Sitting, Patiently

Patience is also a form of action. ~ Auguste Rodin

I've been working on my sits. I don't just sit now, I have to sit, patiently. Here I am sitting, waiting while fosterpops does his thing prior to a morning walk. He has to go get my treats from the fridge, poop bags, his shoulder bag, put on his shoes, grab his keys. Sometimes he's in the kitchen forever because he's cutting up treats or he's looking for bags. Sometimes he walks back to the bedroom because he forgot to turn the air conditioning off. Sometimes he goes to his computer to check the weather. Sometimes he fusses about what he wants to wear. There's always something. Meanwhile I sit waiting. Patiently.

Sugar Hill Morning

We usually walk up on Sugar Hill in the mornings. Its a route that is 10 blocks long overlooking a park, and you can see almost all the way along it. On a sunday morning, its practically empty and we walk the 10 blocks and turn around and come back hardly seeing anyone but a couple of park attendants. Yup, there's some new nuances to my leash walking- I do a little bit of the looking around and checking on what fosterpops is doing which gets a lot of 'good boys' and treats. I'm getting better and better at this. Things can get a little unsettled if I see a dog or too many in a row and I forget myself and start racing ahead but I can get back more quickly now into a normal stride.

Zen Moment

When I had my evaluation and fosterpops told my trainer Jenny that we were walking 4 miles a day, she said,'try more'. So we now walk 30 blocks in the morning and 30 in the evening- that's about 6 miles a day. The scientists say physical exercise causes the body to release beta-endorphins, enhances noradrenergic activity (increasing the production of noradrenaline) and increases serotonin metabolism in the brain.What does this mean? It means I am extremely chill these days. Here I am about half an hour away from my evening walk and I'm totally having a zen moment.