Stephanie's Boot Camp

Jammy sitting and smiling for Aunt Stephanie.

Jam has been spending his week at fellow puppy raiser Stephanie's house.  Or as she calls it, Aunt Stephanie's Boot Camp.  I secretly think that there may be some spa time in there as well as I got a text about some pool time, but I think Stephanie wants to keep up the tough front!

This is a sleepy Jam in Aunt Stephanie's car.  

Jam seems to be awfully relaxed on the commute in to work.  That's a good thing.  I would hope that he is being a good boy while at Aunt Stephanie's work.

Jammy sitting by Aunt Stephanie's dog statue.  Jam is now taller than the statue.  

He seems to be a little more perky once he gets to Aunt Stephanie's actual office as the photo above shows, but then, some serious naptime occurs.

Jam curled up in a deep sleep sans coat.

On Thursday, Jam and Aunt Stephanie participated in the Indy 500 parade.  You can tell they are simpatico because they both have the Jammy head tilt going on.  They are on the far right.  Stephanie is tilting to the left and Jam to the right.

Here is a shot of Jam at one of Stephanie's meetings.  He is fully asleep.  This was the day after the parade.

Here's a shot of Jam being helpful during a basket weaving class.  Hmmm.  Yeah.

Jam and Aunt Stephanie at Moccasin Lake Nature Park.

Jam ends his busy day like so many of his days, with a deep sleep.  Go Jammy, go!

Tomorrow's the last day of boot camp for Jammy and then he goes for a day to Aunt Carolyn.  But Santa Fe goodies will be coming for Stephanie and Carolyn as thank you presents for taking care of our little demon.  Keeping Aunt Stephanie happy is a good thing! And making sure you have a happy AC who helps you out in a pinch is also a good thing.  It's great to have such a supportive puppy raiser group.  And it helps to have a really cute puppy.  But then, aren't they all?

The Inspection

By Fred
While this week we on vacation in Sante Fe, walking around in sub-freezing temperatures and snow, Jam is having fun and relaxing with Stephanie. She sends us pictures, and we are reminded of how much we miss him and Willow, just after three days...

Jam has been improving steadily in all areas, in particular with his separation anxiety. We can now leave him alone without him making a fuss. Almost always. But he had a bad episode last week.

We've had some work around the house, and some inspectors were scheduled to come by on Thursday to give their blessing. I knew that I'd be outside with them for 10 or 15 minutes, so I put Jam in the crate with his peanut-butter infused Kong, something that has been working really well lately, but this time he would have none of it. Maybe Jam could sense my anxiety at the inspection. After all, we have this weird wire coming out of the fuse box--I could just imagine the inspectors making me re-wire the entire house. I get nervous about stuff like this.

Or maybe it was my body language. Maybe I was walking too fast, or maybe my voice had a scared-little-boy quiver to it. In any case, Jam knew something was not right, and he spit out the Kong and stared at me as I closed the crate door. Then, with incredibly bad timing, the door bell rang. Jam started doing his little dance. I walked away and said to him in a calm voice, "Be a good boy." He didn't cry, though, so I assumed he was OK.

About 10 minutes later, the inspection was over (we passed). I opened the kitchen door and there sat Jam waiting for me. In the next room I could see his crate, and the door was open and his precious yummy Kong was still there, untouched. Somehow he has learned how to open the door. Fortunately he can do it without hurting himself.

Coincidentally, Willow had a vet appointment later that afternoon. (She's fine.) Considering my options, I chose to take Jam along to see Dr. Woodman and discuss the crate episode. Dr. Woodman suggested that Jam must have picked up on my behavior and sensed that I was nervous. Looking back on it, I believe that's what happened.

Since Jam has been doing so well, since he has shown such improvement lately, and since he has been about 95% successful at staying in the crate, it is disappointing to have a setback and then to write about it (especially when the setback was my fault). But, as we've learned, the guide dog trainers need to know these details so they can be prepared to handle the dogs when they come in for training.

The process continues, and we continue to learn.

Public Displays of Affection

Tomorrow we leave for Santa Fe and a high of 34 degrees.  Mom and Dad are here to babysit Willow and Jam will be off with Stephanie for some puppy raiser loving.  We, however, will be dogless and, according to the weather channel, freezing our a**es off in the high desert.

