Muscle bound dog leaps tall structures

Hershey is turning out to be an all-round athlete! In the last few days, I have noticed that her legs are getting much more muscular! Whenever I bring her back into the house after she's been to the bathroom (or if the grass is wet or it's raining), I wipe her down with a towel to make sure her feet and legs are dry. Recently her legs have gone from scrawny little bones and fur to pumped-up muscle-bound legs! It must be all the running around we've been doing; I'm shocked to see the difference in only a month and a half - her old owner must not have run her outside at all. Poor dog!

Hershey's also been working hard at learning new tricks. We've put up a saw horse in the backyard and she's been learning how to jump over it and scoot under it too. Another trick we've almost perfected is to speak on command. Hershey is so funny though, when we first say "Speak!" she tends to try to bark but no sound will come out - she's so quiet normally her lungs aren't full and ready to let a good bark out!

In other news, Chris got back from Japan safe and sound. Hershey was SO excited to see him. He brought back a string of "sausages" (4 reddish plastic links - each with a different smiley face, strung together with knotted cotton rope). Hershey's already gone right through the rope but we'll be able to replace it easily.

Also, the shedding is almost done - it's just her back end that has some undercoat left. She has been much more patient with us trying to comb her out. She feels so much smoother where it's just the long hair-like fur left; she looks much smaller too.

With Chris and I both home now, we have more time to work with the dog as we can split the chores and other things to do. We'll be working at other tricks (roll over, crawl, beg and perfect that "over" and "under" trick too) and maybe taking Hershey camping if the weather permits.