The sun is setting and everyone is inside. August and Pico are working out their anxiety about having outside dogs in their territory by wrestling in circles around us. Dottie and Sawyer are in a dogpile on the couch, cuddled up as close to Peter as they can get. They are both panting with the heat of proximity, and jockeying for position to give him kisses and solicit petting. Norrin is laying next to my chair, eyeing Pico and Augie but staying out of the tussle and within easy reach of my hand. Eventually he gets up and walks over to the couch, burrowing his head into Pete's hands. Peter remarks on the delight of fuzzy husky cheeks as he scratches them. Norrin closes his eyes in bliss. I am amazed at how far we have come with this fearful beast that he now boldly walks up to Peter and demands attention.
This morning as the sun rose, I took Pico and Norrin out on the bike. It was warmer than usual last night. We left our windows open till morning, and there was no need to start a fire when I woke up. I was eager to get on the road and get the boys run before it warmed up any more. We stalled out again at the bottom of the hill. I am starting to wonder if it is because the footing changes here - they put a new culvert in last month, and the road fill they used has bigger, sharper rocks instead of gravel. Maybe they just aren't comfortable running over it at full speed. As soon as they stopped, I hopped off and hauled them around until they faced left.
Norrin, as usual, cowered and backed away as soon as I was off the bike. We have made significant progress with him in the yard. After a summer of treats and love and lots of time spent just sitting with him he no longer runs to the end of his chain or hides in his house when we approach, and will come out to greet us and solicit petting even if we aren't bearing dinner. In harness, however, he still reacts as if expecting to be hit whenever I approach him from the sled or the bike. I have been extra careful to be gentle and reassuring with him, no matter how frustrated I actually am in that moment, when I'm correcting a direction or an unnecessary stop. If I'm not slow and quiet as I approach, he breaks down completely and we won't go anywhere until he recovers.
At this first corner, they took the redirection quickly, held the line straight and waited for me to lift the bike before launching forward down the long straightaway. The next left - one we haven't had a problem with so far - they took extremely wide, nearly missing it completely. In the confusion, I ran over the gangline for the first time since I started running the two of them with the bike. I was already going pretty slow so it wasn't a total disaster, but it tangled fast into my front fork. It took me a minute or two to work it back out and get the two of them untangled. Once straight, we got up the winding hill fine, passing the left-turn driveway with barely a hesitation after my "on-by" command.
At the next corner, however, we stalled out completely. Pico insisted on marking several bushes and Norrin, although not participating, was happy enough to stop pulling and be dragged along by his neckline, sniffing the clumps. I dropped the bike and got them started again twice, only to have Pico immediately stop and head into the brush. I determined later that the stall-out may have been due to a lack of momentum at the corner. I was a little worried about them turning wide again, and I was also starting to get out of breath myself since I was peddling behind them up the long winding hill. We had similar sniffing-and-peeing stall out at a different corner on the last run, and I was pretty sure that the lack of momentum (they are both corners with long up-hill approaches) had contributed.
Once we were going again, my frustration with Pico was boiling over. As we approached the house with the barking dogs that caused such trouble on our first Pico-and-Norrin run, there was an explosion of barking and howling. This time, I could see at least three dogs running around in front of the house raising hell at our passing. I braced for Pico's reaction, but although he turned his head towards the yard and slacked his tug, he didn't make a move to the right - never even scooted over enough to touch Norrin. Once I was sure we were going to make the "on-by" successfully, I called it out loud with a strong and very heart-felt "GOOD DOGS" right behind it. I was very, very proud of my little ADHD problem child.
The rest of the run was uneventful. When we reached the final left turn, I made sure we had plenty momentum and the boys flew around the corner without even looking sideways at the bushes that needed marking so very badly last week. We were passed by two cars from behind, and although Norrin got my pulse racing a little bit looking back towards them as they approached, he kept to our side of the road and never veered out into danger.
My only other concern was with Pico's overall run. Although he is usually the dog slamming his harness and setting the pace (or needing to be held back) he was having an off day today. For about half of the run - even on downhill sections - there was slack in his tug, and even points when Norrin was dragging him along by their neck line. His gait was fine, and I checked him over when we got home but as far as I could tell (and I really don't know that I know what I'm looking for, still) he wasn't sore or stiff anywhere and his feet looked fine. We took Pico and August to the river yesterday, and they had a crazy romping free run for about an hour. It's possible that he was just a little worn out from that, but it was still very out of character for him to be off his line so much.
I was planning on getting up early again tomorrow and taking the boys out, but I am wondering if I should give Pico a break and take Sawyer instead. Although she's not much better for pulling than he was today, it is cool enough now that she'd probably do fine just going along for the ride and we can always just run a flat out-and-back instead of tackling the hilly loop. And besides, her protests at being left behind on the last few runs have been heartbreaking.
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