First Walk Takes Extra TIme

On the fifth day I had the opportunity to test  Magnet in a typical working environment for me.  I study Hebrew on my own full-time, and only take piece-meal work.  This was a call from someone I know loves dogs.  For the first time Magnet didn't poo in a reasonable amount of time, so I was afraid to take him on the bus, figuring he'd get the urge right there and then.  I'd left the house with a lot of extra time on purpose because it was a nice day and I felt like doing extra walking with him, so things seemed to fit since the location wasn't too far. 

We got about a mile down the road, and he began to get over eager.  He's never been a precision "heeler" but I couldn't accept the pulling he was increasing as we got further from the house, never slowing down.  I'd learned proper leash-work techniques and commands as a high schooler, and they are the foundation for my future plans after he's learned my voice.  Hopefully in a year or two I'll have him able to go off-leash and retain complete control for his safety.  The answer I'd learned from those lessons wasn't available to me, namely a different collar.  We'd been practicing "sits" but he hadn't mastered them yet.  Still, I felt the best way to slow him down was to require "sit's" and "stays" every few yards until he realized he wasn't cooperating.

We went about a half mile doing the sits and stays, and all the extra time before my appointment was gone.  I thought of the man waiting for me, and how understanding he was of  Rocky and his refusal to be touched by anyone.  I'd always bring Rocky when I was in this gentleman's office or home after giving notice. I thought hard and  decided this was an extremely important stage that had to be figured out despite any tardiness.  I'm glad because I learned the technique that will work for Magnet forever, without a doubt, and is much preferable to the alternatives. Of course, I didn't remeber the technique until a lot of the walk had passed.   It's a technique I learned when I first volunteered for ARL of Boston called an "Improvised Harness."  This simply involves looping an ordinary leash under the chest and back through any collar.  This is very gentle for most dogs when they've gotten a bit unruly, returning control to the walker.  Magnet demonstrates (I had to wake him from a nap though):

My employer for the day understood completely when we walked in the door twenty two minutes late.  After all, this was a casual Sunday.

I let Magnet lick my friend's hand, and began to work.  Unfortunately, Magnet found a game I wasn't pleased with, making a tug of war game out of my employers jeans.  He went from hand licking to mean tugging in a flash.  I needed to take his action as a compliment.  He was afraid he was being taken away from his new master.