Rough Day, Handled with Courage

Ginny and I loaded Binder in the back of my Integra yesterday evening. Not exactly riding in comfort, but he handled it pretty well. He's had a lot of changes over the last few days, and had to have been wondering what this one was all about. Every once in a while he'd whine a little, then lay down quietly. It's a long ride from Acworth to Douglasville.

When we arrived home I muzzled Binder and turned him out in the back yard before going inside to get Sara and Grayson. During the few minutes it took me to do this, Binder began whimpering outside, and Sara and Grayson's ears perked up at the sound. They were so excited when they saw it was another Greyhound, and followed me down the steps of the deck as fast as I'd allow.

They greeted one another with all the appropriate sniffing, and everyone was polite and not pushy. We spent about 30 minutes in the yard getting to know one another before heading inside to feed Sara and Grayson (Binder had eaten at the kennel). I didn't want to have Binder try climbing the deck steps - he'd had enough new experiences for the day.

I didn't even think that Binder might not know what inside, carpeted stairs were all about. He struggled a little bit going up, so I called Grayson down and told him to show Binder how to go upstairs. Remarkably, it worked. Later, going down proved a little trickier.

After feeding Sara and Grayson I leashed all three dogs for a walk. Binder initially froze at the top of the stairs, then began to come down. He was a little shaky and a few steps down decided it would be best to go back up and start over. Unfortunately, he wound up with the leash wrapped around one leg and started to panic. Sara ran back up the stairs and stood next to Binder, the lengths of their bodies touching, and he immediately stopped yelping so I could disentangle him. I was amazed first because she can be such an unsociable grouch when it comes to new dogs, and second because Binder instantly calmed.

He was obviously excited about going for a walk, and though he was pretty shaky going down the stairs, he negotiated them fairly quickly and we were outside. Yeah! He is such a polite dog, walking well, not pulling or trying to get out front. For a while, he and Grayson walked side by side, the lengths of their bodies touching. It's great that, with Binder, it's very little additional work to walk three dogs, because it's good for all of us.