i was very surprised tonight when the walk that normally take bohdan and i an hour to do, only took us 30 minutes.. and i was not pushing him. well maybe the last few feet, but we had fun at the beach and he sure is looking healthy and stronger... now i just need to get him out two times in one day and maybe change the scenary a bit.

i took bohdan to the beach tonight, trillian got her walk first.
shari is out of town so walking both dogs is very much up to me.
not too eventful, we walk and sat and watched the ocean then we headed home. he was so happy to be outdoors, and wanted to get out of the car on his own.

yesterday i spent the day running around the east bay with my parents.
when this was over shari picked me up at the bart, and to my surprise she had both of the dogs in the car with her. i think bohdan was very surprised when he saw me. he seemed very happy.

when i opened the front door of the car to get in trillian jumped onto my lap and did the happy wiggle puppy dance and licked me all over, and bohdan tried to get into the front seat of the car and into my lap as well, and he licked me all over... so much doggie love. it was so good to see him and see him so happy.

since he was in the car and he hadn't had a walk yet all four of us went to the beach and had an adventure... we did our normal walk and even ran a little bit.

i am thinking of taking him to the vet and having his hips x-rayed, he seemed to
be walking funny since surgery. we shall see.

well my current contract ended a little earlier then expected so i had the day to walk dogs and play. i took bohdan down to the beach and we walked on the grass for a bit, his choice.

then he wanted to go down the stairs and into the sand. which i let him do. when he got to the bottom of the stairs he flopped down watching the seagulls, pelicans and the surf. he was in the way if anyone wanted to come down the stairs, and of course someone wanted to come down the stairs... with his dog.

I moved bohdan out of the way with much whining, crying and howling... the man was entertained. shortly after we decided it was time to go, the steps up where very hard for him, and he started rabbit hopping up them about 3/4 of the way up.

I helped stabilze his legs and then we walked to the car wiping our feet off on the damp grass. i helped him in.. and home we went. he has now slept for a few hours... happily snoring.

maybe we will get another walk tonight, i am not sure if he will be up for it.

so i have been busy, and this translated into bohdan not getting his walks.
he had not really been out on a walk in 5 days, bad mom that i am.

so this morning i promised i would take him... we went to the park, drove up there and then walked around. it was a good adventure, we got some time together to hangout, and then shari and trillian joined us.

the dogs played together, or just played in the park and we all drove home together.

bohdan is walking better, looks a little dysplastic, but i think he just needs more muscle toning in his hips. he legs front, and left rear were a bit shakey.... so we get to do this again tonight i hope.

oh and he has been spending a lot of time walking around with his tail between his legs, i am not sure if it is from pain, discomfort, or fear.

on thursday night bohdan and i went for a walk in our neighborhood. we were just going to go down to the 7-11 and back, but i decided he was looking so good walking and we were having a good walk that we would try for further, and besides shari was home and would come get us if we got tired.

i thought we would cut through the school parking lot and circle back. by the time we got through the lot, something had freightened bohdan, and he parked himself in front of the hardware store. we rested for a bit and i tried to get him going again, but it just wouldn't work.

everytime a car came by he looked at it hopefully, he had his leash in his mouth and his lower jaw was quivering. i called shari and she came and got us. bohdan was still freightened and showing the whites of his eyes when we got him in the car.

he spent most of the panting and didn't calm down until sometime during the day when i was away. i have no idea what triggered this fear. i think the panting was from pain, but what hurts i do not know. i have no idea what is going on with him. he has been very mellow and last night wanted on the bed at 2am and is still there now.

sometimes i really wish he could talk so he could tell me what is going on.

had a late night out so didn't get home to walk the dogs until nearly 11pm.
we decided we weren't going to take them anywhere, but would go around the block. trillian wanted to run so bohdan tried to keep up. poor big, out of shape dog was breathing hard. but he made it all but 5 houses when his hind legs started to give out and we went and got the car.

he moved quickly around the block and wanted to rest on two different peoples lawns, but the dogs in the houses were barking at him so i thought we should push on.

when we hit the corner i decided that we should stop and let him reat. so that was about 1/2 the way around. he was happy for the break. i think he was happy to have gone out.

again when his chariot showed up he happily got up on his own and got into the car, and then when we got to the house he manuvered to have me help him get out of the car.

we went in, he had his cookies, time in the yard, a pee some water, and a rest.
he panted for a good long while... which is somewhat alarming... but he is out of shape.

it really is enjoyable to go out on a walk with your dog when he is feeling well and wanting to enjoy himself.

tonight shari, trillian, bohdan and i headed to the beach at about 8:30.
bohdan got out of the car on his own. i opened the back of the car and told him to wait and he lay down and waited, then i was manuvering to help lift him out when he jumped out, and to top it all off, he didn't fall. he landed on all fours and kept on going. it was very exciting.

it was very dark but neither dog was going to let us skip tonights walking adventure.

shari took bohdan's leash and i took trillian. we walked the whole length of the esplanade with our bohdan stopping to rest.

the we made it back about 1/4 of the way before he decided he wanted to hangout in the flowers.

shari ran with trillian and i took a few turns doing the same. working with her so she learns to pay attention and listen when we change direction and tell her this way.

bohdan sat and watched, becoming stressed when i would run with trillian. then i went to get the car. he got up and followed with shari for a bit. i believe he realized that i was getting the car as he sat down and waited.

once i pulled up, he approached the car with shari from the passengers side. he walked around behind the car and came to the dirvers side. this is something he does all the time when i pick him up. for some reason he wants me to get out of the car and he wont walk in front of the car to greet me.

