Ole and the pink purse

When i first brought Elmo home 2&1/2 years ago he dug Shelly's old fluffy pink purse toy that says Princess on it out of the toy box. It was his favorite toy for the longest time. Well, Ole has discovered the same toy and seems to have a similar passion for it. He and Elmo wrestle over it and play tug with it. They are obviously Metrosexual dogs. I forgot to mention yesterday that I introduced Ole to scent work yesterday. I was practicing with Shelly and Elmo having them search the alley for hidden scent containers and decided to do some of what are called box drills. I put out 7 empty boxes and put scent in one or two boxes that I lined up in a row. First Shelly got to search and find 3 times and then Elmo did. I noticed Ole was watching the whole proceeding with interest so I put treats in one of the boxes , put him on a long leash and led him up to the row. I said "find it!" as he moved toward the boxes and encouraged him to check each one. He found the treats in the box and we had a little celebration. He was pretty proud of himself so we did it 2 more times. Scent work is a great way to build confidence and focus in dogs so we will be doing a lot of it in the future , and besides that all dogs love to have a job to do especially when it involves their noses.
Today I took Shelly and Elmo for a power walk while Abner took Ole for a training walk on the boardwalk. When I got back to the house after our walk, Abner and Ole had just gotten back and Abner said there was a big surf contest on the oceanside near the PB pier and that Ole seemed a little overwhelmed by all the goings on there. I took Ole and left shelly and Elmo at home with Abner. Ole and I walked back over to the Oceanside and back to where the surf competition was being held. I just stood with him to start about 20 yards from all the ado and he was quite relaxed so I tossed him a treat. A few people stopped to pet him and then we gradually moved closer to the center of activities and he was very relaxed and took treats with a soft mouth. One of the ways you can gauge your dogs anxiety level is by whether they will take a treat at all. He had no problem with that and he was so relaxed that he took the treats with soft little butterfly lips, so I knew he was not at all phased by what was going on. We only stayed about 10 minutes, just long enough for him to experience it all but not long enough for him to feel overwhelmed. When we got home , he and Elmo had a ball playing with their pink princess purse, then I gave everyone a good brushing and Ole got to spend time in his crate while I got ready for a private lesson . I left all 3 dogs with Abner while I went off to my private lesson. After i got home I packed the 3 of them up in the car and we went over to my studio. I had to finish painting the new frames on my paintings and put one more hanging wire on another painting. Tomorrow I have to get the ID cards attached to all 6 paintings as I have to deliver them to the Del Mar Fair for judging on Tuesday. Ole had another puppy frenzy when we first got there but calmed down after about 10 minutes so I could get some work done. Elmo as usual stepped in to help with his rowdy little brother who now probably out weighs him by at least 10 lbs or more. Shelly was disgusted with the whole thing and went and lay down on her bed in the corner. Ole has figured out that even when he is full of piss and vinegar you don't mess with Shelly.