The Return

March 2, 2007. Tom and I went out to the park today and I had another breakthrough of sorts. Not only did I listen well to commands today, but I ignored distractions from several people and even a few dogs. I just stayed on task, and kept chasing and retrieving my ball. Tom was very happy and I was even proud of myself.

The biggest breakout happened a little later during playtime though. A lady showed up with her fluff ball dog and walked over with him on leash. I was still off leash and I was still ignoring the dog. Tom put me back onto the leash and he allowed me to meet the little dog. I immediately dropped into a play crouch and we met nose to nose. A little sniff here and a little sniff there and the situation was over. I was not aggressive and did not attempt to jump on the little dog. It was a great big improvement.

I did lose my focus after about 45 minutes when a seagull flew low and I tried, I really did, but, he was just begging to be chased. So I gave in and chased him all over the park and down over the hill. I knew I blew it as soon as I went over the hill out of sight and sure enough, I was back on leash and we were heading home. I did have a good run though.

Later I got a really big surprise. We didn’t meet Renee at the usual place and after we picked her up, we headed to a place called an airport. I’m not really sure what that is, but it sure was noisy and there were a lot of people going by my truck for me to look at. Tom and Renee disappeared inside and were gone for awhile.

When they came out I got another surprise when I saw Caitlin and Matias with them. They were home for their 5 week holiday in South America. I was sure excited to see them and after they loaded their stuff in the back and got into the truck, I climbed up on their laps and fell asleep. I rode that way all the way to their house. Once we were there I got to see Karl as well as his friend Ethan. I even got to go inside their house for the first time. It was a great day for me.