It wasn't that cold the last two times we went.  Fortunately, we checked before we left.  However, this meant that we needed to go to Bill Jackson's to pick up some cold weather gear, because Fred and I are pretty much babies when it comes to cold weather. WE LIVE IN FLORIDA! How can we not be?  Honestly, it gets down to 79 and I get a chill.  

"Uh, why is it so cold?  Where is my sweater?"  Seriously thin blood, people.  So we load up the car with Jam and my mom and dad and head out.

Outside of Bill Jackson's store.

Bill Jackson's is full of everything you need if you are going into the wilderness.  We aren't, but we act as if we are.  (Babies, I tell you!)  But first as every good puppy raiser knows, before you go into any building, you give your puppy a chance to busy.

Fred and Jam walking in the parking lot. Looks like a wild place, doesn't it?

 Now the parking lot of Bill Jackson's is essentially wild Florida.  Or, how do I say it, palmetto bushes, scrub pines and who knows what else all hidden by a thick layer of fallen leaves.  The photo above shows Jam and Fred walking down one of the paths to busy.  Jam took a quick pee, but I saw the gopher butt.

"Fred, he has to poo. It's 10:30.  It's a 10 o'clock poo." I said.

"He hasn't done a 10 o'clock poo in ages."  Fred responded.  I was adamant. That WAS a gopher butt.  I was positive.  So doubting Thomas gave me the leash and Jam and I proceeded to walk the wild ways of the parking lot.  Nothing.

"Listen, buddy, I know you have to poo.  Just do it."  I am staring at his butt.  I did not mistake the signs.  Bill Jackson's is carpeted.  There is no way I am going in there with a potential poo inside Jam.  Jam is a poo circler, meaning he can't poo without twirling in a circle at least twice, if not three times.  He much prefers to poo in a hidden spot, surrounded by bushes.  That meant braving the palmettos.  He didn't much care for that.  We finally found the spot.  He twirled.  Success.

I was correct!

Jam lying on the floor looking up at me.  On his left is a box of socks.  On his right are some skis.

Once inside I started looking for a fleece and long underwear.  Jam walked along beside me with little interest in things until we got to the ski department.  Then, he really got interested.  For in the ski department was a box of socks.  Heaven in a box.  At first he acted like he didn't care and we walked right up to them.  It was his famous fake out.  At the last possible second, he whips his head around and jerks a sock out of the box.  

Success! He thinks.  

Oh no you didn't! I yank the sock out of his mouth and we immediately do a down stay in front of the box.

Looking down on Jam's head as he stares down the box of socks.

Then we walk away and come back.  I let him get close and try for a sock and get a correction. Once, twice.  Down stay.  Having an addiction is hard!  But he maintained the down stay.  Good boy.

Then we went looking for polar fleeces.  I took him with me to the sale room in the very back.  The way back.  Far away from anyone else back.

In this back room there are really low hanging racks of jackets and coats and pants, etc.  All the fancy ski and outdoor kinds of gear that you would expect Bill Jackson's to carry.  I even saw a jacket in there for $1200, marked down 50%.  Fancy stuff.  Fancy material that did amazing things.

The room was packed with sale clothes and the rows were pretty narrow.  So Jam and I went down the rows looking for jackets or sweaters or fleeces that would meet my budget (not $600) and needs (30 degrees) for a week long trip to Santa Fe.  I started to notice that Jam was hugging the clothing side of the row kind of close as we came out of one aisle.  We started down another.  Then as we turned around, I noticed a hunching.

OMG!!  Hunching!?  He just poo'd.  He doesn't have any more.  This is crazy.  Do I pick him up? Jam is rubbing his side against the slick jackets.  I go to pick him up and realize...

JAM IS EXCITED.

This is quite a different problem.  Now I look around and I am surrounded by slick, shining fabric that is suddenly very dangerous and seductive for my easily seduced little puppy.  I mean I did say the fabric did amazing things, but come on now!  

Oh Jammy!  What am I to do?  

I pull Jam into the center of the aisle where he can't touch any fabric and as no actual humping has occurred and we are in the way back and no one has seen anything I think we may get out of this with our dignity intact.  I pull in the leash.  

"Jam, forward!"  We march forward as fast as possible as through the room of sensuous fabrics and I turn Jam over to Fred.

"I can't shop with him."  I say.  Under my breath I add, "Too much PDA."

Jam looks longingly into the room we just vacated.  That will be his last visit to Bill Jackson's.  I hope it was a good memory.

Second Graders Rock!

