April 01, 2003
Sleepy pup
9:00 p.m.
Dusty is absolutely exhausted. Ever since we got home, she's been curled into a tight little ball on her pillow, deeply asleep. Heck, she was even asleep on the subway on our way home. This is one of the things I *love* about going to High Park - I'm guaranteed a fabulous, quiet evening if we go. That, and Dusty really loves it. Yes, she got very muddy and yes, she found burrs again, but she has such a good time. It makes my day.
I received my tax refund last week. After some careful thought (and grumbling that it wasn't larger - though believe me, I'm not complaining), I decided to spend my tiny windfall toward an April MetroPass (monthly pass on the Toronto subway system). I thought unlimited access to the subway would be nice for a change. I always had it when I was working, but I stopped buying the passes when I left my job.
So we went to High Park! And we can go every single day! And we can go to PetSmart. And I can go to the library! Yay!
I'm also going to start taking Dusty on some 'training' transit rides. On our way back tonight, I walked Dusty into the High Park subway (rather than carrying her in the Sherpa Bag). Dusty went down all of the stairs by herself, and after I carried her through the turnstile, she walked down the stairs to the platform and stood as we waited for the train.
She was very frightened, but was fine once the subway came. Brave puppy! I'd like to take her into the subway occasionally and just sit and watch the trains come and go as I give her treats. I think this would go a long way toward building her confidence in that environment. Being a city dog, this is very important for Dusty, particularly since I use transit almost exclusively.
In our training sessions today, we mainly worked on down-stays (she's up to 5 minutes!) and loose leash walking. Unfortunately, it didn't really get nice out until the evening (it snowed this morning!), so we didn't get out to the park.
I'm proud of Dusty's 'stays.' The work we've done in high-distraction environments has really paid off! At High Park, I put Dusty in a sit-stay and she stayed there, even when other dogs walked up to sniff her - she didn't budge until I released her from the stay!
I also did a long-distance sit-stay on the trail. I walked about 40 metres down the path, until Dusty was just a little gray speck anxiously watching me. I held the stay for about a minute. When I called her back to me, her feet barely hit the ground!