measurements. Thankfully he also fits on my bathroom scale, so I got that, too. I got the following measurements of Jedi at 10 weeks:

10.6 lbs
Floor to top of head - 13"
Floor to elbow - 7"
Length nose to tip of tail - 27"
Width - 7" (?)
Girth - 15.5"

Two of his brothers chimed in as being 12.4 lbs, so apparently Jedi is still a bit smaller than them. Only Hiro (formerly Zeus) gave all of the measurements -- he's 16" tall and 28" long. Always fun to compare!