Last Tuesday, Don's parents came to the lake for a few days. Brutus thought this was amazing, and suddenly decided he was a poodle. He hasn't been one to jump in our laps, or lay on the sofas for a really long time. Probably not since the second week that he joined our family, but when Grandma and Grandpa arrived, he suddenly became a seventy-five pound lap dog. Thankfully no one was injured in the process! It started on Tuesday night when we were downstairs watching a movie. Let me preface this with the fact that Brutus does not like to hang out downstairs in the family room, and that's where we were watching the movie. He came bolting down the stairs, and first he jumped up on Grandpa's lap and gave him a nuzzle. He didn't stay there too long, and jumped back down. I figured his couch jumping was over, and all of a sudden, boom, he was on top of Grandma Marge. If you stretch him from toe to toe, I'm sure he is as tall as she is, and it came as quite a surprise to her since she had finally gotten to put her feet up to relax after a long trip from Illinois. I think he might have actually planted a kiss on her before being told to "get down". I will admit that I didn't scold him very loud. I was shocked that he did it in the first place, and frankly, it was kind of cute, if you throw in the disclaimer that I really didn't want her to get hurt!! In other words, Brutus would NOT be making a habit of this. Then he came over to me and laid himself on my body and decided to stay put for a while. He was so happy to have company. I truly think that I bore him to death, and my treats aren't nearly as good as the ones that Grandpa "sneaks" him. lol
On Thursday, Nick flew in from Columbus, and as soon as he landed in Minneapolis, he and Don headed for the lake. When they got here, Brutus was so over the moon that he couldn't even control himself. He can literally jump five feet in the air. Not sure how he pulls that one off, but it is amazing. Sometime I'm going to get a hold of a video camera to prove that I'm not lying. You'd think that he had little springs in his ankles.
I spent Friday in Eau Claire with my mom, so Brutus got to play with everyone else, and apparently had fun. Don worked a lot more with him on being off of his leash this weekend, without the tone collar, and he's getting so much better. I put the tone collar on him on Saturday when my mom and Carsten got here, and he just melted to the ground. It was almost as if he was saying "I get it already". BUT, about the time that I would trust him when I was here alone, we'd have another duck incident and I'd find him across the lake, or a chipmunk would go tearing across the road. I think I need a few more weekends of double parenting to reinforce the whole "come" or "heel" or whatever command he'll absolutely listen to. I have been finding that "no" actually works pretty well too. There were nine people total here on Saturday, and I'm very happy to say that Brutus did great. He loved everyone, didn't take any of the food off of the counter or table and didn't seem to get stressed out from all of the activity. We are all his family, so that helped too.
Today everyone is gone, and Brutus is back to being a little bored (I'm sure) and sitting in the garage watching the rain and chipmunks go by. He's on a lean hamburger and rice diet for a couple days to get his digestive system working normally again, because I wouldn't want to miss out on picking up poop, and I am in recovery mode too. In the process of picking a bazillion ticks off of my boy, one of those little buggers with lymes bit me and gave me the bug, so now it's recovery time. A couple days of sleep, and I will be as good as new. It was a great week and weekend. Thank you to everyone for coming to visit!! : )
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