This morning I upped the rewards for pivot in Jedi's training session and this seemed to please him. He still looks for other things to offer instead of it, but we did get full turns in both directions. I kept the pivot part of the session short to keep him happy and fresh. We got some good spoon connections in again this morning, but today he seemed more interested in doing a 4-in in the metal bowl. Honestly, I'm pretty impressed that he can actually do that, so I go with it and reward. It's such a tight fit that all four of his feet are together/touching in the bowl, so that's pretty advanced for a 12-week old puppy! He likes to step into the bowl while holding the spoon in his mouth. Okay, close enough.
Today's schedule was a bit different than usual. I went into the office this morning and got back home around 12:45. Jedi's lunch training session was jumping onto the teeter plank, which he is now attacking with gusto. Tomorrow we might be ready to raise it another inch or so. After playing on the teeter we came inside and worked on slamming some drawers shut. I think he's starting to figure out what I'm asking there, but at first he was offering wave, pretty, and all sorts of other stuff. He definitely doesn't seem bothered by the movement.
I had a meeting at 1:00 to sit through and Jedi pretty much spent the whole time running around outside playing, which is what he did until we left at 2:00. He was high as a kite and dragging on my pants as I got ready to go. I had to back into the office for a 3:00 meeting that was best done in person. I was told I could do it remote, but considering it was only 60 degrees out today I decided that it would be a good opportunity to take a couple of dogs along and do an outing a little further from home than I usually go on a weeknight.
I put Kizzy and Jedi in the van with a couple of new hooves to keep them occupied. Apparently it was nap time for Jedi again, because he was absolutely (upside down) crashed when we got downtown. I pulled over and let Jedi out in the park before going into the parking ramp to make sure he had a chance to go potty quick. The nice part about going back into the office that late is that you get your pick of parking spots, so I got a spot on the first level. I opened the far back windows to the van and left a note in the front window with my phone number just in case they started to make noise for some reason (I didn't expect anything, but I'm so wary about leaving my dogs in public places).
My meeting wrapped up on schedule and I was able to get out of the office by 4:20, so the dogs were only left for about an hour and a half. It appeared that they had each had a good nap while I was gone. I had emailed my mom before my meeting started and let her know I was back in town again and asked if she would like to join us for a walk around the park, and she was able to leave at the same time that I was, so that worked out well. I met her outside and then we went together to move the van to a spot next to the park.
Riverside Park is a really lovely park with a trail about a mile long around the perimeter. Before I started only going to work half days, my mom and I would walk it every day at lunch time. Not long ago the park was actually closed to dogs (as were most parks in La Crosse), but within the last year or so they changed the ordinance to allow leashed dogs. It's unfortunate to see how many people abuse this privilege by letting their dogs run free and not cleaning up after them, so hopefully the city doesn't reverse their decision.
We walked back up to my office building and walked around the theater, then we stopped to check out the fountain in front of my office. Jedi was pretty interested in checking this out -- so was Kizzy, but she misjudged her leap and landed in the fountain. Oops! She was pretty wet and dejected after that, not fond of posing for pictures or anything. lolJedi took in all the new scenery like a champ. There weren't a ton of people out and about, but we saw a couple of runners, people walking, and a bike or two. We checked out the big fountain, where thankfully nobody went swimming this time (no promises if it were hot, though, because Jedi was very interested).
We continued around the park to the area where there are always ducks hanging out. Jedi didn't seem to notice them at first (Kizzy did!), but once they started moving it got his attention. I'd be curious to see what would happen if I let him go, but don't chase the wildlife and all that jazz.There was a gentleman with two young children hanging out in the area around the ducks. We stopped and let the kids pet the dogs and chatted with them for a bit. Hooray for kid exposure!
We finished that loop of the park and then stopped for some more picture posing. Kizzy was still wet and ornery, and by this time Jedi just wanted to play (I'd been carrying a wool tuggy the whole time because he was in a feisty mood and had been going after both leashes).We started to walk back towards the van and were going to wrap things up, but then I saw the fun little fountains that run the pathway next to my mom's office -- so I figured we'd walk her to her car and let the dogs explore a bit more. Jedi was all over that, he thought these little waterways were pretty awesome. He jumped right up on the ledge and walked along there for a bit, but it wasn't long before he just hopped right in (these are really shallow). Again, we might have to come exploring here again on a hot day.
In all we were out on our little adventure for an hour. Before we left, I stuck Kizzy in the van and took Jedi back into the park to let him chase a tennis ball for a bit, then did some running around like a crazy person with the fleece octopus tug (I was kind of hidden by trees -- at least I didn't see anyone, but I'm sure someone could have seen me, haha).
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