We need to figure out walking before Angus gets much bigger

Before the evening walk.

 They look so sedate, don't they? Almost bored. Time to walk. Whatever.

Hmph. As they say, looks are deceiving. Yesterday morning I had to sacrifice my puffy blue mitten to Angus in order to keep the walk from turning into a brawl. He always starts out relatively okay, but about a block from home the chaos starts. He grabbed Rosie's leash and tugged, he grabbed his own leash and tugged harder, he got behind me and tripped me up, he ran up in the snowbank, he lunged straight at Rosie's head. (And she turned and corrected him. That is, growled. So he did it again.)

Much of this was on ice, and all of it was on a walk no longer than about eight blocks.

This time I did not swear. It was clear that Angus was desperate to have something in his mouth, anything--leash, Rosie, anything. So I gave him my mitten, and it made him happy: he shook it (to break its neck), he dropped it and pawed at it (to make sure it was dead), and then he left it in the snow, entranced by a dead oak leaf that skittered by, and I had to double back to retrieve it.

But he's getting bigger and stronger, and I think it's time to start walking them separately.  When Doug and I can both go, the walks are wonderful. But when it's only one of us, they are starting to get -- not untenable, but not much fun. Angus is in one of his "fear stages," and when he sees a stranger, he barks. It's a funny, raspy bark, not yet developed, but still, I don't want him to get in the habit of barking at people. If I am alone with him, I can bring him up to the person and they can meet and Angus can learn that people are nice and often (what a surprise!) carry around his own personal brand of kibble.

But if I have both dogs, Rosie (normally a stranger-lover) gets wary--protective, I assume, of Angus (even though he seems quite capable of protecting himself), and I have to drag both of them off in the other direction.

So. More time spent walking, one at a time, but that's OK. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's walking.

Meanwhile, the wrestling/playing continues apace. Angus is getting so big--yesterday he weighed 21.5 pounds. I put his information into my obsession, the Puppy Weight Calculator, and it told me he is going to weigh 85 pounds when he is full grown.

Over my dead body.

My dead body dragged down the street on a dog walk, most likely.