Sep 18, 2011: Short & Stocky

Today Thurmon went for his second subway ride, going two stops to Main station. He was still as anxious as yesterday, but sat still and didn't bark, so I think he'll manage to get used to it.

After disembarking we walked down to the Norwood off-leash dog park. It was Thurmon's first real city street walking, since all the streets in our neighbourhood have grassy boulevards between the sidewalk and traffic. He handled it well, and it wasn't long before the park was in view.

It turned out we'd shown up at "greyhound hour" - every Sunday at noon greyhound owners congregate at this park with their dogs. I've always thought of Thurmon as rather elegant and refined, but he looked short and stocky next to these fine animals! They warned us that their dogs are bred to chase small, light-coloured animals, so if he ran he might tempt a swarm of greyhounds to run him down. It did happen a few times, but as soon as he stopped they lost interest in him, so he didn't seem to mind. He also met a puggle that was a good size match for lots of wrestling. Thurmon definitely is the submissive dog in general.

As we got ready to leave we met a fellow who exclaimed "a Norwegian buhund!" Since nobody ever recognizes his breed we were quite surprised. It turns out he walks another buhund, named Heidi, who lives in the area. Odds are this could be a relative of Thurmon from the same breeder.

After the park we walked over to Phil and Nadia's house. While Mark helped Phil assemble a shed I kept Thurmon quiet on his leash. We took a couple more short walks over the course of the afternoon, enjoying a little more off-leash time with a few dogs in the park down the street. He also managed to greet several dogs while on-leash in a much more calm fashion than usual - hopefully due to socialization, and not just being tired after such a long day out.

We had hoped all this exercise would tire Thurmon out so much that he would sleep silently through the night, but in fact he was noisier than usual, making strange bubbling/whistling sounds, like there was a sucking chest wound in his mouth. I suspect he's teething, so he was more droolly, making the bizarre sounds possible. Let's hope this phase is short.

Below: a photo of the many items I have removed from Thurmon's mouth, while rooting around in the backyard