July Day Three -- Happy 4th, or Maybe Not

It's been a bit of a crazy day. Fireworks going off have kind of thrown Zoltie for a loop. He's not doing too bad but he's definitely a little jumpy. We had a visitor today and Zoltie was showing some fear (pacing, jumping backwards, trembling, etc.) and barking at her. These are signs that indicate he may be going into a fear period. These are normal developmental periods for dogs but, occasionally, a fear will "stick" with a dog for life during one of these periods. So we try to keep things pretty low key during these times and avoid taking him to crowded or loud places (not the best timing during the 4th of July). For this fear reaction, we didn't make a big deal about it. We don't want Zoltie to think we are worried too. We let him approach on his own time and it didn't take long before he was going up to greet her with his great big smile.

We tried to get out in the sun early on today before the fireworks started. Soak it up, Zoltie, because we'll be heading inside this evening to an air conditioned house with the TV turned up loud.

We had enough time out in the sun to introduce Zoltie to the new service puppy, Billings.

He was moderately interested in the new puppy...

But he still enjoyed the big kids more. He's getting a bit old to be putting feet on other dogs. The labs are letting him know that's not appropriate any more but this girl is about the same age as he is so she's much more tolerant of this puppy behavior.

As the day rolled on, we preferred working inside (even on such a beautiful day) because of the noises that were starting to occur. It's just as well, it's good for us to break up our routine so Zoltie doesn't start to think that a "stay" only happens when we are outside.

And that way he can cool off on the wood floors whenever it's needed.

We finished up early outside today to avoid the really loud sounds. Zoltie was far less worried inside the house.

He may want to be really close and that is fine. I'm not going to go so far as to not provide comfort for him but I'm also not going to make a really big deal out of it. I'm still going to smile and talk to him the way I normally do and try to make this as easy for him as possible to get through.

Tomorrow will be a much better day and certainly much more quiet.