March is going out like a lamb…moderate temperatures and sunshine abound. It’s hard to ignore the melt from the most recent snow blast (40 hours ago) but this is the first day in months I have had no extra dogs on a beautiful day and with time to go for a walk. I marveled that I really hadn’t gone for a good long dog-as-sidekick-relaxing-non-dog-training-walk since 2013. At first this seemed shocking, given that a big part of teaching people how to train their dogs is leash manners. But my dogs have had hearty and plenty of exercise, with and without a multitude of other visiting dogs, some boarding/training, others DIP attendees, as well as The Three A’s: Attention and Affection and Adventures both at home and out and about.
It was gratifying to have that relaxed connection with Bean where for the hour long stroll through the neighborhood — including busy boulevards and quiet streets — off leash and non verbal, he stayed with me, closer in higher distractions and right next to me when crossing streets — all the years of practicing that reliability off leash for longer periods of time in increasingly difficult environments has paid off.
Okay, enough lolly gagging. Gotta finish all those first quarter things.
