Day 145

Tuesday and since I traded my mouse voice for no voice at all, I gave all training a pass for the day.

Then because I thought I was feeling better in the evening we go out to dinner. It was the annual end of the year dinner for the Citizen's Advisory Committee I sit on. Well, what can I say? I really did feel better. My throat didn't hurt and my voice was back. Real raspy, but workable. I pretty much never go anywhere and I really didn't want to miss this.

Sweat suit and in training cape on, ecollar for silent, low-key communication and we are off to Red Lobster. Snag of the sort that says, "maybe you really should stay home". The battery is dead in my car. Not to worry, son Jesse volunteers to take us in his truck. Getting in and out of that truck is spelled P A I N, but I really want to go and so we go.

I'm glad we went. Dinner was fun and Sanity behaved like she had been doing this all her life. Well actually, now that I think about it she sort of has been doing this sort of thing all her life. Since they don't do reservations, we had to do the wait thing. Sanity came, sat, turned, downed and then backed up to fit under the bench with not a single hitch. When our table was called she heeled when I told her to, moved forward in front of me when I told her to and followed when I told her to and most important of all she kept her nose to herself.

At this point in her training the keeping her nose to herself in a restaurant is a major point with me. She is now tall enough to rest her head on the tables as we move passed them. I needed to give a tap or two in one particularly narrow aisle where the food on both sides was close enough for her to snag a bite without breaking stride. Good girl that she can be, with just those couple of reminder taps she stayed totally focused on her job and never even so much as turned her head towards the temptations.

During the course of the evening, one person after another left to use the restrooms only to come back with a story about who the met while they were gone and all the questions they were asked about THE DOBERMAN under their table. Seems the thing that was of most interest was her tender age and how they had never seen a dog so well behaved, much less one so young. Good Girl, Sanity, good girl. When she is good, she is very, very good and when she is bad she is horrid.