Within a week the evolution of the dog pack has been remarkable, and overnight a lot of things seem to have dropped into place. Until Thursday night I'd been able to put Pepper into the hall bathroom overnight (she isn't completely trained to the Invisible Fence so needs yard supervision) but last night was different. Crying to get out (squirt bottle of water is the correction), and when I left my room this morning I found the lab Zeke lying right in front of that door, waiting for his pal Pepper to emerge. There are still occasional growls as they all negotiate dog things, but Zeke has decided this is his friend, and the two of them were in and out of the dog door several times before we put on the head collars, removed the Fence collars, and headed around a couple of blocks before breakfast. And this morning I put down Poppy's food, without Pepper's face trying for the bowl, same for Zeke's, and when I put down Pepper's bowl I simply told her to sit and stay, and she did. These things, the walk and being in control of the food, help them focus on me as the pack leader instead of trying to jockey for position amongst themselves for that title.

I need to give Pepper a rinse off today, and the vet suggests using a conditioner on her coat. I think I didn't get all of the shampoo off last week, so this should help with some scratching. And the other two need baths. That's a big job.

Digital work today, making some short videos for a friend, work to stagger between forays into the garden. I watered this morning so I can go out with the mattock and dig out some weeds but the weather is hot right now. The garden has reached the point where you can look around and see all of the crops that are planted, they're no longer tiny little things poking out of mulch. I'll weed, then snap some photos to preserve this is the classic garden look, though from here on out everything gets huge and overlaps and it becomes a hedge of tomatoes and basil and such.