Day 138

Funny thing happened this morning. I was sending a board and train dog home and needed to do the exit lesson. Since the ground was covered with snow and ice we worked in the studio. When I got ready to start the lesson, much to my surprise Wrap was on the "helper's bed" instead of Sanity. I don't have a clue as to what was going on, but for some reason they decided to trade places. Sanity stayed outside with the other dogs to play in the snow and Wrap was back to being my helper. It did make her happy and it was so nice to work with a partner who is part mind-reader. A thing that only happens after working together for years.

Linda came over and took Sanity and I to Columbia Mall for an outing. I know, I know, there are lots of people out there who would consider a voluntary Mall trip this time of year to be extreme punishment. But I don't get out that much and Sanity needs all the outside exposure I can manage to give her. It was really crowded and I can't imagine how much worse it will get as the season moves on.

This tree was just breath-taking and I so wanted to get a good picture of Sanity using the tree as the background. There turned out to be two serious problems with the picture taking. First the floor was so slippery that she was having a super difficult time holding the sit/stay and not sliding back and falling into the water. Second there were way too many people and they kept on walking between the camera(me) and where she was holding her position. Then they started walking behind her as well and we just sort of gave it up as a bad job.

She was like the country rube when we first got there. Trying to look in all directions at once and sniff everything at once and sort of "do" everything at once. It was so bad at one point that she managed to squeeze herself onto the scooter platform just so she could pay more attention to what was going on and less attention to where she was walking.

Speaking of walking/heeling next to my scooter. HA! I lost count of the number of times she managed to get a foot run over and not even notice it had happened. The number of times she managed to run into the scooter, well if I said at least a thousand I don't think I would be exaggerating a bit. I really would have liked to stay a bit longer, but sadly this dimwit had forgotten to plug the scooter in after the last use and I started to run out of juice. So we had to beat feet home. The last little bit going up the ramp to get into the house was not fun at all.

It probably worked out for the best. Sanity was almost as tired as I was by the time we got back home. More trips have now been moved to the top of the list of necessary things to do.