SUCCESS!

posted: March 9, 2012

Whew! Thursday was a busy day.

I took the opportunity Thursday morning to enjoy the benefits of being a small business owner.

Metro Vancouver is hosting Sustainability Community Breakfasts. It’s an opportunity to hear what is going on with the city and surrounding areas. Topics cover a wide variety of issues. Today’s breakfast topic was the first part of a two-part series on Dematerialization. The panelists were internationally recognized leaders in their respective fields who were in town for a conference. Local politician Adriane Carr from the Green Party was sitting just behind me in the audience. It was an excellent opportunity to hear about integrating economy and ecology from some really interesting people. I could talk a lot more about it as I’m trying to make a living off walking in the woods. But we’re here to talk about doggies!

Millie’s owner kindly let me delay the start of our walk so I could attend the breakfast. Normally, Millie’s owner meets me outside and Millie already has her walking gear on. So today was going to be a bit of a test to see how Millie would do with me coming into her home to get her without her owner there.

I decided for me success would be being able to put on her walking gear and then take her on our walk as usual. But I wasn’t going to put a time limit on it. My tools were going to be patience, calm, treats and time to build trust. And wouldn’t you know it. It worked!  It wasn’t quick, she did growl at first. But we did it! SUCCESS!

Because we did vary from the pickup routine Millie was a little more reserved on the first half of the walk. It’s always interesting to see how the dogs react to different scenarios. Millie seemed to want to make sure I was keeping an eye out for her (she would stop just out of sight behind a tree and wait) and kept her distance a little more than she usually does. You can see what I mean in the video.

We were exploring a new trail by following some flagging. However, the trail and flagging abruptly ended at a cliff. So we decided to turn around and go back essentially the way we came.

The sun came out for a bit! We sat on the rocks for a bit and soaked up the view and sun. A great day all in all.

Until next time.