Day 1 & 2 with Jacob Marley

This is Jacob Marley's first stay with City Dog Country Dog. He has been such a pleasure to have and he fits right in with the pack at my place. He became fast friends with Brutus, a 4 month old puppy in training to be a service dog.

Marley and Brutus meet

Marley gives Brutus a little kiss

All in all, Marley fits in well with the pack

It's not all been hard work here at the city portion of City Dog Country Dog board and train. Marley has been playing hard too. Don't tell Marley, but even when he's playing he's learning how to play appropriately and listen to his humans. Marley plays very well with Brutus but if they start to vocalize too much or one of them looks like they are getting upset, a simple "ah ah, too much" and walking towards them calms everyone down.

 Nice appropriate play between Marley and Brutus

 The standoff

 Which leads into the chase

And a nice break in the play and a chance for Brutus to shake off

It's ok for Marley to use his mouth some in play with other dogs. If it gets to be too much, I just interrupt the behavior. But it's not ok for Marley to use his mouth on humans. He is a quick study. He has not put his mouth on me once today.

But it's not all about play with other dogs. In between training sessions, it's important to make sure that you are doing activities with your dog and playing with your dog.

Marley helped me with some gardening today. He was quite pleased with the pumpkin we harvested.

But after a long day of hard work and lots of play, Marley needs to rest. I didn't have my camera ready when he and Brutus crawled into the kennel together but this one was close:

We're looking forward to seeing what adventures tomorrow brings....