Yeah! Progress!

Sammy is coming along. He is finding his courage during our walks. He hit a rocky patch last week and tried to get Michelle to send him back to Tulsa. He has a funny way of checking out the environment when we arrive somewhere for a walk. If he hears traffic, he tries to get away from me by jumping over into the driver's seat. If he sees grass and people, he happily jumps out of the truck.I've decided to make every walk as fun as possible for him. The expectations for "heal" and "sit" are very relaxed right now. I've decided to not introduce "stay" in public. We only use that for whistle feeding. He gets anxious about loud noises. If he senses any danger, he will abandon me in a heartbeat and run for his life. He is very good at "finding the door" to the outside and to my truck when he is ready to leave the scary store. We are installing a new septic system, so he is getting lots of exposure to heavy machinery. He needs that. He also attended a drum circle. He is afraid of drums, but getting better.I think we are just about ready for Cabella’s and live music.Here are some fun photos of us working. He had a nice nap in Casa de Luz restaurant, and then we went to Home Depot.

Sammy is not digging the box stores. I had to put him in the shopping cart at Cosco's. He's 40 pounds now, so no walk-carries for him. At home depot, he tried to latch on to any person that was headed for an exit. Our second trip to Home Depot went much better, but he is pretty darn stressed out about shopping. He went into the post office with me a few days ago, but got scared of something and refused to move. I just scooped him up and walked out. Fortunately, I did not have any other packages to carry. He is more than an arm full.There's lots of good news in Sammy's training. He is a natural at jogging. He's got the straight line most of the time and is quickly getting the hang of "leave it" when we pass dogs in the neighborhood. He has overcome his fear of turned over trashcans too. He doesn't get carsick anymore and sleeps through the night. He had his rabies shot and is cleared for internal parasites.Sammy loves his days with the kids and is getting a little better about not going after the chickens. We had a surprise addition to our hen house yesterday when a hen that has been missing and presumed dead returned to Greenwood with 16 peeps. This is going to really limit the time that the dogs are out in the yard off leash. The baby chicks can slip through the fence and walk right out into the yard with the kids and dogs. Toby and Dixie killed 6 pullets last April. I hope we don't get a repeat disaster with Sammy.
Sammy joined me for a full-moon bon fire Wednesday night. He investigated the fire and chased a few sparks. I did some drumming, knowing that he was terrified of my djembe. Being outside with some much space helped him get used to it. I played for about an hour and he eventually relaxed and took a little nap nearby. He still leaves the room any time I start playing in indoors. I’ll probably enroll in a class at Drumz and take him once I can trust him to break on command.
We are taking Sammy to Tomball with us tomorrow. It'll be his first “meet the family” trip with a 3-hour car ride. My mom's dogs will teach him a few bad habits I'm sure. I worry about the barking. Sammy needs little reason to sound the alarm. He barks any time he is unsure of a situation. He got some practice with Dakota last week when the Lord family did some puppy sitting for me. Sounds like he and Ducky got along just fine. Now that Toby's gone, we will have to plan some play dates.

Oh, I almost forgot. We went to the dog park at Town Lake and he did much better than last time. He would follow people off, so I had to watch him closely. He would prefer a park full of people than one full of dogs, but he's getting used to the idea.