On The Road

Today, Zachary and I headed out "On The Road" (again?)

This time we went to the outdoor Cafe associated with the Library. I picked that spot because I wanted to test a 20' Come (half of Level two's 40' requirement and twice Canine Good Citizen's 10' requirement) and I knew the area was somewhat enclosed and usually had at least a few people there - particularly on a Saturday as nice as today.

My thinking was that on the off-chance Zachary didn't come, he would go a-visiting. While that wouldn't be great, it would be a heck of a lot better than running out into the street or parking lot!

It turns out I had nothing to fear. After "warming up" testing Distance (2' around a cone) and Go To Mat (5'), and noting the mom reading to her sweet little girl just a few feet away, I put Zachary in a sit-stay and walked about 20' away.

"Zachary, Here!"

Zoooooooom... goes Zachary, and a heart-beat or two later he was looking up at me adoringly.

Whew.

For our last "trick", I decided to test 10 seconds of Watch.

Yeah, right.

Remember that mom and the sweet little girl? They must have hit a funny part of the book. Every time the girl giggled Zachary just had to look. Every 8-9 seconds there would be another giggle, every 8-9 seconds he would look over. He didn't move, but he didn't keep eye contact continuously either.

As the book showed no signs of ending, I finally turned off the camera and tried to use it a teachable moment, but it's really hard to say if it sank in or not.

Finally, and the real reason we were there, it was time to do a Meet-n-Greet. Remember last time when Zachary had no "customers"? I was really hoping today wouldn't be a repeat. To that end, I parked him as close to the sliding glass doors as I could get without him triggering the auto-opening feature. I also timed things so the library was about 30 minutes from closing so I figured people would have to be leaving. Lastly, I had him all dressed-up in a cute red-heart scarf.

Once again, he looked adorable.

I wish I could say 1000 people came to say "hi", but I can't.

We certainly had many folks walk by - most within a foot or two - but most kept going in or out. Zachary was so good. He sat, stood, or laid down as I asked, he looked at the people longingly, occasionally had a quick hand to nose interaction, and was a really good boy.

He did get a few "takers" and his ability to stay seated is obviously still a work in progress, but all in all, I was pleased. I do think next time we'll have to find a new spot. This one just isn't working out as well for Zachary as it did for Beau.