Today's Sunshine

The pollen attack is really kicking my butt this year, but I've found something almost like a solution. The past couple of days I've spent most of the time out in the garden with Monster, sitting on a blanket armed with a bag of chicken and a tug ball. The long weekend and the amazing weather means there's been a lot of activity around us, and I've just been working on rewarding calm and attention.

It's not ideal, but it is training of a sort and Monster seems a lot more relaxed now. He gets quite a bit of stimulation, a challenge whenever children run screaming by the fence or a dog starts barking, and attention and praise from me, as well as some general physical activity running around to check out all the smells and sounds.

Fun in the sun!

He's been doing pretty good actually, and this afternoon he just lay beside me contentedly watching some kids, a biker and a scooter pass by without caring - stuff he'd usually react quite strongly to, if not necessarily aggressively.