Thursday

We walked Toby in the neighborhood and skipped our morning causeway walk so that we could attend to our business. 

We canceled our Sirius satellite radio subscription when the current year runs out. We don’t spend enough time in the car to justify the expense. I think we’ll try streaming on our phones and see how that works. 

We also dropped our Allstate insurance policy for our golf cart and got a new policy with State Farm. Now both our car and golf cart are with the same company.

I fertilized our citrus trees and bird of paradise bush and then watered.

I baked some sliced hot dogs for treats for tonight’s Tricks class at Petsmart.

We drove the golf cart to Highlander Park after lunch for a walk. This sign intrigued us.

I went online to learn more. It’s a two-hour presentation of all the fitness classes that are offered at the community center. You get to exercise along on your mat as they demonstrate the various class offerings. Sounds like a great way to recruit new participants.

It was another sunny and beautiful day; the high temperature was 82 degrees. The humidity was low so it almost felt cool. The chef at the Palm Cafe came out with bacon for Toby again. I don’t really understand how that happens, but Toby loves him.

Tonight was Toby’s first Tricks class. As usual, he was overly excited, especially with the new, large dogs. It was a challenge to keep his attention on us in that small training area.

The trainer is teaching Toby to gently take a treat. The more excited he is, the more teeth he uses.

In less than a minute, she had him gently taking a treat. We need to practice that.

Toby learned two tricks: circling a pole “around,” which is helpful for when a dog goes around a pole with the leash and gets trapped. The other trick that you see us learning above and below is “weave.” That’s where the dog does a figure 8 around your legs. I’m not sure what practical advantage there is, unless you’re trying to help someone break their hip.

Soon after the trainer saw us attempting this trick, she decided to take us one by one into the training area where we could remove the leash.

We kept getting tangled up.

In the training area, he did great. The trainer noticed how fast Toby was doing it and said, “It’s not a competition, Perry.” Toby was so excited he was going full blast. I don’t know how to slow him down. He sees the treat, and he will follow wherever you point him to get it. He doesn’t mess around.

We have homework to practice this week. We might go back to Petsmart and practice on Saturday when there are lots of dogs in the store or downtown where there are lots of distractions.

It was the longest hour tonight. We were all three exhausted.

Miles walked: 6.2

Miles biked: 0