Freddie does the Nofo Shoppers Drugmart like Heather does yoga.

Lest the simile in my title be ambiguous ... I hate yoga. I've tried it: three different sessions of several weeks each, along with a smattering of drop-in classes. Iyengar, Kundalini, Hatha ... never hot yoga (which is surely featured in a special corner of Hell) ... no use. I guess I once wanted to like it, or thought I should like it ... but now I've given up!

I don't care that I happen to be living at the very axis of the Vancouver yoga scene's principle chakra. I've simply come to embrace my fundamental yoga-revulsion (yogavulsion?). It's a zen sort of thing ... a feeling kinda like the only yoga pose I've ever enjoyed — lying flat on my back with my eyes closed and visions of full-caf americanos dancing in my head.

Anyway, all this brings me in a roundabout sort of way to the business of Freddie and the Shoppers Drugmart at 4th and Vine — and my latest dog-training difficulty.  

As noted in a couple of earlier posts, including this one by Paul, Freddie doesn't much like metal grating (see left).

I have no idea why. So far, it hasn't been a problem for us ... but it turns out that entering the Nofo Shoppers, where I was planning to pick up most of my diabetes supplies, requires the crossing of a veritable moat of metal floor grates. You can see them inside the second set of automatic doors, below. 

Twice now, despite treats and cheerful encouragement, Freddie has balked at the doorway. Cowered and cringed and dug in his heels — the very posture I would assume if someone tried shoving me into a 6 a.m. session of Extreme Hot Bikram Bodyworks.

The question, then, is what to do? Drag him across the grating and reward him with an abundance of treats on the other side? Work on grates in a less stressful environment, and in the meantime go back to the old Shoppers in South Granville? Leave Freddie at home when I go drug-marting? Abandon Shoppers altogether (especially now that they've stopped giving Optimum points for prescriptions!) and switch to the Nofo Pharmasave?

I'm pretty sure the professional dog trainers I've worked with would advise keeping Freddie's stress to a minimum, so that's what I'll aim for. Maybe a bit of doggie yoga would help.

May your prana flow freely, by whatever means!