Day 22 - Crossing Meadows (11 weeks old!)

Jedi is 11 weeks old today! This also marks the three-week mark that he came to live with us. In some ways it seems like just yesterday, and in others it feels like he's been here forever already. He's fitting in well with the crew, with even Luke tolerating it when Jedi jumps up to lick his face. Kaiser is still a jerk to him in Kaiser's special jerky way, but it's getting less and less. In general I think everyone has accepted that he's here to stay.

Last night at dinner I decided to introduce Jedi to the treadmill! I just got the treadmill a few months ago to help me rehab an injury and haven't had an opportunity to really make it part of any training program for the dogs yet. They were introduced to it during a couple of cruddy spells where we couldn't get outside due to snow/ice/cold, but I'm the sort who definitely prefers to walk outdoors if at all possible. While we won't be needing the treadmill any time soon, I figured now would be a good time to get Jedi introduced to it so that he'll be ready to go next winter when we do need it.

I started out just clicking for any interaction with the treadmill in a stationary position. It was funny to watch him offer side-legs and bottom on the edge of the treadmill, as these are the behaviors we've been practicing with stationary stuff lately (this was a bit higher, though!). He figured it out quickly enough, though, and once he had that down I turned the treadmill onto the lowest speed. The movement didn't scare him, but he wasn't sure what to do about it. He would put just one or two paws on the moving belt at first, but he did progress to getting his whole body up there before I ran out of his dinner.

I decided to go ahead and hit up the treadmill with him again this morning to expand on our success from last night. He started right where he left off and had no problem getting on the moving belt today. I slowly increased the speed and had him practice getting on and off the moving belt. I'm not worried about how fast we can go at the moment, only that he remains comfortable with being on there. I bumped the speed up to 0.8 mph today and he never acted like anything we did was too much. Here is the video from our session this morning:

Jedi's outing of the day was a trip to Onalaska and a walk around the Crossing Meadows shopping area, along with a nice walk around an adjoining neighborhood. Kizzy got to go along for the ride today. I remembered to throw some toys in the crate for Jedi today, as they were going to have to sit in the van while I got a much needed massage (I had a big kink in my neck -- my sleep patterns are still in puppy mode). I stopped right before my appointment to let Jedi go potty since it's a half hour drive to get there and they'd be sitting for an hour. I'm thankful that he's so good about going when asked!

Because the dogs had been running around like loons all morning, I'm pretty sure he was ready for a nap. When I got back out to the van he was all blinky-eyed, so I know they'd been quiet in there. We drove over to the far edge of the Sam's Club lot to hit up the start of our walk today. There is a nice trail that goes behind all of the businesses in the Crossing Meadows shopping area. It runs parallel to the interstate so it's far from serene, but it's a nice little walking path.

After a point the trail turns and goes under the road and leads into a nice little neighborhood in Onalaska. Just as we were turning to go through the tunnel some idiot came blasting through on a dirt bike. No, motorized vehicles are not allowed on that path -- but hey, new experience for Jedi, I guess. He didn't seem too thrilled by the encounter, but he did recover quickly.

The road led to a nice little park, where we were passed by a boy on a scooter (another new experience!). Jedi was unsure of the girl being pushed on a swing, too. I guess that's the first time he's seen that? There were a couple of little girls on bikes eying up the dogs and I asked if they wanted to put them, but they declined. I'm scary, I guess.

We wrapped around the neighborhood and encountered more fun stuff like moving vehicles, barking dogs, a guy weed-whacking, and someone mowing their lawn. Jedi isn't too keen about the loud motor stuff, but he did better walking past the lawnmower than he did when I ran it at my house!

We crossed back under the road and turned the other direction. We wound around and ended up going back to the van on the walkway that runs in front of the businesses -- so there was a lot more activity. Jedi definitely had a lot of new stuff thrown at him today and he handled it like a champ. When we got back to the van we'd been out for almost 50 minutes! Wow, longer than I expected, but we move pretty slowly yet.

He totally crashed on the trip home. One tired puppy! Let's see how long that lasts.  :o)