Edith… and the walkabout

I wanted to share with you my walk with Edith this morning. I have taken Edith out for a “walk” every day since she was approx 4mths old. She is now 14mths old and today was the first day I was able to go for a walk WITH her! I let Edith dictate how far and for how long I walk her. Sometimes I can’t even get out of the driveway with her due to her arousal level being at octane levels and sometimes I can get past the gate and up to the road before I have to turn around with her but each day I watch her arousal level and see if she can “hear” me. Today she asked to step past the gate and just calmly walk across the driveway so we just continued down the driveway. Now and then I would  inform her I’m stopping and she would eventually come and ask me to carry on moving. Today I was able to walk a complete loop of my neighborhood (~3miles) we walked past 4 humans, 2 had a dog each. Not only did Edith completely ignore the humans she just looked at the dogs for 2-3 seconds and then just kept moving on. She did not pull me, and checked in with me frequently. It was an absolute delight to be out with her. Never in a million years did I think I would get to a point whereby we could enjoy her walk and for her to be calm and laidback. Tomorrow is a new day but I will take the small victories.