RILEY - 1 WEEK FOSTER UPDATE

Riley is doing really well.  He has become more settled throughout the week.  He is a bit active at daycare but his play sessions are short.  Mostly he hangs out and tries to catch as much human attention as he can.  As he gets more comfortable there I'm hoping his playing might increase.  Nonetheless he comes home tired.     
We had a really fun weekend filled with good walks.  We met up with my friend and TG dog Bella for a walk at the beach on Saturday.  We're neighbours so all of my fosters see quite a bit of Bella.  Its nice to watch a relationship form between two dogs.  Mostly they kept their off leash time separate from each other but by the end of the walk I noticed them going to sniff the same things and Riley running ahead a bit more to keep up with Bella.  I'm hoping to see them playing in the coming week.

Riley and Bella

Bella Donna - what a great looking dog hey?

On Sunday, it was back to the beach for a walk with two friends and their TG dogs - Ruedi who really seems to have taken a liking to Riley, and Baby Beans (remember Beans?!).   I didn't catch any pictures of Ruedi but I did get a couple with Beans in them.

Riley and Beans

Beans

Beans is starting to go to Rally-O with her mom.  She definitely found the right home with someone to engage that smart brain in a busy little body.

Riley is great with meeting dogs.  He has good 'greeting' skills with dogs of all sizes.   He sometimes will try to monitor other dog's fun.  If they are chasing each other he will run after them to try to break it up, not biting but just barking at them.  On the weekend I was calling him the 'hall monitor'.  He did find a couple of dogs that caught his interest and he ran with them and had a game of chase that he seemed really happy with.   He spends some time exploring but also checks in and sticks very close by.  Sometimes so close that you look around and think he's gone off somewhere only to find him being your shadow, right at your heel so you don't see him at first. 

Still not a fan of the camera - he pretends to look down the beach.

One of the things we will be working on with Riley is socializing with strangers. With strangers out and about he is relaxed.  He sees people walking around, or right past him and he is fine, because everyone is going about their own business.  But, say for example, he is laying down on his dog bed, if a stranger came up and cornered him, there is a chance he might react negatively out of fear.  At the off leash beach on the weekend he would sniff the odd leg of a person and easily let someone pet him while he was busy meeting another dog,  but mostly he just walked past people paying them no attention and not worrying about them either.  If people give him a chance to make the choice to meet them and they don't rush him, he can warm up quite quickly. He's met a few of my friends and it went really well because they gave him a chance to meet on his terms.

At home we've been playing fetch with a few of his favorite toys - all three of which have squeakers in them.  He is so much fun to play with.  I find myself laughing at his antics.  I sometimes can't believe how much energy he has to run and jump.  He can actually jump quite high for such a little guy.   I think he's built with a spring.

I'm enjoying my time with Riley.  He's easy to have around.  He'll tag along for any walk or activity, but he's equally good with being on the couch to watch some TV.  After the weekend's walks and then daycare today he was so tired that he was laying on the couch, trying to look at me but his eyes were involuntarily blinking shut.  He's happily tired....such a good thing : )