Today, I got the most amazing thank you note from the second grade class where Jam, Jan and I went to talk the other day.  Here it is up on my office door:

Thank you letter with a large dog surrounded with bones.

 The message says:

Dear Mrs. McLean, Mrs. Connors and Jam, Thank you so much for coming to visit.  We loved learning about guide dogs! Love, (and then they signed their names)  They also all wrote one thing they learned from my talk on a bone that they placed around the picture of the dog on the card.  I took individual photos of each of their bones.  They are below.

Guide dogs can sit, stand and stay.

I learned that guide dogs can lead blind people.

Guide dogs are careful.

Guide dogs sometimes have to disobey.

I learned that they test their gait. (I'm really impressed she/he remembered this vocab word!)

Guide dogs help people.

Guide dogs can be silly some times. (Oh, how true!)

Guide dogs are smart.

Guide dogs get trained on the board walk. (This refers to our conversation on intelligent disobedience and one of the ways they do that is on a pier, which I think she/he mistook for a boardwalk.  Close enough, I say!)

I learned guide dogs get trained to save people.

Guide dogs go where ever there (sic) owner goes!

Jam is really funny. (I love this kid!)

When the guide dog does not make it, they go to the hospital and make them feel good!!!  (I think this refers to our conversation about career change dogs and what other things the dogs do if they aren't guide dogs.  She has a little heart drawn at the end of her sentence.)

Jam is very curious.

Guide dogs know how to stop people from going in the street.

Close up of message!

Close up of names.

I love Lower Division!!

Working Dogs

Today, there was a second grade class who was doing a unit on working dogs and whose teacher had asked me to bring Jam by as a special guest to close out the unit.  I said I would be glad to bring him by and could talk a little about Jam and about guide dogs in training as well.  So I prepared a little slide show. 

If you are interested, here it is:

Of course, all you will see are my little photos as I generally use photos and then talk to back up the photos.  So, the presentation starts off about Jam and how he will grow into his harness and then progresses into Jam in the Santa hat, which leads into a discussion on obedience commands.  (Odd, I know, but he is in a down stay.) Then, we go into the more specialized commands of checking out books...haha, just kidding.  They loved that. 8-) But moving on, I then talked about some odd facts such as the weirdest puppy name is Oko, which is Polish for eye and that there are 200 puppy raisers in 7 states in the southeast.  Then I asked them if they had seen Harry Potter or had it read to them (they are in 2nd grade) and most had seen it.  I introduced them to Jam's friend Hermione, who is also HP's friend in the books/movies, which led into a discussion of the coat and what to do when you see someone with the coat on.  Then we started talking about the certified trainers and what Jam will do when he leaves me. I explained about matching a puppy with a visually impaired person.  That the trainers look for temperament (personality) and gait (speed).  I also explained that Jam has a fast gait and he isn't very cuddly.  Then we got into a very cool discussion about intelligent disobedience.  That was fun.  And we ended it all with a fun video of Jam being a goofball.  That in essence was my talk.

Along with 50 million questions from the 2nd graders.  What could be better than that? No problems, right? Easy, peasy.  Did I mention that 30 minutes before my talk was to begin the power went out to the entire school?

Oh, and the Headmaster was invited to the talk.  And he accepted.

Oh, and did I mention that awesome software the runs that cool presentation you see above lives in the cloud.  The really wonderful cloud that when the power is cut to your school and your wi-fi is cut off means YOU CAN'T ACCESS YOUR PRESENTATION!

AND 15 LITTLE KIDS ARE WAITING FOR YOU.

AND THE HEADMASTER IS GOING TO BE THERE.

Yea.  Did I mention that?

No pressure.  I'll just redo it.  I have 15 minutes.  I can do that.

I have 10 minutes.  I can finish it.

Done.  From memory!  A brand new power point presentation minus the cool photo of the dangers above photo (not on my hard drive) recreated from memory in 10 minutes.  On a Monday morning on the day after daylight savings change weekend.  Someone give me a hoo-rah!

The presentation went really well and Jan took some great photos.  Below is a really cute one of me and Jam.

I also heard lots about the Iditarod, which they also studied.

All in all it was a very fun time, even if I was slightly panicked at the beginning.  Jam would have preferred a bit more opportunity to lick some faces, I think.

