After Thanksgiving

Zephyr had a good time at my parents' house for Thanks- giving. Their pup, Holly, is 4 months old and being raised for Paws with a Cause. She's still at a very cute age, where Zephyr is looking much less like a puppy and more like a dog. Zephyr was only 58 pounds when I took him to the vet yesterday. I was surprised that he only put on about 2 pounds in a month.

In the pictures, you'll see an old towel that is being used as a 'mat' for Zephyr. It's a new skill that he's learning to go to his mat and get all four feet on and lay down. We introduced the concept about 3 weeks ago and he is doing pretty well, at least when we are within 10-15 feet of the mat. I have been moving it around some so that he associates the command with the material rather than a particular location.

In one of the pictures, he is parading around with a nylabone and a kong in his mouth. He enjoys carrying things, but you'll see he has his feet on the mat.

I'm also transi- tioning him from the gentle leader to the flat collar. I think it is off in all of these pictures, but I'm still using it in high distrac- tion areas, typically only a small portion of the day and not at all some days.