Monday

Snuggle time with John before bedtime.

We took a late afternoon bike ride on the Pinellas Trail with Toby to Weaver Park. He was fascinated by the children's playground. He sat down and refused to budge.

 

 Toby has destroyed most of his expensive dog toys. It's always just a matter of time before he finds the weak seam and rips them open. So John got an idea to tie a knot in one of our old dish cloths and let him have it. He loves it! And it's lasted the entire day. 

And provided lots of chewing fun and tug of war battles.

 

I rode my bike to Honeymoon Island while John and Toby took a nap.

I passed this sweet couple holding hands as they crossed the drawbridge.

The sound was calm and the water was clear today.

It was partly cloudy and 75 degrees. 

Great pose from this morning's Pinellas Trail walk, at the Stirling Park driving range.  There were some birds on the power lines above making noises. Doesn't he look lie a bird dog/Labrador Retriever mix?

We normally take this walk on the Dunedin Causeway, but our weather app said we had 8 minutes before a line of thunderstorms came through. We swapped locations for walking/pooping time.

By the time we got home and in the garage it started raining. But as with most Florida showers, it was over within the hour.

My snuggle time this morning.

He fell asleep in my lap . . .

.  .  . until I had to get up to go to the restroom. This is how he slept while I was gone.

Sweet dog.

 

The main challenge we have with him is that he gets puppy crazy around 4:00 p.m., about the time he has dinner. You would think that having dinner would calm him down, but it just revs him up. He gets crazy whether we feed him or not. It's a little crazy for about 10-15 minutes. We're working on devising clear lines between play time and settle time. It's a work in progress. John has several t-shirts with holes along with a few bruises and nip marks on the backs of his thighs from when Toby wanted to keep playing as John had quit and walked away. But when Toby settles, it's like a switch goes off and he is back to his laid-back, calm self.

Another thing to work on is helping him to properly meet new people. It's funny, he's got meeting dogs down perfectly. But he doesn't know what to do with humans. At first, he is shy and reluctant to get close to them. Then, if he likes them and feels safe, he tries to engage them in play as if they were a dog. He bows and starts running left, then right, then in circles, trying to get them to play. 

The pandemic makes it tough to practice learning to meet people. He does fine passing them or them passing him on the causeway and trail. Its when they choose to engage him that he doesn't know what to do. Sometimes I give the person a treat to give him and get him to sit, but not everyone feels comfortable touching things that other people have touched. Other times, I will get him to sit and reward him with treats, but that prevents him from greeting the other person. And people keep their distance and don't reach out to pet him because of social distancing. It's a conundrum.

Oh, it was good to see that Biden won again today! This time in the Electoral College.

Today’s bike routes

Miles walked: 4.3

Miles biked: 14.13