Walking With Freddie: Back to school!

Not only did yesterday mark my return to rowing (rain, wind, waves be damned; I had a lovely time out there with Terri, Anna, Julia, and Coach Annette :-)) — it was also Freddie's return to Sunday evening classes with Heather L from Dogwise. After the kerfuffles of moving, Freddie is about as rusty with his loose-leash walking and impulse control as I am with my leg drive and body position at the catch.

Heather gave us some good exercises to work on this week, and this morning's walk was all about trying them out (with plenty of breaks along the way) — more below.

Despite the case I made for enjoying rainy walks, I won't complain about this week's forecast ...

After several blocks of focused, "with me" walking (ie. heeling), Freddie did some leisurely sniffing along the railway line between Maple and Burrard.

He said a polite hello to this woman then went to investigate an interesting smell.

Back in our old 'hood ... Broadway and Pine ... Spot the Langara College advert on the post! A City employee removing a thick cast of these stuck-on signs once told me they need to be removed at least once a week, or the quantity becomes unmanageable.

Love this blue ...

Here we are at the Vancouver School Board building, where some kind of ceremony is taking place in the lobby.

Outside the lobby, Freddie is working on his grate-o-phobia!

(Note the treat between the two grates.)

Not expecting him to step on the grate, just get close to it ... which he does.

Experiment #2

Hmm ...

A bit trickier, but still do-able without stepping on the grate

(Slowly but surely ... I hope!)

A sniff break on the lawn while the ceremony people have an outdoor photo op and the maintenance guys admire a tool ...

At class last night, Heather had us do an exercise where I tossed a treat out of Freddie's range then held the leash tight while he lunged. I waited, and when Freddie gave up on the treat, came over to me and sat, he got rewarded — first with a little treat from my hand, then with an opportunity to go over to the big treat on the floor. After a couple of repetitions, he was no longer lungeing for the treat on the floor.

Cut to this morning: a leaf blows across our path, and Freddie lunges (trust me — there's a leaf in front of the brick wall, below). I hold tight to the leash and wait ...

... take a couple of photos (while still holding the leash) ...

Spot the top hat!

... watch Freddie change position ...

... listen to this guy soap-boxing in Russian (about Putin? the Olympics?) ...

... until finally — with a bit of verbal encouragement from me — Freddie comes over and sits in front of me. Holy persistence, Batman! Here he is with his coveted prize: