One step at a time

OK, taking all your wise counsel into consideration, we gave it another, lower-stakes go.

Doug brought the ramp into the house on Monday morning, and we laid it out in the front hallway, where our Christmas tree will soon go. Our goal was to get Boscoe a little more comfortable with the flattened-out ramp before we try to elevate it.

I filled my fist with Charlee Bears and every time Boscoe put his front paws on the ramp (usually coming at it from the side), he got a high squealy Good boy!!! Good boy! and an incredibly delicious Charlee Bear. It went pretty well. Five or six tries, and then we quit. Let him think about it.

On Monday night after work, we tried again, and this went even better. He walked the length of it more than once.


Riley sat by watching cryptically, and occasionally offering up a quiet "Woof!" which clearly meant, "I'm here and I like Charlee Bears, too!"

So I think we'll get there. Thanks for your help! Boscoe is awfully lucky to have people all over the world rooting for him. 

Boscoe has never been a very brave dog, and he has never been interested in doing anything that involves not having all four paws on solid ground. Unlike Riley, who aspires to the treetops, Boscoe likes to stay on terra firma.

I remember the first time we took him across a bridge--it was at Jay Cooke Park outside of Duluth, and we took him and Toby across the swinging suspension bridge that spans the St. Louis River. Toby didn't love the bridge, but he scampered across briskly, all business.

Boscoe flattened out.

It was very hard to get him to budge. He finally managed to crawl across, his belly dragging against the bridge deck, sort of like a soldier who's keeping low to avoid sniper fire.

Boscoe also does not do well with lakeside docks, elevators, or stairs--he basically doens't care for anything that suggests a change in elevation. Doug notes that that's probably why he doesn't like being picked up.

So once we get him used to walking across the flattened ramp, we'll have new and bigger challenges ahead, as we raise the slope of it. But that's getting ahead of ourselves.

For now, he's doing very nicely, one step at a time.

No hurry.
(Jay Cooke bridge photo from Google.)