Gold Medal Performance!

My granddaughter (Alex) and her boyfriend are over here from Vancouver for a brief vacation and to visit various family members and, of course, we wanted some time with them as well. This situation always dictates a discussion about how Ray is going to fit in with whatever we do and, in this case had some distinctly unique factors.

Ray has never met either of them before, but they are both comfortable around dogs in general. We were going to offer to drive them to their next scheduled stop, but that would entail a 2 hour drive with Carol and one visitor plus Ray in the back of the car! How was he going to react? There was a last minute complication because my other granddaughter (Caleigh) was going to be visiting as well!

With our usual “how to work with Ray” info session, everything seemed fine. They ensured that they allowed Ray to approach them, rather than risk getting a reaction by approaching him. With our later 2 hour drive in mind, we decided to take a short drive around town with Carol, Alex and Ray in the back so we could get an idea as to whether it was even going to be feasible. Again, no problems as Ray just got himself comfortable between them and appeared to enjoy the ride.

During the course of their visit, Ray in fact started making friendly advances towards Alex with some nudges, nose touches and an occasional lick. When Caleigh arrived, again, he seemed quite receptive to letting her into his home after he had checked her out!

We all went out to lunch and on the way back …………………………

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Yup! Ray was quite happy to have Alex on the other end of his leash!

After we said our farewells to Caleigh, we prepared for the 2 hour drive. As soon as Ray realized that not only did he not know where we were going, but it was going to be a long drive, he settled down somewhat jammed between Carol and Alex. Ray, being Ray, eventually resolved the space restrictions by stretching out over both of them. He even allowed Alex to stroke him!

In the short time that we were together, Ray really did seem to readily accept Alex as a friend. This is going to be difficult for her to explain to her Mum when she gets back to Vancouver because her Mum is Melanie, who had a distinct collision with Ray in 2013 (Chapter 8 – A Visitor, in his book “Who said I was up for Adoption?”)

A wonderful time was had by all, including Ray who behaved admirably, He deserves a Gold medal for that performance!

32 thoughts on “Gold Medal Performance!”

  3. Ray definitely does deserve a gold medal! That is awesome that he took so well to Alex and everyone. More treats for him and pat yourselves on the back as well for your hard work and persistence in training him. It is obvious that he feels secure in his loving home and is learning how to trust others!

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    • He really has come a long way Samantha and, as I have said many times, all the work that we have put into him would be worth nothing if he had not cooperated. We are very proud of him, and it is lovely to see him accept displays of affection from others.

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