An Afternoon Walk

Petey and I have been walking a lot lately....want to come along? Here he's doing a good job of sitting and looking up at a branch overhead (sorry, not pictured!)

Here, I'm getting his attention with a treat and "Watch me!" The reason? We're getting ready to pass a little boy...distracting for Petey. He did just great though!

UNTIL this...which, by the way, was totally my fault! We passed the little boy and I let my guard down, starting to focus on what was coming up. Rats! Of course that was just the moment the boy whipped out a ball and started tossing it up in the air, resulting in the reaction below...

I'll pay closer attention next time! Soon Petey's focus was back on me, and on his work. He knows his stuff pretty well. Here he's sitting right at the edge of the curb...good boy.


Here he's finding me a trash can. Good dog!

In the video below, Petey faces down the "goose of doom." In all fairness, I've got to tell you that so far every single dog I've walked in our neighborhood is initially freaked out by this goose lawn ornament. When Petey and I walked up to it at first, he froze...waited a few seconds...(I was talking casually to him, trying to show it wasn't a big deal) and then suddenly sprang back to the end of his lead. So here I'm trying to get him to make friends with the nice goosey but as you can see he's not buying it!

In the end, he was willing to walk past calmly, which is really all he has to do. Good job!

That's all folks! Happy trails!

That's Why They're Called Prickly Pears

Poor Alfie.  Sometimes he has to learn things the hard way.  You might even call it a "sharp" learning curve.  

Really, life can be tough on a 6-month-old puppy...

The family was out walking a hike and bike trail together...Charissa and Katharine had fallen behind, so since we were coming up near a bench I asked Alfie to "find the seat."  Tim and I were resting and chatting when all of a sudden, Alfie jumps up snorting from where I thought he was settled in.  I looked and oh no...there was a prickly pear right behind our seat, and it gets worse...one pad of the cactus was most definitely slobbered on!! 

This is not, I repeat NOT, a chew toy!!

Closer inspection showed 3 or 4 little green spines stuck in Alf's nose and upper lip.  Fortunately they were relatively soft, and came out quite easily.  Afterward he seemed none the worse for wear.  Here he is in front of the bench (post-op, of course!)...you can barely notice the prickly pear but it's on the left hiding sneakily behind some weeds.

Let's get back to our walk, Mom, really, I'm fine!

I felt badly for not seeing the hazard ahead of time.  It was also a reminder of the importance of teaching puppies NOT to grab things in their mouths while out working!  Usually my focus is getting Alfie to leave food crumbs and trash alone in stores and restaurants as an important part of guide dog etiquette.  But etiquette aside, there are many things dogs could pick up which might harm them as well.  Clearly, this lesson is a work in progress!

Apart from the cactus incident, we all had a great time.  At the beginning I fell a bit behind the others, watching some birds, and Alfie became rather fractious -- always wanting to pull ahead.  Of course every time he did that I had to "heel" him and we just fell farther back.  When we finally did catch up, however, he transformed into a perfect angel, with the best loose leash walking you could ask for, even when passing other dogs.  He'd much rather lead than follow!

Some of my favorite people, one of my favorite puppies...