Party Time!

I have EXCITING NEWS!
Yesterday morning, we went downtown for some errands and you'll NEVER GUESS who I saw! I'll tell you! I SAW CAMDEN! You know, my friend Camden that lives at Dot's and I play with almost every day? YEAH! HIM! He was outside of my favorite store (WinniPaw) selling raffle tickets to benefit A.C.T.S.! If you enter, you have a chance to win Red Sox Tickets! Oh Boy! That was a great day. I want to go back and see if Camden is still there. He's great.

We also had a party yesterday! There were lots of people and lots of kids and lots of food! I was really hot and tired from our trip in town so I took a nap while people were here, and then I went outside and visited them and I knew better than to try to eat their food or jump on them. I practiced all of my manners and let them compliment me on my looks all day. It was a good time.

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Westin was a good boy downtown. It was outrageously hot outside, and all of the stores had their doors open so it was hot inside, too. He laid down every chance he got which wasn't a problem because most of our shopping was in Hallmark looking for cards, which took a while - especially since I got approached by a few curious people who asked about puppy raising, ACTS, and what service dogs do. He was pretty well-behaved. We ran into a few struggles outside of WinniPaw. Camden was there, which got them both excited but not out of control. I just told him "easy" and tugged on his leash, and he was alright. The second time after we left Hallmark, there were multiple dogs outside and it was a little busy. Westin wanted to play with them all. I had to tell him to "leave it" (particularly a dog smaller than my cat), offended its owner because she goes "oh so now he's an 'it'.."and continue on down the sidewalk. (Hey, I can't please everyone, sometimes you just need to focus on the goal). Well, we got to the car and Westin didn't want to leave because his friends were all back at WinniPaw. So I bribed him with a treat to get in the car/forget that he just saw about 6 other dogs, and go on our merry way to Harvest Market for milk, bread, and his all-time favorite, cheese. There were not any further arguments and we had a great time.

The party was a good learning experience for Westin. He only tried to sniff the food table once and was told "leave it" and listened. He practiced his "under" for going under the table and laying down at my feet- it was the perfect opportunity/set up for what we would experience in a restaurant, with other tables of people eating and other busy things going on. He did well and just fell asleep. Since we were home, I didn't have him in a harness or vest, but because we were outside in my non-fenced in backyard, I felt like it was safest to have a leash on him just in case he saw something he wanted to chase, or I needed to give him a slight tug away from a dropped hamburger.

We have either made progress or fell backwards as far as the gentle leader goes. He doesn't try to take it off anymore, but he turns his head or backs away from me when I try to put it on him, which is not the desired response.