Takin' a chance on Buddy

It says in his profile from his owner that he can be left loose in the house, so I'm trying it this morning. Will know about 12:15 if it was a good choice. KJ is in Winona for a few days during his spring break. Woodson and Brett are kenneled up, so if any damage is done, I will know it's Buddy. I closed all doors upstairs, left the gate into the basement open so he won't feel alone and put all shoes into closets.

If all goes well, I'll let him stay loose until/if he does something.

Food

Buddy hadn't eaten much at all. I was feeding him in the garage, in order to give him some privacy. I often do this with fosters because I don't know how they will be around my dogs at feeding time. Last night I put some water in his food and brought it into my bedroom, shut the door and he ate. So this morning, I feed Brett and Woodson in their usual spot in the entryway, then fed Buddy in my room again and he gobbled it up.

Bathroom

No accidents in the house. And no pooping in two days. I've been putting him on the cable and sending him out with one of my dogs and he'll pee. I've been trying to walk him a bit but he hasn't wanted to pee on a snowbank and it's icy. He doesn't pull on the leash at all, in fact he kind of walks around me a lot, so we need more training with that. It's hard now because we have a lot of snow and it's really icy still. Late last night I put him on the cable and left him out there by himself while I watched from the window. He eventually went off the step and pooped. Yay!

 Trip to Petco
We went and got him a new collar. Brought all three dogs into Petco. KJ took Bett and Woodson and I dealt with Buddy, who is pretty shy in new situations. The collar Buddy had was as big as it could get and I felt was rather tight. Good for not slipping out of, but I didn't feel it could have been very comfortable. Got him a martingale which is a really good collar for a collie. I won't worry about him slipping it when he's on the tie-out. The collar is like a choke collar, but it only closes up so far and releases better.

Play

Buddy and Woodson are playing a lot. Brett is so rough when he plays. He's a charger and Woodson is used to it, but I really think he enjoys having another collie to play with. They don't seem to get as rough. A lot of it is laying down face to face and just grabbing at legs and ears, etc., huffing and gruffing.

Sunday night, KJ proclaimed that if we didn't have two dogs already, he would want to keep Buddy. This speaks to how sweet the dog is. KJ doesn't like it when the foster is a lot of work!