Saturday

After lunch, we took the golf cart downtown. We’ve just about got the route memorized. I think we all like golf carting.

Toby got several treats and lots of petting from the hostesses at the Dunedin Smokehouse. This kind of touching and reward is exactly what he needs. Look at his tail tucked between his legs, a sign of apprehension.

He handled it well; in fact, he didn’t want to leave.

We walked down to the marina. While Toby was sitting waiting for the walk light to change, a family of five came at us with their iPhone video recording us and yelling and jumping up and down. They all had the same t-shirts on with their family name. Apparently, they were having a family reunion and they were engaged in a scavenger hunt. They were screaming excitedly and petting Toby. I wasn’t sure how he’d react. I was having a hard time myself. He moved closer to John, but he never got up out of a sit or reacted aggressively. He was clearly scared of what was happening. The older lady realized they were scaring him and said, “I’m so sorry. We probably just scared the shit out of your dog.” I said, “Yes, I think so.” I rewarded him and they moved on. I was proud of him for staying poised. These downtown adventures offer real life training opportunities.

We sat on a bench and watched the playground.

We sang Chicago’s “Saturday in the park.” Toby said hi to a black and white dog about his size and age. We try not to engage with unknown dogs, but the owner was upon us before we could get away. His dog was good mannered and the greeting was uneventful.

We passed a children’s petting zoo.

Toby was fascinated and had a staring contest with the miniature horse. He never barked. Just looked.

Toby got a lot of compliments and got to practice loose leash walking, leave it, and switching. A lady offered a bite of her pretzel to Toby, and we had to decline. I assured her he would love it, but no thanks. That’s Stirling Wine Shop (with apartments on top) in the background. Last weekend, we learned that this used to be an Italian restaurant. We met the former owners at the birthday party. They live on the next street over from us.

John loves Toby’s golf cart!

We saw this painted fence on the way home.

After our morning walk with Toby, we put him in the crate to nap while we rode the cart to Stirling Park to walk to the causeway and back. There were lots of boaters out.

We ran into our neighbors who were on the motorcycle the other day. We had a nice chat about enjoying Dunedin. Another lady from Indiana told us goodbye for the season. She lives in Fairway and says she sees us walking everywhere.

Last walk of the day at Lake Saundra

Miles walked: 12.1

Miles biked: 0