tonight shari and i got home at a reasonable hour so we were each going to walk our dogs and spend some quality time together.

i took bohdan out to the car thinking i would put him in and we would go the beach. before i could get him into the car shari and trillian came out, and trillian jumped into the car... guess we are all going to the beach together.

we got to the beach and there was much excitment.. shari and trillian took off running and bohdan wanted to keep up, so we lumbered along. this meant he couldn't go nearly as far as normal. we got down to the end of the grass and an unattended dog came over to say hello. both bohdan and trillian were happy to see him, and there was much prancing and butt sniffing.

i was concerned that this young dog was lost, but he was so calm and happy.

i decided that it was going to be too hard on bohdan to walk back to the car, and since shari needed to be somewhere i took trillian and walked back to the car. when i got to where bohdan and shari were waiting, bohdan immediately came running to the car. i got him into the car and home we went.

it was a nice adventure.

took bohdan to the beach after work not much to report.
he wanted to walk a different route and actually got to say hello to another dog. he didn't cause too much of a fuss when approaching so i asked the dogs owner and they got to say hello. i kept it short and we continued on our way.

well we have not had a walk since friday night and bohdan was just getting ready to tell me all about it, when i scouped him up (well as best as one can do with a 150 pound dog) and threw him in the car. off to the beach we went.

we wandered around and saw the other dogs and people. then bohdan found this very rank puddle that he wanted to drink out of, i told him no. he looked at me and lay down it and started drinking. i was furious. i got him out of the stink and was so upset, my formerly clean dog. he then proceeded to roll in the grass. which i thought would be fine and hoped it would get some of the yuck off of him.

when we got home, he got another bath, much to his disappointment.

he was happy and smiling when shari came home.

shari woke me up on friday night/saturday morning to tell me that bohdan had torn his paw. this must have happened while we were at the beach on our evening walk. he was in so much pain that his hind right foot was spasming.

so no walk for him this weekend.

instead we went down to la and hung out in the sunshine. he seemed quite content to spend his time laying about.

on sunday i gave him a bath in the outdoors. he was laying in the sun on the cement...

i started hosing him off and soaping him up. i told him to stay when he wanted to get away and he listened. when i finished one side he rolled onto his back and let me do his tummy and chest, and then roll him onto his other side and finish up. he sure must have needed the bath, and the sunshine didn't hurt. it was in the 70's at least.

i normally don't taken bohdan on walks on friday nights, since there is too much activity in our neighborhood and i am usually out until late. today however, i came home around 6:30, walked trillian and then bohdan and i headed to the beach.

it was about 7:15 when we arrived and i told myself i would give him an hour at the beach. it was still pretty crowded but that was good for him.

he walked excitedly down to where a boy and his dad were playing baseball and bohdan decided to settle. i let him rest. we walked around a bit and watched the sunset and the dogs and people passing us. bohdan did not bark at a person, until he was in the car and this man and his sun came up to us and wanted to know what kind of dog bohdan was.

so many people wanted to talk to me about him. i need to figure out how to work with bohdan to keep him from barking, howling and going off at other dogs when he sees them. i know all he wants to do is see them, and play with them, but his antics scare the other dogs and their owners. gotta work on that...

so the walking part of our walk was on the shorter distance level, compared to other nights. but we were out there.

i am not sure, but the way it looked this morning it seems that bohdan is not going to be going for a walk tonight. he really looked sore this morning very wobbly as he was trying to move around, his from legs just were not holding him up.

we shall see...

well we had a slow start after the chiro... bohdan doesn't seem to be feeling well
and his shoulders are all jammed up. i went to take him for his walk and rather then going in the car and to the beach he wanted to walk down the street.

we ventured a few houses and then i had him turn around and we sat on our front lawn for awhile.

after about 15 minutes he decided that he would get into the open car.

we went to the beach and did some walking, he was very excited to be out.

we wandered around for about an hour he was so happy to be walking around.
after our hour long walk we went and picked up shari in the city. the whole way into the city he was sub vocalizing whines and he didn't look happy.

when we got out to the house he was happy to get out of the car, and he let me help him out.

i gave him a really good massage and worked on the spasming muscles of his shoulders.

