Tuesday

These are screen shots of a video our trainer shot of Toby in his Brain Games class today. We were working on his reading skills. He read "sit."

He read "down."

And he read "spin," without any verbal or hand commands.

We are so proud of him.

We practiced the environmental cue of Toby going to his bed when hearing a knock on the door. He did that successfully several times. We need to practice that one at home some more. He also needs to stay in his bed until we utter the "release" command. Our trainer gave us some tips for transferring that learning to a different environment, using our phone to record the knock or doorbell instead of having him see us knock on the door. Also, we need to move his bed closer to the door at first so that he will make the connection. And, finally, we need to put this "bed" (actually a bath mat) that we use in training on top of his real bed at home. As he gets it, we can move the bed further away and remove the bath mat. Then, we will invite a willing neighbor to come over and practice. 

We also added "bow" to his commands. Our trainer noticed that he had a really nice bow at times, so she suggested making a card like the others and teach him that word, too. Today, we practiced it with word commands. He got it really fast.

We were the only ones in class again today, so we got private tutoring. After 40 minutes, we were exhausted because of all the attention.

We enjoyed another beautiful day today. Mid 60s for our causeway walk and 77 degrees for the high. We had oatmeal with fresh blueberries this morning for breakfast and then waited an hour for the temperature to warm us before we drove to the causeway to walk. Half-way through our walk, our energy level plummeted. We struggled to get back to the car. Now we know what my sister feels like when she runs out of fuel.

One of our afternoon walks around the neighborhood.

As we walked up to our house from our last walk of the day, our neighbor swung open his door and shouted: "Did you see Biden's signing for the Respect for Marriage Act?" We told him we didn't. He gave us a scene by scene of the signing. He said it was very moving and offered us a hearty congratulations.

We are happy the Respect for Marriage Act was signed into law today. It is a tangible reason why we support Democrats when it comes time to vote. In truth, this bill would not have made it out of a Republican-led Congress. 

On the other hand, it's reassuring that almost 70% of Americans now approve of same sex marriage, and that Congress was able to pass this bill with bipartisan support.  I hope that, in time, our opponents will come to see that love is love and that they have nothing to fear from us. When it comes to marriage, we share their values of respect, honor, and commitment. We struggle (and sometimes fail) to live up to those values just as they do. 

The bottom line: Why would someone be opposed to a loving commitment of a couple for one another? 

Miles walked: 11.6

Miles biked: 0