<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><DIV>Geez. That is all I can say is GEEZ!!! I usually take the boys for a walk in the evening and so I put both of their harnesses on and off we went last night.</DIV>
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<DIV>Now you'd think at least one of you out there could have warned me about walking a bell hound of a basset during a full moon. But nooooooooooooooo. Or should I say AAAAHHHHRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?????? The WHOLE confounded walk. Now Snoopy is a sight to walk anyway because like I said he had belonged to an elderly lady and had never been to obedience training nor dog walks in his 5 years. The first couple of weeks we had him when you leashed him up he ran straight to the car and STOPPED. Well, now he loves to walk with Cyrus and only tries to drag us down the street about 40% of the time, the other 60% of the time he impersonates a well behaved dog with a loose lead. So last night there I was with this baying, lunging, pulling creature along with my sedate (and totally mortified) Lab trying to take a peaceful after dinner stroll and Snoopy had every dog within MILES barking as he AAAHHHRRRROOOOO'd at
that moon and pulled every which way (including up). Seriously, somebody could have warned me, you know I'm a rookie here.</DIV>
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<DIV>Oh, and then about a mile from the house there is a house where the owners son has a couple of wolves for pets (don't get me started) and they were in the yard. The fence goes right up to the side walk and turns out the wolves were all worked up over the moon too. Well, I couldn't figure out how to get Snoopy to stop baying (pastrami didn't work) and so I put him on a short lead and we marched past that house and I don't even think his front feet were on the GROUND ... what a scene.</DIV>
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<DIV>We got home and Cyrus had a couple of questions for me ... those being:</DIV>
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<DIV>1) are you SURE I wanted a little brother?</DIV>
<DIV>2) why does my little brother smell like wet cigars?</DIV>
<DIV>3) what is that LOUD BOOMing noise that comes out of him and why does he do it?</DIV>
<DIV>4) why can't I do it?</DIV>
<DIV>5) can you get my favorite ball back from him, he's hogging it again</DIV>
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<DIV>Thanks for all of the advise on the dog park. Beverly had a particular insight that I had missed. She wondered what would happen if I brought Snoopy to the park without his "body guard." Interesting thought, as Cyrus is huge and has always been alpha at that dog park even though he has never, ever been in a fight... I wonder if Snoopy would behave differently if Cyrus wasn't there? I'm not positive I can try it though because if you separate them now they both cry ... I took Cyrus once w/o Snoopy and heard that Snoopy cried at home the WHOLE hour and Cyrus cried the whole way to the park and then wouldn't play much. Still, I bet it's all related.</DIV>
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<DIV>Wish me luck, I clearly need it.</DIV>
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<DIV>--Dale</DIV>
<DIV>momPerson to Cyrus and Snoopy</DIV></div></body></html>