Resistance is futile

Godpa enrolled himself for obedience training! Yep, he will be starting on a class this Saturday for my sake. It will be hard work for him but he says I would also have to prepare myself for some tough times ahead. It has been 4 months of bonding with godpa and he feels we're both ready to go through with it.

Yesterday the weather was gloomy but we went ahead to visit the dogrun in the late morning. This time there was just 4 other dogs so I could comfortably run about on my own. I barked quite a lot yesterday, especially at things outside the fence.

Nowadays, I don't get to ride the car in front with godpa because I get too excited and bark till godpa's ears ring. For my own safety and also to help godpa focus on driving, I get to rest in my crate at the back of the car. The view is not fantastic but it's a lot more comfortable for both of us.

Who's afraid of the big bad ...

Godpa took me on a walk out of the estate this afternoon, it's not my first time but somehow I was rather disturbed and barked at all the cars passing by. Later, we reached a plateau of open grass area where godpa spotted 2 large dogs running off leash! Now he was the one who got disturbed and quickly turned us around to head home. I didn't see the dogs coz I'm much shorter than godpa but I got a whiff of them. Godpa says the dog owner is irresponsible because she did not consider the risk it poses to other doggies. Back near the roads, I resumed my barking and pulling. Godpa tried to calm me down by stopping and using treats to get me to sit. I did try to sit which is much better than last time but still could not calm down. In the end, godpa picked me up and I was carried home like a big baby.

Eat to live

Godpa came home early today and then everyone left the house. He took time off to bring his parents out window shopping. As usual I prefer to watch the house, shopping in the city is not my cup of tea. Godpa says they enjoyed some special peanut kaya toast and tea at Kopi Roti located in the basement of The Central. Dinner was at the Soup Spoon located in Raffles City. Godpa likes the pumpkin soup there though it seems to have gotten a little thinner.

Back home, godpa's dad gave me a walk before godpa took over and gave me a brisk walk. Godpa inserted some training into the walk and I did some great "sit" outdoors. I'm moving on to learning what "down" means. He's been continuously motivating himself to communicate well with me by reading more books. The latest one is "Katz on Dogs: A Commonsense Guide to Training and Living with Dogs" by Jon Katz. Godpa says it's a good read but then when he saw the reviews on the net, he has to discount the author's credibility. Here's a good snippet godpa wanted to share with me:

"Adaptability is a dog's most distinctive trait. Even mistreated dogs can be trained and retrained. I don't refer to my border collie Orson as an abused dog, first because I don't really know what happened to him, and second because it's beside the point. He needs to be trained anyway."