Classes, Classes and More Classes

A day in the life of Jam.  January and February are my busiest class days in the library.  There are Chemistry research videos, World History research papers, Health glogs to research, and US History and Government classes to help with there papers as well.  All in all it is a busy two months for us in the library and means traveling to classrooms to teach, giving classes in the library, lots of grading works cited pages or annotated works cited.  But it's all good, because the goal is to teach students how to be savvy web users.

If it is a Jam day, he will come with me to class.  

Jam lying down looking up at me as I set up my computer for class.

 Usually, he is pretty interested in anything I have to do on the screen.  If there is a mouse involved, he will follow the mouse on the screen, which the kids find amusing.

Jam is sitting in front of the screen where a presentation is set to begin.

 Most of the time, though, Jam is not thoroughly impressed with my lectures.

Jam lying down and considering his kong.

 So he will think about playing with his kong.  Usually though, he takes another route.

Jam completely zonked out.

 He sleeps through my classes.

Jam and Christina in front of the reference books.

 Sometimes we have classes in the library because the kids will need actual books.  Amazing!  Or, they might need to make a copy of something.  Sometimes, the teacher just wants to get out of the classroom. 8-)

Jam at lunch with his friend, English teacher Caroline with her new baby Maggie.

 At lunch we usually go outside to the arboretum and eat, so I can take his coat off and let him relax.  Then we can practice his being calm and greeting people with a sit.  Here he is greeting Caroline's newborn.  Doing it this way is good for Jam because it gets him used to the area and he calms down pretty quickly.  His main problem is being to amped up to greet people.  So keeping him calm is key.  By having him know his surrounding, being calm, walking around and sniffing, when someone comes up and asks, he almost doesn't even realize what is going on.  Then I can get him in a down stay for petting.  It's when we are someplace else and the request comes and he is out of coat that I can't get him calm.  There is no time for him to calm down.

Trainer Jen Gerrity has given us some new techniques of walking away from the person and then back again to show him that we won't just let him act out with the person.  That he does need to calm down. We tried that with one person so far and it seemed to help quite a bit.  We will continue to use this new technique and see how it goes.

Maty and I are standing behind a sitting Jam in the library during the fashion show.

 Sometimes at lunch there are special events going on, such as the Style Club's fashion show.  Maty and I are the sponsor for the Style Club.  As you can see, Maty is much more stylish than I.  I mainly provide moral support!

Jam with Chemistry teacher Karene.

Sometimes I test Jam's separation anxiety by making him sit in the back of the classroom.  I did this with the chemistry classes.  He didn't like it very much.

Jam, in the car, is a tired pup!

By the end of the day, we are both tuckered out.  He has climbed stairs, walked hallways, managed doors, the switch command, sits, stays, downs, forwards, left left, right right, avoided food, greeted people, napped, been silly.

Time to go home.

He Knows What He Wants

You would think that after having us over for dessert and letting us talk Ken into unconsciousness, that Ken and Linda would forgo having us over for a full-blown meal.  But they are made of sterner stuff than that (and I think Ken had a nap that afternoon!).

Below is a photo of Greg preparing a salad dressing, but the photo contains a lovely shot of Ken's homemade foccacia appetizer!

Greg in the kitchen making dressing.

Many of you may remember that Jam is a bit stubborn.  You might recall that on our ride home from Southeastern Guide Dogs on the first day, Jam tried for 55 minutes to sit on the seat with Fred.  It was only during the last five minutes of the ride that he finally settle in for a nap.  Sigh.  He is a supremely stubborn boy.  We are STILL working on his sock addiction, which has turned into a full blown cloth addiction.  Although now, we have gotten him to release the offending cloth item, which he never did before.  I consider this progress.  Remember, baby steps and consistency.

So, it was with those two thoughts in mind that we realized we had the perfect exposure for Jam this evening: trash can surfing.   Take a look at the next photo and look for the trash can.

Fred and I are at the breakfast table with Jam lying down at my feet. The trash can is at the lower right of the photo.

Yeah, you think that leash is tight, but it isn't.  Jam has just enough room to lunge for the trash can over to the right of the frame.  Ken has been peeling and cutting and putting lovely, stinky things in there all night. When we first rounded the corner, Jam caught me off guard and lunged and got a wad of paper towels soaked in pork juice.  YUM!  Which I then had to dig out of his mouth.

Sigh.

So, we set up the exposure.  I would sit with the loose leash and Jam would watch Ken peel something and toss it into the trash.  Then Jam would go for it.  I would correct him and he would stop.  Then Ken would peel some more.  This happened about every 2 minutes.

