Max - June 9

Max is coming into himself. While he loves attention, it has to be on his time and at his request. He is normally pretty good this year about listening...he is starting to actually stop and come back to the house if I yell at him when he goes to go after a car. It is still a work in progress but it is happening!!!

He is also getting better at me being in his space when he doesn't really want me to be. He sooo wants to be right beside someone all the time, but you can see him debating it all the time. "should I - shouldn't I". He wiggles and squirms and whines. I just sit and let him decide. Most of the time it takes him about 5 minutes and he is right there panting and slobbering all over you.

I have also been working him letting me grab his neck and giving him a shake...rattling his ruff...and looking at his teeth. He has gotten really good about it...usually just falling over on his back and whipping his four legs in the air.

All this was tested this morning when we found him with porcupine quills in his mouth. We ignored them to start with so we could see just how bad they were...he came up for his morning walk with me to feed the horses and got some scratching on the ears. Then Doyle came out with the plyers. We got him on his side and I managed to yank out 4 or 5. then he got away.

We let him go and went back to the house. Doyle grabbed cat food and fed the barn cats (who all like to be at the house). He then stood at the back door...and I went out the front to trap Max on the deck. When we grabbed him, he fell to the deck and Doyle sat on him and we got all the quills. Giving him cookies every 4 pulls.

Once we were done, we let him go. I still had a few cookies in my pockets so I sat on the steps and let him decide how badly he wanted one. Maggie, of course, was right there getting her fill. It took him 5 minutes maybe to come up for one. Once he realized all he was getting was cookies and scratches, he almost crawled on my lap for more attention.

What a dog.