More Museums

This week brought a special visitor: Grandpa! It was a great excuse for the whole family to get out and enjoy ourselves a bit. We spent a day visiting the Texas Natural Science Center at UT.


A whole museum full of bones...for a dog, what's not to like? We all had a good time. I like this picture of Dakota and the dinosaur bone.

"Why don't they come this size at Petco?"

Outside, there were even seats made in the shape of dinosaur vertebrae. Duckie & I thought that was funny!

Big sabertooth kitty only looks fierce...we're not scared!

...And back at home, we're playing a lot of scent-related games for Dakota's diabetic alert training. They're so much fun for him, though, I've never quite broken it to him that this is actually "work"! In one of our games, I secretly hide a scent sample somewhere on my person while someone else distracts Dakota by playing with him outside or in another room. When he returns, he has to first of all notice the scent without a command from anyone; then alert me appropriately. Today I've hidden it in my pocket. He's supposed to alert by jumping up and placing his front feet on me (something he is not allowed to do under other circumstances!)

Making progress! This is a big job, Dakota's far from done, and there's lots for him to learn...but I think he's come a long way in a short time. He has definitely gotten wise to my sneaky ways of hiding scent samples while he's gone and now he's gotten suspicious...he'll usually come "check" me as soon as he comes in the room to make sure he didn't miss anything. Of course, I'm sure that's exactly what his new owner would want him to do, so maybe that's a good thing!