Dog Days of August

Simon and I had such a peaceful walk this morning. We went to one of our favorite off leash areas and he got to romp through the woods and along the paths. I have noticed that during these off leash walks it seems like he is checking in with me more often than he used to. I like that a lot!

One of my favorite things to do when walking with Simon is to just watch him and see how his development is progressing. He has been a polite greeter on the trail for years now, so I need not worry about that. When Simon and I are out hiking one of our ‘rules’ is that whenever we meet up with other people on the trail we pull off to the side and he patiently waits for them to pass- he makes no attempt to greet them. Of course if people ask to say “hi” to him, I always say Yes! as Simon adores the attention. I am beginning to wonder if Simon is starting to do this on his own now. See what you think:

We only met up with two other parties out walking this morning. Our first encounter was a young woman out for a morning jog. At the time she came upon us Simon was ahead of me and she approached from behind us. As she passed Simon, with me watching intently to see what degree of politeness he was to offer, he merely stood to the side of the path and watched as she jogged on past him. Then he looked at me, trotted up to me and I told him he did a very fine job of being a polite dog.

The second party we met included a man, a woman and their Border Collie. We were moving towards them when Simon caught sight of everyone. He did his typical move when a new dog approaches- lying flat and waiting. The man passed by him, then the woman and he remained lying down. The Border Collie came up to him and had a sniff and he remained lying down. Then he got up did a happy dance, added in a few spins and then full of doggie happiness he ran as fast as he could to catch up with me. Of course I told him he was the absolute best dog in the entire world and celebrated his choice to be with me. Now, it used to be that Simon would leap up much sooner in his greetings, but this time he really waited until everyone had passed and it was only he and the other dog left to greet. Interesting….