What up, dog?

Duncan is refusing to go to the bathroom in his own yard. I have a theory about this. His urine is tainted with the smell of antibiotics. Maybe he doesn't like it, or maybe he views this as a sign of weakness and doesn't want to advertise that he is in a weakened state to the local rabbits, squirrel, and crows. If they knew, they might gang up on him and retaliate for chasing them out of his yard.

I know he can catch rabbits, I've seen him do it twice. I've never seen him catch a squirrel, but he's gotten close enough to panic them and me. I have no idea what his issue is with the crows. He chases them and barks at them. He knows about the birds that are nesting on the ground in his yard, but all he does is check the nests every day and leave them alone. That suggests that it isn't birds that he objects to, but specifically to crows. I found a very large chunk of his hair in the middle of the yard one day that could have been torn out of him by a crow. Maybe that explains it. Who knows.

The upshot of this is that I have to take him for a walk every three or four hours to get him to pee. He's got a quarter of an acre but won't use it.

I took him out this morning for a circuit around the 'hood. On the way home there was a yard full of kids. One of the girls saw Duncan and said, "Oh, look at the dog!" and they all started to come to Duncan. Duncan, of course, was very happy for the attention. All four of the kids were petting him and saying how cute and pretty and fluffy and happy he is. The smallest of them, a little boy maybe four or five years old, was at eye level with Duncan, a few inches away, running his hands down Duncan's face and jaw and saying what a nice dog he is. The oldest girl said that Colin, the little boy, had only touched one other dog in his life because he's afraid of dogs. As we walked away, I heard her running into the house, yelling to her mom that Colin had just petted a dog. Duncan seems to have this effect on people who are afraid of dogs. They just can't resist his cuteness.

A little further on along a trail outside of the neighborhood, he stopped to smell at something next to the trail. I wasn't paying much attention, but I did notice that he was very intently smelling whatever it was, not casually sniffing at it. He was taking very deep breaths and seemed a little tense. Then it hopped out from under his nose. It was a baby bird that didn't seem to be able to fly. It hopped fine, and its wings seemed fine, but it obviously couldn't fly. I couldn't catch it and I wouldn't have known what to do with it if I could have caught it. Chloe would probably have killed it. Duncan would probably have let it clean his teeth. It hopped off into some underbrush. Hopefully it will be OK, but I doubt I'll ever know for sure.