Sunny On the Mend

October is just a few days away, bringing about the beginning of my favorite time of year. The cooler nights. The leaves changing from green to orange, red, or yellow. The slowing down of life in general. I'm good with slowing down. Sunny, though, isn't a fan of the slow life movement.

Since Friday Sunny has been on restricted activity due to the muscle strain. He did really well Saturday, mostly just hanging out on my lap all day. I'm pretty sure the pain was enough then that he simply didn't have it in him to be his usual puppy self. Yesterday he wanted to be a little more active, but I curtailed all play. We spent the day in the back yard just sitting in the grass or in the house, binge watching a Brit Box show. Today he tried to convince me all day that he was perfectly fine. To keep him somewhat low-key, I spent a lot of time on the floor, working on his down stay, which lasts all of two seconds. 

While he's still slightly limping, it's only noticeable because I know he strained a muscle. Others most likely wouldn't be able to tell anything happened. Tomorrow, I'm hoping we can do our morning walk and maybe even do a trail. Sunny, I'm sure, will be happy to be back doing what he loves to do.

During our downtime, I've been reading a book about trailing and tracking. The section I just finished is all about how wind affects scent. The part I really found interesting is the idea of scent pooling, which can happen for a variety of reasons, one of which is a person lingering in one spot for an extended period of time. This happened with the last trail I set for Sunny. I drove to the spot where I wanted to lay out the trail. After setting the trail, I drove home, waited an hour, then walked Sunny back to the area where I set the trail. When I said, "Go to work," Sunny set off towards the first scent article then veered right and went over the spot where I had parked the Jeep. He circled around me twice, with the second circle closer to me. Then it was like boom! and he shot forward towards the first scent article. He went from that one to the next then the next and the next until he finished the trail.

At the time, I knew Sunny was working the scent pool created by my Jeep being parked for the time it took me to set the trail, and it was amazing watching him. He was working out what to do with that scent. When he works, I try to stay out of his way. I try to stay still when I need to, and I try to understand what his body language is saying to me. In the short time I've been handling Sunny, and with the little knowledge I have about being a handler, I have come to believe that Sunny is special. Sunny absolutely loves "going to work," and he, at least in my mind, is really, really good at his job. 

Which is why I was so upset Friday when Sunny hurt himself. I don't want anything to happen to him that will prevent him from doing what he loves to do. He's just getting started, and hopefully he'll have a long career as a trailing dog,


The Little Monster enjoying a nap.


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