Well thank you all for your wishes, strong vibes, love, and good thoughts.

AS FOR TODAY!

Calvin’s foster home had some concerns with a local town trail, the amount of traffic, and some blustery moments they experienced with Calvin on that trail, so instead of hitting the University we opted for a Linear Trail walk.

We passed no less than a dozen people, no less than a dozen people on bikes, and four people with dogs, three of whom were on leash (yay! I love them to the moon and back for reading the signs!)

Calvin was so excited to be on the trail, he happily wagged as we would pass a person, and the word I use so we can keep walking is ‘Calvin On By’. He was smooth and fluid and happier to smell the tall grass anyway.

The bikers were for the most part respectful, only one tried to mow us down by not saying anything as he creeped up behind us. ‘Calvin on by’ and we kept walking.

NOTE – I personally don’t like pulling over and making a dog sit as a distraction goes by unless they are completely overwhelmed, and then in that case I probably made a bad choice for that dog in that environment and need an exit strategy.

Calvin did lovely walking, smelling, and passing while in fluid motion. Not one walker or biker set him off.

When I saw dogs coming our way I watched him to see what his reaction would be. He is SO GOOD with dogs and cats, but like most adolescent dogs, it is hard to contain the excitement of meeting a new friend when you see them walking towards you. He was good, he noticed but nothing over the top. I asked each of the three on leash, before the reached us, if my dog could say hello, they all said yes, and Calvin was so wonderful and polite in his greeting. And then I would say “Okay, lets go” and he easily redirected and we would walk away.

Our off leash dog owner on a leash only trail had the only out of control free roaming dog I saw today, and it was not appreciated by any of the trail users. We let him get way out of distance and then proceeded forward.

If you are from Bozeman this will make sense to you, we walked from the Community Gardens by Christie Fields to the Library Sculpture park and back. At the bottom of Pete’s Hill there was a woman who was playing ball with a ‘chuck-it’ and four dogs, that was over the top for all of the dogs within three blocks, so again ‘Calvin on by’, but I will admit, we had to jog on by that one, that was tough even for me, too much.

Calvin drank out of the creek on the Ice House Spur, and walked in the super shallow part for a bit, he is for sure getting more comfortable with water while out and about.

We had no reactions, no barking, no lunging, just an awesome walk, me and Calvin on a Tuesday afternoon.

He is such a cool freaking trail dog. Likes people, dogs, the whole enchilada! But, being who I am, and knowing what I do for a living, and how much I love this dog, I am making sure I choose the right environments for him, not any environment, BECAUSE I know what an irresponsible owner with an out of control dog can do to a nice young dog like Calvin.

So good choices, good environments, kind and considerate socialization, and life moves along in a super good way! Love, Nancy