Will BBogart come when he is called?

When we arrived at our 9am morning meeting we learned that they were going to be cutting down the trees in front of the building. To be safe they decided that we’d take the van downtown and do some work there. Once again we all piled into the van and headed down to the second cup. Went we were all out of the van and harnessed up we headed off. Bogart and I were in the lead. He did fine. When we got to the corner of Navy and Lakeshore Courtney asked me to say “stay” and then ask for “left inside”. left inside” to get him to find the door to the second cup. I followed Courtney through the shop to get to the back patio. Honestly, it was nice and sunny and I certainly wanted to sit out in the sun. Bogart did great here. I was the only one sitting out there for most of the time. However, we were sitting beside the main pathway to the ramp up to the back door. This was a pretty high traffic area. Bogart did wonderfully. I think he only got up once to investigate.

We then went out on our walk. Bogart did pretty good on his walk. We walked east on Lakeshore heading towards Allan street. We had one interesting moment where Bogart was trying to figure out how to get around a slow moving woman. He found the space and opportunity to go around her to the left but then there was a mother and her 3 year old running free. He went screaming across in front of Bogart. Apparently he is afraid of dogs. This had Bogart slamming on the brakes to a complete stop. Well his mother, not thinking on many levels, told her child she could pet the dog as long as he only pet the body. Aw yeah, his teeth can’t reach his body. Secondly, there was the whole issue of him being a working dog in harness. We told the mother that they couldn’t pet the dog because he was working. To be honest, I wasn’t too worried about the kid. If he is afraid of dogs then there is no need to make this scenario more than it needed to be. But his parents, on the other hand, also still pet the dog. Grr….

Once free of that situation Bogart continued on his merry way doing quite well. Our next challenge Leah told me was that we were coming up on a challenging construction obstacle ahead. Bogart did really well because he had to weave me to the left and then, with a tree right in front of us, make a 90 degree right turn, a few steps and then a 90 left turn to get us back on course. It was very nicely done. The thing I will need to learn is when he is guiding me excellently like that compared to when he is “window shopping”. This is what I like to call it when he is not paying attention.

Our next hazard was a woman with about 3 little dogs. This was all too much for Bogart and he had to stop to smell and say hello. Personally, I think those little dogs were hoping that the giant fluffy dog didn’t see them. One of them was standing perfectly still just hoping for the best. I got Bogart refocused on heading forward and the rest of the walk was uneventful. We ended up back at the Second Cup and piling back into the van again to return for lunch.


In the afternoon the first thing we did was recall exercises. For this leah kept Bogart with her and I went down the hall and hid in a side exit. Then I was to shake the harness and yell, “Bogart come, come here Bogart” several times. In my hand were some very high reward treats. Some sort of dried bacon I think. He found me pretty quickly and got rewarded and praised for his efforts. We did this three times with me in different places and he came and found me pretty quickly each time. We are going to work on this a bit more in the courtyard over our last week. I’m hoping that Bogart will be a dog that will come when he is called since this will give him more freedom in the cool off leash park close to my house.

Once we were done this drill we then started working on using the harness in the building. We had Bogart go down the hall and find the door where he goes to relieve himself. Then I bring him back and get him to find the stair doorway. We also had him “left inside” from the hallway to get into the dining room. Then it is the “find the seat” command. I am really the only person that this will work pretty good for since my chair is totally on the end of the table. Not the side at the end but at the head of the table. We need to keep practicing these thins. He doesn’t like going up stairs in harness so I just drop the harness and hold the leash. I should take this time to compliment Bogart on his stairs. I think I mentioned earlier that he was refusing pretty consistently at the stairs. Well, now it is the rare time when he refuses. One thing I’ve have done when going up stairs is to not pause at the bottom of the up stairs which is where he always refused. I just start walking up the stairs and he heals nicely. I’ve had him come down the stairs twice in harness and he didn’t seem to mind that much. He had a nice easy pace and was slow and calm on the landing. Obviously, I make sure he stops at the top of all stairs going down. We are heading into Toronto on Thursday for some subway work and we will see how he does on stairs there. I partly think that it is just going up and down the same stairs here in his comfortable space that is part of the problem.


We have been told that we can now use our harnesses in the building and it is our choice as to where and when we do this. Usually I have him in harness at the table for lunch and supper. To be honest, lately at breakfast I am running so late that I just don’t want to deal with putting him in harness to go downstairs to the relieving area. Taking him out of harness to relieve himself and then putting the harness on again to go to the breakfast table seems like a lot of work for both him and I. he is now much better behaved at the table. Usually something happens that excites him and gets him up. We then have one of our little battles to get him sitting again and then he goes down nicely, staying there for most of the meal. I have noticed that he seems to have these moments of excitement when my mouth is full and my hands busy with knives and forks. 
Tomorrow we do traffic checks in the morning and afternoon.