For the next 30 minutes. 

Sometimes Ken would walk away and Jam would just lunge to see what was in there that perhaps he had missed.  Honestly, MR. HARDHEAD!  You weren't allowed to see inside that trashcan the last 29 times.  Do you think you are going to see inside now?

Dinner was a salad with pecans, pears and a light vinaigrette, a lovely pork tenderloin with roasted veggies and potatoes and Fred made a rice pudding.  Mmmmmm!

Jam, finally relaxing, after a hard night of trash surfing. Linda is in the background.

 Did I mention what nice friends we have?  We are truly lucky to have such a lovely circle of friends to help us raise our puppy.

Tuesdays and Thursdays

We attended the annual puppy dinner last week, and the speakers made repeated references to the hard work and sacrifice of the puppy raisers. I was tempted to take all of it to heart and adopt a better opinion of myself, except that experience tells me otherwise. In truth, the dogs give us more than we give them. The net gain is on our side, so it can't be called a sacrifice. Raising snakes would be a sacrifice.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are my days with Jam. Today we went for a big walk, watched some men cut down a tree, had lunch on the patio of a nearby sandwich place, and then did some obedience training when Jam became overly interested in a plastic bag that fluttered by in the breeze. Now he's taking a nap at my feet.

Because I work at home at what can be a stressful job, these little things are big for me. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I can be a teacher and Jam can be my little boy for the day.

Am I a better person for doing this?

No, but I feel better.

Walking the Walk...Sort of

Walkathon 2012.  It was time.  We had a plan in place.  We were going to have breakfast over at Melisa's and then go to St. Pete in plenty of time.  Well, that was the plan.

This basket has lots of my cinnamon scones in it.

We had a lovely breakfast.  We got to Melisa's on time.  At 8 am.  I even got up early to make scones. How efficient is that?  Willow and Jam and Duke and Erik were all playing well.  Especially Jam and Erik.  They were super buddies.  Let's just say that Erik, who is just coming upon the six month mark and thinking about having some nuggets, got to thinking about what it means to be a man from Jam.  Because as we all know, Jam is a player (at least in Jam's head he is a player!). 

Anyway, they all proceed to tire themselves out.  We have a nice relaxed breakfast.  Then 9 arrives.  Criminey!  How did time go so fast?  We jump into our cars and fly down to the walkathon and park on one of the side streets and walk in.  Our North group is somewhere near the food trucks, but we don't know where those are.  There is a huge crush of people and dogs.  Jam is super excited about all of this, trying to jump, panting, trying to lunge, so keeping him under control is a full time job.  

At the beginning of the walkathon.  Jam is super excited.  Fred and Stephanie are on either side of him.

This is Mary and Hermione! They recognized Jam and said hello!

We finally find kettle korn, which is a food product, but we don't find our group.  We are late and they started without us.  Stephanie finds us though and walks with us.  At the kettle korn place I meet Mary and her husband and their puppy Hermione.  They were there by themselves and I asked them to join us, but the walkathon really isn't a place where you can walk in a group.  People were stopping to say hello, I slowed to put on the walkathon t-shirt, and we were looking around for others in our group, so we ended up being too slow and lost Mary, her husband and Hermione.  But they were very nice and Jam and Fred and I enjoyed meeting the three of them.

Karen says hi to former puppy Duke as Melisa chats with Tampa AC Jan.

 On the way to registration Jam had been panting quite a bit.  Well, by the time we had gotten a couple hundred yards into the walk, Jam threw up his breakfast in the grass by the curve.

Some player.  Some might call it performance anxiety.

Overexcited, overheated and overstressed, Jammy needed to sit out the walkathon.  Evidently Jammy was more like his puppy raiser mommy than we knew.  I missed so many field trips in grade school because I would get so excited about them I would make myself sick.  So sick I couldn't go on the field trip.  Twisted, I know.

So, we poured cold water on Jammy's head (but not in his mouth as really cold water can make them throw up and not do any good) and most of his body.  Then we filled a bowl with room temp water for him to drink, which he did.  From our grassy venue, we watched the walkathon pass us by and we waved hello to people we knew and Jam relaxed and cooled down.  Willow gave him a little bit of the stink eye as it was her first walkathon and she really wanted to walk it and Jam's overexcitedness was an amateur move.

Kathy Hysmith and Spirit stopped by to say hello. Jam's profile is just off to the left.

