Shadow and Lark

And our two doggie residents?  We've had Shadow several years now.  We adopted him from the Humane Society following the tragic death of our first family dog, Rusty.  Shadow is a mixed up mutt with a lot of spanial in him, which means he is not exactly bright and is extremely affectionate and enthusiasitic.  It took several years, but he finally does respond reliably to a sit command.  He continues to pull horendously on a leash and is NOT a pleasure to walk.  Regrettably we have not worked with him consistently on this problem, it is far too easy to let him have his exercize in our fenced back yard. Unfortuanately, on one walk -- while on a leash with my son who was about 15 at that time -- Shadow spied a squirrel across the street and bolted right into the path of a car.  He broke a rib, punctured a lung, and broke a back leg very near the hip joint.  He did recover, but the cold weather really bothers him.  His out door trips tend to be brief in the winter.  He is very quick about getting his business done, and getting back in the house.
Shadow is the older of our two dogs -- but Lark is the larger.  She is mixture of Lab, German Shepherd, and Husky.   She is a smart girl and has finally grown out of her puppy years and is becoming a very pleasant companion rather than just goof ball.  She enjoys walking, and needs to do so more.  She also pulls -- not as bad as Shadow, but bad enough.  It really is not that the dogs need more training -- we need more training in being more effective and consistent with them on a leash.  The both have good house manners -- but I must admit that I have failed miserably at teaching them good leash behavior.
We got Lark because my youngest son very much wanted a dog of his own.  My husband and I had told him that if he maintained feeding, watering and caring for Shadow independently without being reminded for some period of weeks that I no longer remember, that he could have a dog of his own.  Within a day of being told that my oldest son brought him home an abandoned puppy that he had found.  The puppy turned out to have a chip, had been adopted from the Humane Society, and later dumped out beside the road.  We adoped the puppy, and Judah fully lived up to his agreement.  Unfortunately, that dog was too smart for his good and found a way to push under our fence, was hit by a car and killed.  A few weeks later, my husband found Lark being offered free by a farmer in Indiana and brought him home for Judah.  She was a pretty young puppy at the time;  looking back at the pictures it is  hard to remember how young and small she was.  We did not have a crate that first night and placed her in two laundry baskets wired together.  She made it clear from the outset that she would sleep absolutely anywhere -- anywhere that she could see Judah that is, crate or no crate, but she had to see Judd.  She knew whose dog she was from that first night on.