Town Forest and PetSmart today

It was a beautiful day for a walk, so we went to the Town Forest.

Pro wore a snazzy new backpack, actually it's not new, it was Ebony's. Maybe if I fill it with rocks it will use up some of Pro's energy! But today it was empty, just getting used to it. Pro took it in stride.

Handsome, eh?

Now that the weather is nicer, there are a lot more dogs at the Town Forest, and it didn't go super well. Most dogs are off leash, and don't really listen to their owners, so all in all it is way too uncontrolled for Pro at this point. A couple of times dogs ran up to him, and his behavior was way too over the top, not paying attention to me at all, not good for him to practice. Though each time, once the other dog moved along, he settled right back down. But for now, we'll need to work somewhere more below threshold. Hence, our trip to PetSmart:

As you can see, we're starting a loooong way from the store. This was actually the perfect distance to start. You can tell by Pro's big wrinkly forehead that any closer would have been too close:

I think we'll be spending a lot of time right about here. He actually worked quite well here, some loose leash walking and hand touch, and just lots and lots of hanging out and looking. Pro really seems to need a lot of looking time. I just read a good article about taking things slow with training, and just letting your dog learn to do nothing with you, it fit in perfectly with the training place we're in right now. I think at first I did well with taking it slow with Pro, but I've started moving a little too fast. I think it is because he acts so normal most of the time now, I forget that he still has so much to learn.