Big Adventures II

A sad looking Ossi stares
out the window longing to
go out after the "under the
house" incident
















Where to start? Ossi has had a momentous week. Some good moments, some not so good.

Remember...I'm part Yellow Lab too!
L-Dawg took Ossi for a walk at Diamond Lake early last week. As usual, Ossi enjoyed himself immensely. On the way back to the car after the walk, L-Dawg looked down to see Ossi with a new "toy" in his mouth...a dead, frozen squirrel he'd picked up about 100 feet earlier. L-Dawg freaked out (and, I believe, rightfully so...how gross!) and brushed Ossi's teeth as soon as he got home. Ew. Ew. Ew.

Hmmm...I'm Missing Out on Good Stuff Under There
The same day as the "dead squirrel" incident, L-Dawg was off to work and, 15 minutes before scheduled arrival time, let Ossi out to potty before an afternoon of crate napping. Being ready to leave, L-Dawg called outside for Ossi to come in and could hear Ossi, but could not see him anywhere. It quickly became evident that Ossi was hiding out under the house. Before Ossi's adoption, L-Dawg thought she buttoned up this area pretty well, but apparently the little stinker found a way in. But, he couldn't find his way out. After 20 minutes of coaxing with toys and treats, digging so he could see how to get out and reaching into the abyss to pull him out it was finally the jiggling of keys in the garage door and saying "Let's go for a ride!" that got Ossi to squeeze his way out and that lead to the above photo. Because B-Dawg and L-Dawg had to re-button everything with metal fencing, Ossi was not allowed to frolic in the backyard until the next day. This was sorely disappointing to him because he saw his next-door friends (a pair of 12-year-old boys) playing and he desperately wanted to play too. Too bad, so sad.

Dog Class II
Ossi has attended his second dog training class and is not exactly the star player we know he can be. He is *VERY* easily distracted by all the noise and dogs and treats and clicks and people and...and...everything. It takes about 1,500 tries just to get his attention by calling his name. He needs just three things to "graduate" to Level II training: 1) Doesn't jump up on people unless invited 2) We can get Ossi's attention away from something distracting and get him to focus on us for 5 seconds and 3) No pulling on the leash. In other words, we're going to be in Level I dog class *forever*.


Ossi in dog class,
getting a reward for
finally paying attention













All My Doggie Girlfriends
On the upswing, Ossi went to the Eden Prairie dog park the other night. Eden Prairie is totally fenced in and, since it was later at night, there was only one other dog there--Addie the cattle dog/shorthaired pointer mix. The two of them ran and ran and ran for an hour while B-Dawg and L-Dawg became part of the "club" and caught up on the dog park gossip with park regular Katie (Addie's "person"). Ossi was so happy to have a new girlfriend that loves to play and we're pretty sure that every time he gets into the car he thinks he's going back to the dog park.
While on a regular daily walk the other day, he also got to play with his girlfriend Sugar on the next block. They wrestled and tumbled around in Sugar's driveway and L-Dawg felt pretty ridiculous for keeping Ossi away from Sugar the first time they saw her (she's an American Staffordshire Terrier and looks a little scary, but is the sweetest thing as her name would suggest). B-Dawg also, allegedly, let Ossi play with the infamous Lucy through her fence too and said they had a great time. L-Dawg has her doubts about this since Lucy has been very vocal about her dislike of Ossi in the past. But who knows...maybe Lucy is warming up!




Ossi, all curled up and sleeping,
after his busy night at the dog
park with new friend Addie.