i decided last night that bohdan was having a hard time getting around, so i was going to take him to the chiro today. i called this morning and the vet had room to see him, this afternoon.

when we got there bohdan started crying, out of excitement... a very happy whine.

dr. szabo saw us out side since bohdan has better traction outside. her first comment was on how good he looked, that he had lost weight.

she adjusted his hip, and his lower back and then worked her way up to his sholders, which as it turns out were a knotted mess. bohdan let the vet pet him on the head and do adjustments on his head. he only growled once.

oh i didn't mention he fell when getting out of the car.

i let him rest for a bit and when it was time to go, he got up on his own, but
then slipped and fell, right there in front of the chiropractor.

he fell again before getting into the car... but he seems to be doing alright now.
other then sleeping pretty heavily. i think he will be sore.

we went on what is quickly becoming our customary evening walk at the beach. it was a pretty good walk. after taking sunday off, bohdan's leg looked like it was bothering him too much he was so excited when he got to the beach.

I opened the back of the car, and put on his leash, I tried to get him to lay down for me to help him our which he did then he launched himself out of the car and promptly collapsed.

afterwhich he was eager to get moving on our walk. we walked and rested for 20-30 minutes at which time i started herding him closer to the car. he started just laying down every few feet, couldn't tell if he hurt, or if he just didn't want to go home.

he was walking funny, swinging out his left leg as he took a step, unstable on his feet. i am not sure if this was from his fall. i need to take him to the chiropractor soon, only i am working and that will be a hassle... but one that needs to be dealt with.

at one point we saw another dog, and bohdan barked hello, and cried and howled. he made a huge scene but didn't mean any harm.

tonight aftermy being away for most of the day bohdan and i went to the beach for our evening walk. i am very surprised and pleased, he walked further then he had in the past, his legs were shaking less and he was more willing to get up on his own and required less hoisting him up... well until it became time for us to leave and he decided that moving was just much too difficult.

we walked nearly the length of both of the small fields that have benches and bbq pits, and went up over the berm and towards the beach. bohdan and i sat on the esplanade for a bit enjoying the fresh sea air.

well i enjoyed the fresh air, and since bohdan picked the spot we stopped in i am assuming he was enjoying the scent of rotting pelican... not bad enough for me to notice, but when we headed for the railing that seperates the esplanade from the sand, he went right to where it was resting.

bleah.

he also seemed a lot less tired after our walk.

yay!!!

maybe soon we wil be able to go on hikes, or to fort funston and meet other dogs.

i think i will ask fawn if she would be willing to do an updated evaluation on bohdan... and see what she thinks we can do for his temperament other then meds.

this week has been hard for me since i started working again, after many months off.

so we will play catch up in our log.

tuesday and wednesday we walked around the block, bohdan was unpleasant.
he walked nicely until we got to the halfway point then needed coazing and pushing to get to about 6 houses from home. at which point i decided to get the car and drive him home.

now thursday and firday i tried something a little different these were the days that i was working, and had a one hour commute to get home. well it ends up being more then an hour but..

it has been cold and foggy here in the evenings, but it is still light enough to walk until about 9.

i took bohdan down to the beach and we walked on the grass. i was more relaxed since i didn't have to worry about a neighbor coming out of their house and yelling at us for laying on their lawn, and bohdan then getting upset and giving them what for.

so thursday we walked and rested on the lawn, and when i decided that we had gone long enough we headed to the car, he got in right away and when we got home he got out with no problem. i was very pleased with him.

friday was a little less ideal but still it was alright, we walked further and rested a bit longer, watched the strange people who were hanging out down by the water. bohdan was less eager to get into the car and for the last strech he lay down every few feet until i lost my patients with him.

we then went on a bit of a car ride, home to get trillian and then to the city to pick up shari.. i think this adventure helped him a bit in breaking up the boredom of not having a human home during the majority of the day. this is something i have been working on and off, mostly off for the last year so he is used to having me around the house....

last night bohdan had a short walk to 7-11 and back. when he stopped to lay down in the bushes near 7-11 his legs were not shaking, which is a very good sign.

today we decided to get trillian her license, so we piled the dogs into the car and went down to the Peninsula Humane Society. after stopping there and taking trillian in so we could show her off to the adoption counselor who let us take her home. we headed to the beach.

