Thursday

After lunch, we took Toby downtown in the golf cart. He has training tonight, so we wanted to make sure he got plenty of exercise and stimulation. 

While we were there, we rode around the new city hall. The city put in a water retention system under the main parking lot to capture rain water from the roof and parking lots to use for irrigation. Huge concrete vaults.

They’ve put in the landscaping which adds so much to the aesthetics.

We walked Toby on the downtown sidewalks with people and dogs. We ended up at Pioneer Park.

We got Toby to settle in the grass for a few minutes.

Toby waited while we used the restroom.

We walked down to the marina. We practiced our homework: “round” and “weave.”

Toby remembers every place he’s ever gotten a treat.

The easterly breezes had blown some of the Red Tide smell off shore.

We skipped walking this morning and went grocery shopping instead. We got a prepared salad and added avocado, strawberries, and Sumo oranges.

Training went pretty well tonight at Petsmart. Toby is going around the stools.

Our trainer says he’s really smart and we need to challenge him more.

He got to show the class how to do a bow and how to do “weave” while walking. Sometimes it’s easier to see a dog doing a trick than to explain it.

Here, he is learning how to wave, which involves getting Toby to “shake” but moving your hand before making contact so the dog’s paw is waving in mid air.

Like this. I think it’s kind of mean, but Toby kept doing it. The trainer was going to show the class how to do it with Toby because we said he knew how to shake hands. She tried, but he wouldn’t do it, so John starts telling her how to get him to shake. It was hysterical. Everyone was laughing at John teaching the trainer how to shake with our dog. She couldn’t get him to do it. In frustration, she finally said to John, you do it. Of course, as soon as John said “shake,” Toby gave him his paw. Perfectly. The trainer was exasperated, but laughing. She threw her kibble at John instead of Toby. We had a lot of fun, but it was exhausting. 

There were five big dogs. Toby was mostly under control. He gets so excited. The trainer says he may benefit from a face harness, sort of like a gentle leader that will prevent him from lunging when he gets excited. One of the other dogs needed one for previous training but no longer needs it. It might be worth trying if it calms him down. The trainer said to come in during the week so she could size it and explain how it works.

Miles walked: 7.5