Pet shop day

We took Reilly with us to the pet shop today to get a new collar.  (Not Petsmart, but a locally owned shop called Naturally Unleashed.)  He's got maybe two inches to go on the one he has now, but it won't last long.  Might as well indulge in a new one before he starts school.  School clothes! Yeah!  This is the first time Chris has gone out with us, so I handed him the camera. While I was perusing collars, Reilly varied from being good as gold...

to inspecting some rope toys nearby.   Then trying to get one.

Not appropriate behavior, but not bad for a four-month-old puppy, either. Actually, it's the most he's ever gotten into in a store, so he's doing well.  He stopped when I told him to.  And pouted.

However, on the way in a free-running boxer met us at the door.  He tried to get past Chris, who caught him.  He wasn't actually trying to escape, but was trying to get to Reilly.  The shop girl caught him up and put him behind the counter.  She said he liked big dogs, and he seemed friendly, so it appeared to be a potentially good time to see how Reilly did meeting a completely strange dog in a non-household situation.  While the dog was behind a barrier and being held, Reilly was allowed to approach.  They greeted each other, with Reilly's tail all happy.  Then I called Reilly away.  He came, and did not look back!  FTW!  He made no attempt to stay, to return, or even give an indication that he knew the other dog was there.  When we had chosen his collar and grabbed a bag of feed and went to checkout, Reilly ignored the boxer.  I'm very pleased with how he handled it.

Another thing he's handled well today was the start of dove season.  Our little farm is surrounded by cropland that was planted to corn this year, so the doves are everywhere.  So are the hunters.  And the noise of shotguns going off fairly close by.  Chris was one of them.  Murphy is terrified of loud noises.  Jake is pretty much indifferent, but allows himself to be convinced by Murphy that he shouldn't go outside.  Not a bad thing, with so many shotguns around.  But I wanted to see Reilly's reaction.  He's heard fireworks from a distance, and .22 from a hundred yards with a building in between, but shotguns are loud.  And people were firing multiple times in a row.  Murphy was trying to convince me to let him in my lap.  Jake was trying to convince me that the situation called for treats.  Reilly?  Well, at first he went to the door wanting to go investigate.  After a while, he didn't even bother to lift his head.  And when he was outside to go potty and guns went off, he ignored them completely.  Another win!

I think I'll go back to the pet shop and buy that rope toy he was so interested in.....

Meg and Reilly