oh well, i put him in the car and we all went home.

when we got home shari brought trillian into the house and i started to do the usual pulling the blankets to get him out of the car. bohdan immediately got up and got into position to get out of the car on his own. i wouldn't let him. so i helped him out, and he went straight to the front door.

i am not sure why he didn't go in through the open garage door, but i opened the front door and he went in to get his cookies for being a good dog.

lastnight before going to bed i gave bohdan the homeopathic remedy, sepia 30c which the vet suggested i give him. to replace the other one. i am to give it once and see how he does over the next few weeks. possibly re-dosing if needed.

saturday was a no walk day. i had my hair done and we went to a bbq and took trillian. by the time we got home i was so dead tired that i slept and slept...

so sunday night bohdan was raring to go... it was mosquito time of night and i thought that after the experience we had at the beach with the little buggers we would go to the park. besides when he was asked where he wanted to go, the beach or the park, the park or the beach he seemed to get more eager when shari said park.

yeah pretty silly way to judge.

well we went to the park and had a blast, he did more walking less laying about and the time he took for rests was shorter. he handled the hills well both up and down and was very interesting in exploring.

it was a short time out, but we had a good one.

when we got home i went to let bohdan into the garage, and trillian was right there in his face trying to get out. a mild snarling ensued, i think it was because she was blocking his path but i am not sure.

friday night I got home a little later then expected and it was too late to go to the beach or the park, so i started out with bohdan on a walk around the block.

and shari was to join us with trillian shortly after. bohdan and i decided to head towards the 7-11 one of our more favored walks in the 'hood.

by the time we got to the 7-11 shari and trillian had caught up with us and we did a little exploring near the school.

i tried to get bohdan to go home, but he lay down and waited facing away from the direction to our house. shari said " you know if i walked across the street he would get up and keep walking, he isn't tired", this i knew and she crossed the street. before she even made a step into the street he was up and in stride with her.

he walked another long block and decided he had gone far enough, he was a the corner of manor and oceana.. shari and trillian went home and got the car and then came and picked us up. as soon as he realized it was his car, he got up and eagerly walked to the door. impatiend that shari didn't know how to unlock it and i wasn't opening it.

it was a pretty good walk.

bohdan and i have not been walking since last thursday, his back was bugging him and i thought we should take a break, besides i went out of town this weekend and i didn't think it would be a good idea for shari to take him when i wasn't around.

so today we resumed our walks along the grass area at the beach.
the sunset was beautiful, the sun was very red as it sank below the horizon, and the sky was full of pinks and purples. however as the sunset out came the mosquitos.

i didn't notice how bad they were until bohdan started snapping at them trying to catch them.

we were able to take our normal length walk, but i had to push him to get going at the end, cause i was being eaten alive.

oh and he did really well with strangers too. a man, woman and their child, on a scooter stopped no more than 5 feet from us and stood there staring at bohdan. i asked bohdan for his paw, and to watch me and gave him treats and treated him when he looked at them, and he did not growl once at them. it was really nice.

is he getting better? i can't tell. he did decide to growl at a boy and his mom playing catch on the grass, i told him "wrong" and "enough" and he settled down. however he quickly decided that he was not interested in sitting there and we should get on with our walk.

yesterday bohdan went to the vet, the chiropractor. his low back had gone out on friday and he had a very quiet weekend.

bohdan didn't growl at the chiroprator or the new vet tech once. at the end of the visit dr. szabo the chiropractor told me he had behaved the best she had ever seen. that made me happy. it is always nice to have other people notice that he has behaved well.

i know a normal dog wouldn't growl or bark or lunge at all, but my dog is not normal.

i have decided to stop the homeopathics until i can speak with the vet again.
there were changes in bohdan that i am not sure were what we were looking for. his body ordor increased, mostly around his feet, his ears are gunky and a mess, he is scratching his ears constantly and he seemed irritable. but that could have been related to his low back going out.

i have an appointment scheduled for the 8th.

i spoke with the homeopathic vet last week. i am trying to get bohdan's acne on his chin to go away, his itchy ears and paws, and his weak hind legs. somehow i think they are all connected. so he suggested i try sepia 6c, 3 times a day for 2-3 weeks.

so i found the remedy on sunday and started it sunday night.
i have not noticed too much of a change other then in his body ordor. it isn't a bad/foul smell it is just different.

today shari and i both didn't go to work. i wasn't feeling well and she was working from home. around 4pm shari decided she wanted to walk to the bakery and get cookies, since i didn't want to make any, and that we should take trillian. which meant that i needed to go as well. we walked the 3 blocks to the bakery and trillian and i waited outside.

as we were leaving bohdan started howling and crying about the injustices of not being able to go.

when i got home he let me know that it was his turn for a walk. i tried to ignore him, but he was having none of that. he grabbed a cd case off the floor and crushed it, he then grabbed something else off of the computer table and played tug-o-war with trillian until it was destroyed. if i moved off of the couch he was there, my shadow. if i made a move towards his leash he was dancing ahead.

so i decided it was time to take him to the beach or i would have no peace.

we had a great walk at the beach. we went the furthest we have gone with the lest amount of stops. he did try to eat something really gross, not sure what it was it stank and i didn't want to get too close. we talked to a woman there with her pitbull and he growled at her, i told him that was wrong and we kept talking, and he didn't budge.

at one point we were nearly half the way back to the car and he saw something that upset him, and he grabbed his leash in his mouth and marched very purposefully back to the car. off to our home we went.