Monday

I had to wear my long sleeve shirt and wind breaker on our first pre-dawn walk of the day. It was 63 degrees with a 7 mph breeze. I shucked the windbreaker for Toby’s first neighborhood walk after the sun came up.

By the time we made it to the causeway, it was 70 degrees with an 11 mph breeze and I was down to my usual t-shirt. It was excellent walking weather.

The water was very clear. I hope the colder weather will get rid of the Red Tide that lingers off the coast.

John got this picture of a great white egret.

We had lunch and took a walk around the lake. Toby found some ducks to watch.

Unlike Dexter, he was content to just watch them.

I took time for a bike ride to the gym at Weaver Park. That’s my thrice weekly therapy. 

We played fetch and then took Toby to the community center to walk. Then we practiced last week’s commands using his 15-foot training leash: sit/stay with one of us walking in a complete circle around him, sit/wait with 30 second delay and then come with automatic sit, sit/stay with one of us 15 feet away and after 30 seconds walking back and releasing him. We also practiced heel. These are easy to do in the house, but out in the park with squirrels, people, cars, birds, etc., it is challenging. He did great! He started to get the wild zoomies a couple of times, but we were able to get him back under control quickly, unlike yesterday. Zoomies with a 15-foot leash can be terrifying.

We all had a much better day today. We are trying to be more proactive, anticipating what might happen and thwarting it before it does. One new approach is to walk with a purpose instead of letting him sniff everything. We pause periodically, but most of the time we’re moving. There is less time for him to get in trouble or get distracted. And it’s better exercise for us. For me, the pace is like speed walking. To go any faster, I’d have to jog. For John, it’s a comfortable stride. We were able to cover a lot of ground today.

He is exhausted! He fell asleep while we were eating our Chinese takeout (chicken & broccoli and home style bean curd).

Morning snuggle time while I read the news and had coffee 

Somehow, I found time to clean house and pick up leaves while John did laundry.  John used the vacuum time to train Toby to get into a down and stay, instead of attacking the vacuum cleaner.

Tomorrow John’s going fishing with a friend, so Toby and I will be on our own for the morning walk.

At 3:00, we’re meeting our pet trainer at Petsmart for her to select an appropriate harness and fit it for Toby. The one he has is fine for walking since he no longer pulls, but in training and high distraction environments, it can get a little wonky.

Today’s bike route: The scenic route to Weaver Park through Highlander and Hammock Parks 

Miles walked: 14.1 (might be a record)

Miles biked: 6.71