Sympathy, new leads & pet shop

Molly has been rubbish at taking photos over the last few days so apologies for the lack of them in this blog post.

On Friday evening after Molly went up to bed she got upset (over something unimportant, she doesn't want anyone to worry). I could hear her from downstairs so whined at the stairgate until her younger brother took me upstairs to let me check she was ok.

On Saturday morning Molly & her dad took me for a walk at the local country park. They tried me out on a long lead rather than letting me off lead because I don't recall away from other dogs. That worked relatively well but Molly found the length of the lead made it quite difficult to handle. Her dad suggested making it shorter but then I would have had less freedom so she didn't want to do that.

Yesterday morning we went to a local pet shop. I had a walk outside first to give me chance to go to the toilet but I didn't do a poo until we got inside the shop. Oops! It was in front of 3 members of staff too. I think Molly was a bit embarrassed. I also tried to mark various places because I could smell that other dogs had been there. Molly kept a close eye on me & caught me in time to stop me on every occasion but she found it a bit stressful. I am a teenager though! While we were there Molly bought an extendable lead (to try instead of the long lead until we've improved my recall away from other dogs) & booked me in for a (much needed!) groom later this week.

Later in the day I was able to meet & play with two other dogs - one outside our house & one on a walk with Molly's parents. That was good fun. The former was another bouncy puppy & the latter was another miniature schnauzer!

Yesterday evening I had a short training session with Molly in order to distract me while her dad was gathering up the long lead - I just wanted to play with & chew it. We didn't do anything new, just some practising of "sit" & "down". I didn't get muddled between the two commands at all this time. Previously when Molly said "down" I'd reluctantly flop but now I throw myself down really enthusiastically. Perhaps the more enthusiastically I do it, the more likely I am to get a reward! As a result of this Molly kept getting fits of the giggles which made it hard for her to tell me what to do next! Also if she just stands there with a treat in her hand I sit & then lie down in the hope that one of those positions is what she wants me to do. She says I make her laugh.

This morning we had another early walk. We just went round the pavements locally for about 20mins. Molly had planned to let me off lead in a little local field but there was an elderly gardener there & I was very bouncy so she didn't. Hmph! I made her laugh again when I did some snuffling in a patch of stickyweed & got it stuck to my nose. I then tried to get it off by rubbing my face on the ground where the grass had just been cut but that just resulted in grass sticking to my nose. I did some good sitting at the kerb before we crossed the road (I'd mastered this before Molly went into hospital but forgot it while she was away because the rest of her family didn't practise it with me) but was quite vocal when we saw other people.

Then Molly & her mum had to go out so I was left at home on my own for a few hours. I didn't mind too much though. The same friendly neighbour that visited me on Friday came over again & kept me company for a bit. He promised me one of my fish treats but Molly had forgotten to leave them out & he couldn't find them so I wasn't able to have one. I pulled a small shoe filled some plants called sempervivums off a bench in the garden & had lots of fun chewing it. And there's a mat in the garden too which I've also been chewing.