My in-laws survived Oscar's sleepover. He growled and had to be rolled a couple times, but, for the most part, he was well behaved. Right after we got home from picking him up, the behaviorist, D, came over for another training session. This time we went for a walk and worked outside. One of the biggest issues we needed to address was his reaction to other dogs. D brought along one of her dogs, Bradley, who is some sort of Golden Retriever and Saint Bernard mix. He mostly has the look of a Retriever, but he's really large and has a humongous SB-like head. It was quite amusing to see our itty bitty Oscar next to him. Based on his reaction, we're fairly certain Oscar was probably bullied by one or more larger dogs in his previous home. We still have a lot of work to do with him, but we made some new progress today. As long as things keep moving forward, we're pleased.

Since things went well last night, it looks like Oscar will be staying with my in-laws for most of Christmas break. What he doesn't know yet is that we're arranging for D to pick him up right after the holiday and take him to her house for several days of doggie boot camp. He will live with her and her dogs for five days and receive lots of training. He will live as part of a pack, make trips to the dog park with the group and receive one-on-one training, too. Based on how quickly he's come around with us, the clueless wonders, D should have no trouble whipping him into better shape. We know she's not going to fix all that troubles him in just five days, but we're all confident he'll improve significantly.