Five months of dog

A beagle and a basset hound live next door to us, and, as hounds do, they like to bay. We're used to hearing them. I've thought more than once that Mungo might have fun running around with them if we were friendlier with our neighbors (not that there's any trouble, we simply don't interact much). Well, this evening I took Mungo out for a rare evening walk, and as we were coming home, my hands full with leash, three days' worth of mail, and a package, we met my neighbor coming out his front door with his two hounds. They barked. Mungo retreated, tail tucked. He continued to avoid the hounds to the extent the leash permitted and did not respond positively to their advances for the whole three or four minutes I spent chatting with their owner. Oh well, so much for that idea.

I was a little surprised, because usually when we're out walking and he sees a dog, he pulls toward it. However, if he actually gets close enough to meet the other dog, and it greets him excitedly and enthusiastically, he usually withdraws a bit. Yesterday I brought him with me to the house of a friend who has two dogs. He was scared to meet them, but after five minutes running loose in the back yard together, he looked much happier, and he seemed to enjoy the afternoon of playing as much as I did talking with my friend. I know more socialization with both other dogs and people would be good for him.

We're hanging on to our sit/down/stand/stay/come training, just barely. Between aristeros and myself, we generally practice with the dog once on most days. He comes in from outside more readily to aristeros than to me, now, even though I was the one who took him to class. I've been lax.

We were tipped off to a cheap chew toy: the crushed water bottle. At first, Mungo paid little attention to a crushed Aquafina bottle unless it had food in it. The first evening we gave him a bottle with a piece of cooked chicken inside, he chewed on it for hours; we let him keep it overnight. The bottle was utterly mangled, and the chicken was mashed to a pulp. Now he's had enough fun with bottles that he went after the empty one I had set on the window sill to use for watering my plants. Aquafina bottles, with their ecologically-friendly, reduced-plastic design, do run the risk of being torn open, although I don't think he's quite managed it yet &mdash it just looks as if he might. Gatorade bottles are sturdier.