Walking Part 2

Since my last post about Dante's walking, he has made a lot of progress, but also some other issues have arisen.

Now, I don't want to make this sound like he has tons of issues and isn't learning, but it's the truth.  And well, he can't go anywhere if he doesn't start somewhere. 

Dante has almost stopped refusing to walk.  He doesn't plant himself, but he lets you know he doesn't want to go for about ten steps before he realizes "Hey, this is fun!"  One funny thing is: no matter where we are, Dante know where home is, and always tries to get there.  I don't know why he is such home-body.  He really does love his walks, seeing the world, and going to new places, but he never refuses the offer to go home. 

I have been really surprised at how much endurance he has.  Even from the beginning he can keep a pretty brisk pace for 30 minutes and still want to run around the back yard for as long as I'll let him (there's another post coming on that). Dante loves to walk as fast as he can, and would really prefer to run (I can't run with him until he is 12 months), so we have been working on walking a lot slower.  He's got that down pretty good, and (for the most part) will stick to whatever pace I am going.

Overall, Dante is a really good walker and will only get over-excited when he sees the drains ;).  But in the last week or so, he has started to walk right behind me instead of next to me so that he can jump up and grab the leash or my shorts.  This has gotten really old really fast.  He has mostly only been doing this for the first half of our walks, so I'm hoping that he is just excited and will grow out of it quickly.   Dante has also started barking when he does this, but if I stop and ignore him, he stops relatively quickly. 

Dante has had almost no accidents during his walks.  Mostly due to the timing that I take him.  If I don't walk him within two hours of him going #2, it's pretty inevitable that he will go while we're walking.  So, I've been trying my best to set him up for success.  There was one funny time when he started to go right in front of a house that was having work done, and one of the guys saw him.  I wasn't forcing or pulling Dante around, but I was tugging just enough so that he would know that it was unacceptable.  The guy saw and asked why I didn't just let him go, so I explained that he is is training and was working, etc.  His reply:  "You should really watch the 'Dog Whisperer' to learn how to train your dog."  Hahaha!  I still laugh at that one!

I know this post is already longer then I expected, but now that I have written it out and see it, I think Dante is making more progress then I realize.  I can sometimes get frustrated when walking Dante, and just have to keep reminding myself that he is only three months and we still have lots of time to work things out.