Adventures in Walking the Third: Actually Going Outside

Sometime over the past 10 days Marty realized that going outside is fun!  Still very scary, but the fear is outweighed by the possibility of fun.

I didn't mention this last week, since I thought it would have been a one off experience, but last Wednesday, Marty pooped and peed (non-dog owners may not realize this, but talking about poop and pee is almost commonplace between dog owners.  Never thought I'd be talking to a random cute girl about dog poop, but it's happened...twice) someplace that wasn't my backyard.

I accomplished this by taking Marty on a long walk, about 2 hours long.  We ended up at a park about a block from my house.  Marty always felt "comfortable" in this park, not comfortable enough to pee or anything, but comfortable enough that sometimes his tail wagged a bit.  This visit wasn't a fun visit though.  This visit was war.

Throughout the long walk, Marty had been making eye contact with me, as if to say "I gotta go pee, and we're nowhere near home...what should I do?"  When he realized that we weren't going to go home his eyes then said, "It's on."

When we finally did a giant loop around VA Square and Clarendon, we ended up Gumball Park.  Our eyes met again, his eyes begging to go home for sweet release, my eyes drenched in sweat and burning with a fire to see my dog poop in a park.

I decided to chase Marty around a bit and try to make him forget about being scared...EUREKA!!  It worked.  Marty started peeing after about a minute.  Tons of praise and treats followed.  Then, he produced his encore.  Equally praised and full or treats.

Since then, he has no problem going outside of backyard, but he was still scared of going outside.  Last weekend, something changed.  From Monday and through our walk this morning, Marty has been almost running out the door.  He gets scared numerous times throughout the walk, but still, he has no problem leaving the house, and generally enjoys walks a lot more.

I'm so proud of the little guy!  Here's a little video of us hanging out in the park.  Check out the giant difference between his manner in this video:

And this picture:

I'm proud of him and so excited for when he's even more comfortable.

On a side note, Marty's been hilarious with his cone, but has also been letting me clean his ears and apply his ointment.  His paw is already looking better and he barely fidgets when I clean his ear and apply the ointment!

Expect lots of pictures from the weekend with Elmo!

K byeeeeeee