So, things with Ollie are progressing nicely. He’s a very good boy, he’s hilarious, and he’s made a good difference here in the house. Anyway. He was a little bit broken when he came; the wonderful family who gave him to me had rescued him from a kill shelter, where he was dropped for biting. They got him in 2020, everybody was pretty sure he was not older than a year, and he’d been abused and left with one or both rear legs that get sore. So, while Corgis are naturally snappy and usually are trained out of that, Ollie’s instincts are distrust and biting. The family who gave him to me were working with him, but he bit their toddler for reasons but still, so he had to move away. They think he’s around 5 now. I’ve been working with him more on trust and behavior. He has never demonstrated thinking of biting me, nor our son who lives here, and they play hard together! It really only takes a little time and a lot of consistency. And positive attention. Turns out, Ollie knows just how to behave himself, is a superlative watchdog (so now we’re working on barking after I’ve said something’s OK,) and is fun to play with. I wouldn’t want to be a stranger who just reached out to pet him, or to break in the house, but if I’m there, he’s not going to bite unless he sees that things are not right. I do worry he’ll never enjoy riding in a car; he gets really agitated and frightened in the car; it takes him some time to get past it once we’re home.

So yesterday (I’m scheduling this for early AM posting,) we went for our morning jaunt. He’s just hilarious on walks! Even though he’s been altered most of his life, he marks. Most of our doggies continued to mark after being spayed or neutered; even Corky, who was female. Anyway, I usually call walks “taking Ollie to check and reply to his messages,” since of course that’s what it is for doggies; they sniff, then mark (or not) then along comes the next reader-sniffer. Today, we stopped at a buried fiber optic marker, and he sniffed and sniffed and sniffed. He was very thorough, like individual bits of blades of grass thorough. Suddenly, he lifted his head, and turned to look at a house behind us. Then he glanced up at me, then sniffed the same spot again, but not as long. He then turned bodily to look at that house (I have no idea if they have a dog there,) then turned and sniffed again, then zoooomm we were off to the end of the block, Ollie apparently airborne. I’m still dying to know what on earth he learned there! I know we should be careful what we wish for, but I wish he could talk.