We got back to the hotel and we unloaded Dakota and all our stuff, then put it all into our room. We laid a blanket down for Dakota and filled his water bowl, but he was more interested in checking out the room. We got settled in, and Dakota was wandering between the two of us, asking for attention. He seemed a little uneasy about the room and didn't settle in right away, but he did drink some water. He kept coming back to us for affection, maybe as a confirmation that everything was okay. Eventually he settled on a spot on the floor in between our beds and lay down.

We decided we wanted to get some dinner, so we ordered some food for pickup from the Rewind Diner. We changed into our comfortable shoes and got Dakota leashed up, which he was very happy about. He walked to the door and waited for us, obviously clued in that we were about to go for a walk. I grabbed his leash and we were off. Kief wanted to walk him for a bit so I handed the leash off to him. Kief is taller than I am and has a longer stride so he was able to match Dakota's pace better than I could. Dakota is large for a husky, and walks at a pretty brisk pace naturally.

I was hoping he'd poop at some point during the walk so we wouldn't have to worry about it later, but it was not to be. I went inside to pick up our food while Kief stayed outside with Dakota, and I noticed a family with a couple kids entering the restaurant and admiring Dakota on their way in. He was a model citizen, sitting calmly next to Kief and gently sniffing in the kids' direction. It was good to see him so calm when faced with strangers and kids at the same time out in the real world.

I got our food and we left, heading back to the hotel. Kief and I ate dinner at the table in the room and while Dakota initially wanted to "help us eat it", he backed off after just a couple attempts and went back to lie down on his blanket. I gave him a couple treats to see if it would take him mind off it, but he was only semi-interested. We were able to finish eating, and we settled down to watch the Lakers game on TV (against Utah, coincidentally). Dakota wandered over to us again and I encouraged him to jump up on my bed with me. He hesitated for a minute, but then jumped up on the bed, turned around a couple times and lay down.

Is there anything cuter? I don't think so.

Have I mentioned he's a big husky? He's over 80 lbs., and when I say he lay down, he really just sort of fell over. Almost knocked me off the bed, much like how a sumo wrestler landing on your trampoline might propel you into the stratosphere. But he seemed comfortable, and he liked being near me. I spent some time just lying next to him, petting and hugging him. He licked my face a few times and stayed there for a while, but he still didn't seem entirely comfortable even though he did seem very relaxed.

A little while later he got off the bed and started pacing a little bit, and walked over to the door a few times with that "walk me plz" look on his face. So I got my shoes and sweatshirt on and leashed him up. I figured it was worth another try to see if he would poop before we went to sleep. We left the hotel and went down one of the bigger side streets, just checking out the neighborhood.

Suddenly, Dakota stopped. I turned to see why he stopped, and he was staring at something off to the side of the road. I looked in that direction and saw a cat just sitting in the grass staring back at Dakota. This wasn't good, as Dakota had already failed a cat test and he was extremely focused on the cat. I kept tension on the leash and worked my way up so I was holding his collar directly. I tried to pull and coax him away, but nothing was breaking his fixation on the cat. Suddenly the cat bolted, and Dakota went berserk, but not with barking or making any kind of noise. He was trying with every inch of his body to chase that cat. I had to physically lift the front half of his body off the ground, and I pulled him off to the side. I was able to get him to move away without too much more trouble after that, but I'm glad I had been holding his collar when he tried to take off.

This is a dog who has been bred to pull sleds, and who can typically run at 20 MPH for 25 miles straight in the snow, while pulling a sled, without stopping. Granted he probably wasn't in peak sled pulling condition, but it's a good thing I'm a big guy myself because he was pretty powerful, and I had to dig in and really hold him back. After another 30 seconds or so of struggling, he accepted that he wasn't going to be allowed to go after that cat and we resumed our walk like nothing had happened.

As worrisome as his behavior towards cats was, I knew from the start that huskies have a high prey drive, and he was just doing what came naturally to him. It was interesting to see that he didn't attack the cat initially though. All he did was stare at it. I never got the feeling that he was just going to outright attack the cat, and he didn't. It wasn't until the cat ran away that Dakota reacted. I was told that his cat test was similar. He didn't attack the cat, he only reacted badly after the cat was put into a carrier, possibly making it more attractive from a predator standpoint. I started wondering what would happen if Dakota were introduced to a relaxed cat that didn't run away or go into a carrier, because his behavior indicated to me that his prey drive reaction was only being triggered by flight, and not by the presence of a cat in and of itself.

My cat Bonehead, named for the wishbone-shaped markings

on her forehead

It was good for me to see his reaction in person though, because it gave me some more to think about regarding my own cat at home, and how I could make life good for both of them in the same house. We finished our walk about 30 minutes later, and while Dakota made sure to pee on a lot of things, he still didn't poop. We got back to the hotel room and Dakota wandered around again for a little while, eventually settling on the floor. One of the other issues his evaluations had mentioned, and part of the reason he still had a red collar, was that he tended to guard food and toys. So I wanted to test that in a "home" environment away from other dogs and people, to see how he would react.

I pulled a bone-shaped tennis ball squeaky toy out of our sleepover bag and gave it to Dakota who gently took it from my hand. He began to chew and squeak, and it was really funny. Squeak squeak squeak squeak. I watched him chewing on the toy for a while, and he seemed to enjoy it. Then I noticed there appeared to be some blood on the toy, and Kief noticed that one of his gums did seem to be bleeding a bit. I very carefully reached down and tried to take the toy from him so I could get a better look at it, and to my surprise he put up no resistance at all, and let me have it. He sat there looking at me as I looked at the blood spots on the toy, and then I gave it back to him. Again he gently took it from my hand and started squeaking.

Thinking that might have been a fluke, I went to take it away from him again, a bit bolder this time. Again he surrendered it with no resistance, and I was extremely happy. The guarding was one of his major issues according to his evaluations, and there was absolutely no sign of it in the hotel room with just me and Kief. I was a little worried about the bleeding though, so I called back to the front desk at Dogtown just to be on the safe side. I explained that Dakota's gums appeared to be bleeding from chewing on a toy, and she said that was probably all right, but her main concern was if I had been able to get the toy away from him. I was happy to report that there was no issue taking the toy from him at all, and that I had tried it a couple times with the same results.

We left it at that, and Dakota continued to squeak. But then, as if surrendering toys without a fuss wasn't enough, Dakota starting bringing his toy over and dropping it at my feet like he wanted to play fetch! I couldn't say no to that, so I started throwing his toy across the room for him. He bounded across the room to grab it and brought it back to drop it at my feet again. I had not expected this, after being told of his toy aggression issues by his caregivers. The first time I ever saw Dakota in his run, it was looking through the door out into the run because he was sitting outside with a toy between his paws, and the caregiver didn't want to try to separate Dakota from his toy. Dakota ended up coming into the inside section of the run on his own, but I did see him out there, seemingly guarding a toy between his paws.

But in the hotel room with no other dogs and just my brother and I for company, he was every bit a normal husky. He showed no trace of any guarding issues, and he was friendly to everybody he met on the street, he loved playing fetch (for a little while anyway), he was affectionate and a great companion. I don't think I could have asked for anything better. I got him back up on the bed with me and he took a nap as the Lakers game finished up. We turned off the lights and went to sleep, and Dakota got off the bed and went to lie down on the floor. I was a little disappointed by that, but it didn't occur to me at the time that maybe the people he used to live with didn't want him on the bed at night. I did though. I probably should have invited him to get back up, but I just let him sleep where he was.

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“He almost knocked me off the bed, much like how a sumo wrestler landing on your trampoline might propel you into the stratosphere.”