....is not easy, especially when he's 65 pounds of pure muscle, somewhat stubborn, and determined to sniff every square inch of his surroundings. I'd been out on a lot of walks with John and D.J. before I finally soloed yesterday after work, just me and D.J., in the last of the afternoon sun. 

Frankly, it went abysmally. I came home feeling less like I had had fresh air, exercise, and companionship with my dog than I did feeling like this was probably what pro wrestling felt like. Accustomed to my strong husband on the other end of the lead, D.J. immediately sensed my weaker body strength, inexperience and nervousness, and exploited it as much as he could. I must say for myself that I was really firm with him. I must have jerked him over to the left hand side of me six million times with the reprimand tone in my voice, following that up with a "good doggie" sort of phrase to let him know that walking next to me was behaviour that I approved of, and at crosswalks, sometimes it took several years to get him to sit, but we stayed until he did. 

My firmness of yesterday seems to have paid off, because I decided to do the early-morning walk with him this morning, and it went tons better.  There was still some pulling, but much less so, but he was much quicker to obey my commands, and seemed altogether a different dog. Thank goodness for that!  

I'll be glad when some decent weather gets here and I'm not walking him across snow and ice in bitter weather. This morning the cold and the wind were just dreadful; it was lovely to come home and snuggle back under the blankets. 

( Nice photo of John walking D.J. on a typical Ontario winter day.... )