OK, so a continuation of sorts from my “Off Peninsula” posting.

One, Coco the dog is better. She is on medication and will be fine. She also has about $700.00 in dental work she needs so I told Coco she should just get a job. (The vet told us we could save money towards the surgery. I wanted to say, “You could charge less.” I don’t think I have ever had $700.00 worth of dental work done)

Through trial and error this week I had a break through – however short lived it might be – in My Walks With Thorin and the Dogs.

The major error – real rookie mistake in hindsight – don’t give the four-year-old the keys to the house to carry on the walk and think giving him that job will make him behave. If he had thrown the keys I probably would have heard them because I have a lot of them but he must have knelt down and gently put them on the sidewalk. He is diabolical.  When I finally realized they were missing there was the retracing of the walk, the crying (me), the laughing (him) and the whining (the dogs).

The solution. On yesterday’s walk he picked up a big stick and alternated between using it like a walking stick and a bush, tree, Mommy, dog switch. I said, in a sunny, optimistic voice, “Let’s play follow the leader!” A super positive response of, “Yay!” told me I had him.

He walked in front of us, continuous movement forward, always in sight and I didn’t have to walk backwards or yell. Of course, he continued hitting everything in sight including Walt the dog on the rump but it ended up being a pleasant enough walk.