I entered this photo in the local pet stores pet of the month contest.  I was delighted to find out Kess had won.  The winner is chosen by employee vote, and receives a $25 gift certificate.  Kess and I headed out this morning to go claim her prize and pick out some new toys.  We had a slight detour when we encountered an Australian Shepherd running loose in the road at the bottom of the hill.

He was darting in and out of traffic and was completely freaked out.  I tried several times to call him over and he wanted nothing to do with me.  He was just starting to run off in the opposite direction when I yelled out “Do you want a treat?”  His head popped right around and he came running right over and happily hopped in the car.  Luckily he had tags and we were able to track down Harley’s owners and get him home.  Sadly his owners reported that this has become a real problem recently and that Harley wont stay in his yard so they are installing an electric fence.  I asked how often Harley was exercised and was told he gets a 4 block walk once a day.  I suggested that a young herding breed really needs a minimum of 30 minutes hard running a day to be a content dog.  To this the owner replied “we have never had to exercise Harley before and he always stayed home”  she was pretty sure he was only doing it because he was jealous of their new cat who was allowed to go over the fence and out of the yard (Face to palm).  I tried for a bit longer to convince the owner of my credentials as a dog trainer, showed her Suki and Kess etc, but she was having none of it.  It was pretty sad as Harley was a bright, sweet, and fun loving young dog who just really wanted some interaction.  The worst thing was the woman’s final comment ” it’s really like a slap in the face that Harley doesn’t appreciate what he has and keeps running off, we’ve provided him with the perfect home any dog would love to have ”  Somehow it’s always the dogs fault . . .

So after that whole interchange it was time to have some fun.  Kess had a great time at the store enticing pets and treats from all the employees.  We had lots of help testing out all the squeakers, which Kess found delightful.  Kess settled on a grunting pig and dragon and a couple of real bones for good measure.   Here’s kess giving her new dragon a good once over