Today I took Timber out to play in the snow for a bit. Once we were outside she began prancing around happily and rolling around in the snow. I sat down nearby to supervise while she played. Then I decided that this would be a good time to get her more comfortable with the harness, as she was still a bit wary of it being locked around herself. I grabbed the harness from nearby, trusting that Timber wouldn’t wander off. When I came back I noticed that there was a squirrel in the tree, I hadn’t really seen the, if any, hunting instincts Timber had, so this might be an interesting test. I walked over and called her name. She raced over at top speed and sprayed me with something snow. I laughed, before putting on the harness. Like usual she shook herself and squirmed a bit, so I decided to hopefully get her playing again. I began to dig in the snow a bit, and Timber happily copied me, in doing so getting some snow in my face! “Timber!” I had shouted with a laugh, and she looked up at me with her cute face and I couldn’t resist. I sighed, shaking my head and going a bit farther to supervise her activities. This is when the squirrel decided it was safe to come down and began digging in the snow, assumably looking for a nut it had buried. I saw Timber perking her ears at the scuffling noise, and immediately began to charge in that direction and bark. The squirrel froze in fear before racing back up into the tree, and Timber leapt onto her hind paws and began pawing on its bark while barking. I then quickly took action, jogging over and grabbing her harness, pulling on it. “No.” I sternly instructed, hoping she would listen. Timber looked at me with sad eyes and up into the branches of the tree where the squirrel had disappeared one more time, before reluctantly hopping down to receive some pets and a treat for listening. I took her inside after that, not forgetting to take off her harness. Hopefully I can train her not to be that reactive, or else that would be very disruptive during sledding. Anyways I think that was a good session with the harness, she seemed to be much more comfortable with it and I’m hoping she won’t struggle with it for much longer.
Musher - @Leafygreens133 (Recolored) Everything else by me - Please do not steal, trace, colorpick, heavily reference, or anything else that would qualify as a sort of taking/stealing from my work.
