April 26, 2003
Taking a break at High Park
10:00 p.m.
Lots of walks today! Dusty is really getting doing well on our walks - walking her is almost pleasant now. She's behaving herself!
A quick note about something I forgot to mention yesterday: I owe a big thank-you to the universe for throwing many, many small people into our path over the past few days. In one 20 minute visit to the park, we managed to interact with no less than 7 children under the age of 3. Amazing.
Dusty was wary at first (after our encounter with the Devil Spawn), but she soon realised that these were *nice* little kids and warmed up to them. She even walked up to a stroller and gently licked a little girl's hand.
Anyways, we headed to High Park this afternoon, supposedly for an hour and ended up staying for three. Part of this time was spent with me sitting on a log, dog in lap, reading a book in the sunshine. Spring in Toronto causes a strange sort of amnesia: I completely forget how awful the winters are as soon as the temperature rises.
In the spirit of ditching our old vet completely, I went ahead and phoned a groomer that my breeder had recommended. Not that I don't like our old groomer, but I hate taking Dusty into the vet's office and leaving her for an entire day just to get groomed.
I phoned New Groomer and asked her how long it takes to groom a dog. Answer? One hour and fifteen minutes. "So if I brought her over, I could wait and just take her home afterward?" Of course! So, grooming does not need to be traumatic for my dog. What a revelation!
New Groomer is clear out in the east end (when I told her where I was travelling from, she said "Oh my! You're clear out in the *west end*!" It's all a matter of perspective, I guess.) I'm going to take Dusty in sometime next week, hopefully prior to Wednesday night. It would be nice for Dusty to be all groomed and pretty for her graduation from Puppy Kindergarten.
In the past week or so, Dusty has really discovered her voice. She's barking a *lot* more. I have a feeling I'm going to have to put her bark on cue in order to control it. This is particularly bad at night, when passing pedestrians and dogs are spooky shadows under the streetlights.