Fred is standing with Willow on his left, Stephanie is in the center and John has Angel on his left.  John stopped by to say hello.

Erik, a yellow goldadore, meets Spirit a black labrador.

Duke, a yellow lab, is now an ambassador dog.

 We waited for about 45 minutes in the cool shade with a lovely, cool breeze blowing in off the bay.  It was delightful.  Then we decided to cut over to the finish line, since Jam obviously couldn't walk the full route.  He seemed back up to full steam, but better to be cautious.

Rick and his son Samuel are walking their puppy Eckerd, a yellow lab.  Stephanie is behind them with Jam.

 We met up with the Eckerd crew and walked it in with them.

Fred is walking Willow beside Kerry and her daughter.

Stephanie and Jam are approaching the finish line.

 There we met up with some old friends of ours, Joey's puppy raiser, Dave who now has Mick who went in for training Saturday afternoon.  Dave said that Joey had finally been matched!  Congratulations to Dave and his family!!!

Dave and his Mick are here for one last walkathon before going IFT that afternoon.  Dave's previous pup just got matched!

 We also caught up with friends Larry and Gabrielle with Trapper and Trudy with Legion.

Going round the circle, Rick and Eckerd, Gabrielle, Fred and Willow, Trudy and Larry and Trapper.

 And of course, there was Petey, St. Pete's first puppy, who was so adorable!  He has a HUGE fan club.

Dave and Petey talking for the cameras.

Petey meeting his puppy peeps.

Jam playing hard to impress with Petey.  He was just jealous.  People used to think he was the cutest in the room! 8-)

 After the walkathon a bunch of us went over to The Hangar for lunch.  We ended up outside where Jam was actually fascinated by the planes taking off and landing.  The Hangar is very guide dog puppy friendly and their food is tasty.

Jam peering out the railings to watch the planes take off.

Finally bored with the planes, Jam crashes.

A helicopter landed during lunch.  It would be a great exposure for your pup.

Jam and I in our dinner finery.  Jam really didn't want to sit still.  He was a major pain.  

Elizabeth and Kelly are from the Georgia group and are friends with Julie who has Massena, Jam's brother.  

 The dinner was great fun.  Not only was it great to get dressed up, which is something I love to do, but it was fun to see everyone and get to put some names to faces and meet online friends in person.

Sign saying no food or beverages beyond this point.  Melisa thought it should also say no poo what with all the little puppies at the dinner.

 We did go into the Egyptian exhibit.  I was a bit disappointed in it.  Mostly it was alabaster jars and some statuary.  I was hoping for some jewelry or gold.  It was also a bit frightening to be honest.  There were lots of plinths with big vases of alabaster on them and I could see Jam getting excited about one of the girls or revved up by one of the boys and doing a little jump. A jump into the plinth.  Or a jump that knocked Fred into the plinth.  Or Fred into someone else, who ran into the plinth, resulting in a long pronounced scream of horror.  Then everyone, as if getting the same text at the same time, all turning to look at me, as if to say, "Why?"

I made a hurried round through the exhibit and then left and crammed my face full of canapes, listening for the faint sounds of screaming and breaking glass.  Fortunately, I never heard them.

Fred got to meet some of our friends from Houston, but unfortunately, I didn't find them before dinner started, so I didn't get to talk with them.  Next year! We did get to talk with trainer Jennifer, who was looking very lovely in her dinner finery.  We are still crossing our fingers that she will find some time to run a training class.

Jam, peering up from under the table at dinner.  Just getting a read on the evening.

 Jam was lovely through dinner. He did try some player moves on Essie, who had just come out of the red tent.  But Essie is made of stronger stuff and she just smiled and sent him on his way.

Chilling under the chair during dinner.

 So he chilled.

Until we started to leave the Museum of Fine Arts.  We were on our way out and all was well.  No alabaster vases shattered.  No accidents of any kind (and believe you me, there were accidents all over the place!) from the boy.  When we happened to get behind an intact male black lab about Jam's size.  All of a sudden, ZING!  The fox tail is in full curve.  It is puffed out to the max.  Every individual hair is standing at attention and Jam is literally trying to walk on two legs to get to this male.

Fred has him. He gives a correction. Nothing.  Correction. Nothing.  We stop and wait.  Jam sees the male getting further away and in his best gangsta howl cries out into the night.

One single, solitary, ear piercing bark.

We slink out the door.