This morning began with skunk hunting. There's a skunk next door and we think it's used to coming and going via these holes in the bottom of our fence. We've tried to plug them but either Oz is moving the rocks or the skunk is or both. I hosed him down two or three times. Yes with the hose. It took a good soaking before he backed off enough to do his business.

After that he was minding okay, not great getting up the stairs and while I was getting him hitched up with the pinch collar and the shock collar. He was ampy, which is typical. Actually he does that little routine better than either Britta or Winston. They never needed a shock collar though.

The walk went pretty good. I gave him no leash. He was on the short loop the whole way. One block. Up Coolidge, across Alida, down Rhoda, across Carmel & home. He got corrections every time he started to pull. By mid way he was beginning to actually heel properly. I am introducing "heel" again. I have no other voice command for that now. Someday I want the shock collar to go away. My thinking is that the voice commands will replace that. I might be smokin' crack on that one.

Upon returning home and explaining the skunk hunt and dog watering to Teri, she says, "oh, that explains why the floor is a mess." At which point I look down. Yep, looks pretty much like a pack of 10 year old boys tramped through right out of the creek. Oh well. At least that cleans up.

He is totally in hunting mode. There are skunks and possum around. The raccoons will probably be coming down off the hill soon too. Let's not forget cats. I suspect that's a powerful instinct. It's going to take some work to get it under control. Hmmm. Maybe we need to look at how hunting dogs are trained. Too many books, not enough time.

He continues to eat food off the table. Last night he artfully swiped one scoop of ice cream out of my bowl. He ate half of Teri's sandwich at lunch. I offered him more ice cream and the squirt bottle in the face. He eventually got the hint and the rest of the evening he stayed away from food on the table.