I took Lucky out for a walk tonight.
Usually the most unpredictable thing he does is pick a random spot to poop. When we first got him, he pretty much stuck to a ten square foot patch of grass. Now he likes to mix it up. I'm not upset, he's acting a bit more like a dog.
I've discovered that he gets nervous around brightly colored objects. We had a moment a couple of months ago where he tried to run from some balloons tied to a post in the apartment complex. Once the balloons went away he was fine. The reason I've come to the conclusion about most brightly colored objects was a moment tonight that surprised me.
We were walking along the sidewalk on the east side of the complex after dark and he stopped and stared straight ahead. He usually does that if he spots a person or another dog and evaluates the situation. The evaluation either results in wanting to encounter whomever or whatever it is, or start backing up or zig zagging away.
There was nothing I could see that could have caused him to stop. There was no one or no animal ahead. But, there were a few bright orange warning cones that said "Cox" on them that were placed over a pile of dirt. Someone from the cable company had been digging.
I had to coax him along to continue the route along the sidewalk. He moved up against me when we went by them and then tried to run. I had a good grip on the leash so that stopped him. I made him stay for a minute to try and help him realize they weren't harmful. But, its a challenge sometimes to convince him that the things he's scared of aren't as bad as he thinks they are.
It's pretty clear that he had a bad experience with some sort of brightly colored objects before he came to live with us. The good news for Lucky is that I don't dress like Richard Simmons so he feels relatively safe around me.
