Bailey and Coral Update

Hey All,

Whew!  It has been a very busy six weeks since I got back from camp.  Bailey is doing great and having zero jealousy issues with Coral.  In fact, he loves having another dog in the house.  He's actually somewhat better when guests come over.  He sees Coral being all friendly and thinks, "If she likes them, they can't be so bad."  He'll never be one to go up to strangers on his own, but there is definite improvement.

Coral has been a dream to work with in public.  She's as cool as a cucumber.  We can go anywhere and her general reaction is, "Eh, cool."  When I worked Bailey in public, I was constantly looking around for stuff/people that might stress him out.  I was always somewhat on edge.  With Coral, since I know she's "bomb proof", I'm completely relaxed in public with her.  Besides the every day stuff, we've been to a Dodger game, the zoo, and the second screening of my documentary.  All those busy places she took completely in stride.

We're still working on tasks.  For some reason, I had to completely re-train "get it" (her cue for picking things up and putting them in my lap).  She was doing it regularly when we were at camp, but when we got back to the west coast, she left that skill in Georgia.  Now she's a pro.  We practice door every day (her opening the door for me), and soon I think I'll just be able to roll up to the door and she'll open it.  Her brand new task is learning to push my emergency response button.  She's doing well learning that too.

Coral was on activity restriction for three weeks.  As professional as she is in public, she's a wild woman when it comes time to play.  So we think she sprained her knee sometime and never let it heal properly.  She had a slight limp every now and then, but it never went away totally.  So I took her to the vet and he said that she just sprained her knee and needed rest.  So for three weeks she was not happy because she could not run and play with Bailey.  Now she's all better.  Unfortunately, I've decided to sideline her ball playing until she's a bit older and calmer (if that ever happens), she just gets too crazy trying to get the ball.  Now she jogs on her treadmill for 15 minutes a day and is back to playing with Bailey.  She actually lost weight and is looking in tip-top shape.

One of Coral's weaknesses is food.  She has stolen berries and grapes (yes, I know grapes are poisonous for dogs and I called her vet right away).  So we quickly learned to put all food well out of reach.

Here are some videos of Coral and Bailey.  I'm so lucky to have two awesome dogs.