The New and Much Improved Carlos!!

I may have mentioned a time or two (or ten), or if you've been to my house and witnessed it first hand, that Kringle Carlos came to us an unsocialized, running-away kind of dog.  After many weeks, several heated discussions about not chasing the cats and a couple of trips to Julie's house, I am happy, nay, ecstatic to share with you several tidbits of information.

1.  He no longer chases cats.  In fact, Hawk has taken to swatting and hissing at Carlos when he walks past Hawk.  Kind of like he's saying, "Don't get any ideas, buddy."

2.  I've taken Carlos off of the training collar and just let him roam around the yard on a long leash.  Every now and again I let him out without any sort of restraining devices but that makes me really nervous so I don't do it often.  He comes back when he's called and I praise him and feed him treats and bits of string cheese and liver sausage when we get in the house.

3.  He's become a well socialized canine citizen in good standing, both at the dog park and here at home.  Mere words cannot express how far this dog has come since he arrived here in January.  He is friendly with all of the dogs.  And the puppy, which he tried to eat upon Sid's arrival, has become Carlos' nearly favorite playtoy, in a good way. 

4.  He's not kennelled - ever.  At night, he sleeps with us, I think.  I know he starts out with us and he's there when I wake up. So, I guess he sleeps with us. 

5.  He's not a good leash walker.  He tends to pull a bit but that won't take long to fix and that's pretty easy compared to everything else he's overcome.

Furever Family, I know that you are out there. You're just not ready yet.  It's ok, he's not quite ready yet either.  I'm not promising that he'll be perfectly perfect at your house.  He'll have to learn your house rules from you, and that's ok.  He'll have to learn to stay in your yard and not chase your cats.  He'll have to learn that other boy dogs are good too and they are fun playmates.  But it will take a lot shorter time than it did here.

So, without further adieu, I give the socialized Carlos and his toy, Siddy.