Encouraged!

Great long walk today! We went on a circuit I like in the summer for jogging that includes a bike path along a marsh. We passed tons of people on the way. I worked extra hard to stay calm and breath, and Gustav didn't even put his hackles up! I wasn't brave enough to stay right on the sidewalk, but I went up into driveways to buy us a little more space.

We had a great time tromping through deep deep snow. Gustav got to chase ducks with his muzzle on and did three amazing recalls-once from pretty far away and while staring at ducks! At a dead run!

We had one hiccup, when we were walking along and a dog on a line in its front yard suddenly lunged at us and started barking. I did a 180 without any barking from my dogs. There was no sidewalk across the street, so we had no choice but to run past the dog in the street. The sidewalk would've been way way too close for comfort. The dogs barked and carried on, but once we got past the dog, I had them sit and we went back towards the dog a little, to impress upon them that quiet sitting and good listening makes the scary dog go away, not tantrums and hysterics. They did great. Hooray!

Dottie stayed in her room all alone while I was home for five minutes with a great kong. I'll keep trying to increase the time/distraction (separately) so I can put her away when necessary without a lot of whining and barking.