at the beach there were a lot of people and the sand was warm. oh and there
weren't many trees, so we took a quick walk and hopped back into the car.

we decided since it was so short at the beach we would go to the park where we knew there would be shade. so off to the park we went. we had a nice stroll and bohdan decided to park himself near where the children were playing. he always does this.. usually he watches them or ignores them, but it is like teasing them, cause he wouldn't let them come near us.

today he growled once at the kids. shari brough trillian up to the kids and let them say hello to her.

we got bohdan who by this time is shaking in his front paws, to keep on walking. it was a fight of manhandling him to get him to get into the car, and we both got pretty pissed at eachother.

when we got home, he was easy to get out of the car and into the house for his cookie... now he is sitting in the open front door, watching people on the street.. barking when necessary and probably wishing he were sitting on the front lawn where he could see more and be more commanding.

today we spent time watering the back yard. trillian and bohdan decided it was time to play chase.. and bohdan actually did much of the chasing. when he got tired he would lay down and try to catch her as she ran circles around him.

later the dogs told us it was time for a walk.. it was just beginning to get dark, but i didn't want to walk around the block, so we took the dogs back up to the park. bohdan feel getting out of the car. his right leg didn't even attempt to hold him up. i realized too late that I should have tried to lift him out, but he had done so well the night before. we ran around the park probably less than the night before but still enough to tire them both out.

as it got darker more fireworks began and we wanted to get the dogs home as quickly as possible so we piled them into the car and home we went.

again bohdan got out of the car quickly, with some coaxing from me.

Ok.. well it wasn't all that fun. in the afternoon shari and i took the dogs to the park... we had a short romp in the park. bohdan seemed to be a little perturned that there were lots of people in his park.

lots of lame kids running around and flying this battery operated plane as close to us as they could get without actually hitting us. it sounded like a giant fly, and bohdan hates flies.

lets see he got out of the car all by himself jumped just fine. when we got home he was hot and tired but still didn't rest long in the car.

the fireworks started pretty early so he didn't get a second walk.

so we got home tonight and Karine was feeling too yuck to go walking. not that it mattered becuase people were setting off fireworks. Bohdan was pretty energetic when we got home.

Karine had already fed them half a pound of turkey. I decided that maybe we should mini-fast. however one of us said the word "hungry", which Bohdan parsed. he got really excited and wanted food.

he and Trillian started to play with that slightly frantic edge that indicates hunger in the dogs. I watched for a few minutes and then to calm them down I pulled out some frozen lamb pieces and gave them each one. Bohdan was very happy. he really like lamb.

when they were finished they both looked for more. I don't get why they were so hungry when they already had eaten earlier! I pulled out the Big Bowl of Chicken and gave trillian an entire back + neck. I knew Bohdan wouldn't like that so I looked for smaller pieces to give him. I presented one to him and he looked at me and walked back to the living room and laid down. I see.

I wen and pulled a much bigger piece of lamb out. since Bohdan wasn't near the blankey, I just went and put it in the blanket behind him. he was very surprised. it took him a few minutes then he turned around and started trying to warm it up. but this seemed enough to satisfy him.

after that he went out back to pee, then into Karine's room to get on the bed. Karine helped him on the bed but I don't think he really needed it.

just got back from a quick walk with bohdan around the block. i am hoping we took this walk early enough in the afternoon that he will be up for another short walk this evening. this is will be the first day in many weeks that we have attempted this.

bohdan has gotten stronger, but he starts panting so early on in our walks.

hopefully a once around the block, and a short walk to the end will help him to catch his breath faster and build up some muscles. more later if this works.

tonight upon returning home from picking up shari and having dinner shari and i took bohdan for a quick walk around the block. well it wasn't quite around the block, but the distance was equvalent. the kittens joined us on this stroll.

bohdan didn't want to come home, he wanted to continue further, however he had a hard time in getting home. both of his hind legs were wobbly.

we took yesterday night off. decided bohdan needed a little rest, although we played in the back yard. today we walked down to 7-11 and back, without his needing to lay down.

we set out on this walk after dark and bohdan had some problems making it off of the curb, but he didn't fall, just caught himself very low to the ground with the strength of his good leg.

it was a good adventure... i really need to work on his stamina.