Yesterday’s bit of news was that Ron took him for a walk on leash out to fix some equipment. I was on pins and needles but Ron reported that he was excellent, didn’t pull, and was happy to stay with him. I feel like I got a gold star on my homework!
Today I took him along when I took Syn to the pet store for a bath. There was nobody else in the 2-tub space enclosed by a half-wall and a wrought iron gate, so I turned him loose while I worked on her.
He was good for maybe 15 minutes. Wandered around, sniffed everything, found the dish of treats on top of the wall but didn’t climb up to get them. Put his paws up on the tub and watched what I was doing for a bit, licked my hair…
Then he lay down on the cool tile and went to sleep.
And then he woke up. Bored. Not the centre of attention. Hey! This is not how life works! He paced. He whined. He paced. I was just about ready to tell him to lie down and shut up when people started wandering past. That was fun. He talked to a bunch of them through the gate and surprisingly didn’t rear up to talk to them over it. Then when the last of them had wandered on he jumped up on the desk in the corner and looked eagerly over the wall. Five times he put his paws on the wall… four times I said No! and he put them back politely on the desk for a few minutes. The fifth time I had to go to him and tell him to get down.
Another nap, and when he woke up I was towelling Syn off. He helped and she leaned into his tongue Obviously he’s a better toweller than I am.
He LOVED it when I started using the dryer on her. He climbed right in the tub with her and constantly got in the way, biting at the air. I teased him a bit with the air, flashing it at his mouth and his paws. He thought this was enormously funny.
I wasn’t brave enough to walk them in or out together – I brought Syn in, left her on a stay in the tub, and went out to bring him in. On the way out, I left her in the tub again, walked him out to his crate in the truck, then went back in to get her. The walks went well. Not perfect yet, but decent. He’s listening brilliantly to Zen cues.