Introducing Another Walk Route

I took Singer on another walk that I routinely used, this one in my neighborhood. It runs about 25 minutes long, unless Saylor would tug to go a different way. She would get bored with the same routes sometimes, and then we would vary the walk. I wasn't too surprised to see Singer behave like Saylor used to when she was young--she tried to chase a squirrel up an old oak tree:

That is so "Irish setter" ! They all think they can climb big old trees and catch those squirrels! I just laughed when this happened and it brought back so many memories. She stopped when she saw another squirrel a little later in the walk and of course wanted to take off after it. But she is very responsive to my voice commands, and quickly abandoned the idea. She doesn't always sit or lie down when asked, though, so we will have to work on that. The next photo was when I stopped to get my camera out, she stopped too, and so this shot is when she was trying to turn around to see me:

I only got these two of her on our walk today because I was handling her poop bag and a camera. But she enjoyed herself and I loved seeing how similar she is to my young Saylor. We saw a few dogs on this walk and she seems less wary of them. Also, I took her to the vet's today, and she was so good. She was very calm, except she is so nosy and wanted to sniff all the food bags on the shelf and of course pushed off the small items on the floor. A little kid watched her and laughed as I tried to put them back on the shelf. Outside, there is a hair salon right next to the clinic and a hair stylist came rushing out without his coat, "What kind of dog is that? We all saw you walking by and thought what a beautiful dog!"  He apparently really wanted to know, so of course I told him.  

I put Singer in her crate when we got home because I had to run out to buy some groceries. She doesn't like to be crated, but that is what we will have to do until I'm absolutely sure there will be no chasing Dakota while we're not home. She has been very good around Dakota, who has a perennial annoyed look on his face when he sees her. He's probably thinking, "I thought we were done with bringing up a setter..." But overall, I'm very pleased with how the two of them are getting along. Singer knows Dakota is a pet and part of the family, like she is. She wants to be part of the family, I can tell, which is probably why she hates the crate. She is currently snoozing on the couch, her favorite place in the house so far because she can look out the bay window into the backyard, where bunnies sometimes dare to enter.