I know better.

This is a picture of Kane being a Good Dog: he is staying where I told him to sit. You can tell that he is interested in something, but he is not moving. Good dog!

That was at the beginning of our walk. Wait till you see what happened later.

We went for a good walk and then came back to the playground by the abandoned school. This was the same place where Kane had grabbed his leash and spun me like a whirling Dervish. It evoked bad memories.

In my enthusiasm about how well he has been doing lately, I decided to show off the amazing skillz he has acquired. So I put him in his sit, then I stepped away. Further, further.

See how good he is? Isn't he, like, the best dog ever?

I got my picture, and then, instead of walking up to him and picking up his leash, I did a foolish thing: I called him.

In a happy, playful voice.

I genuinely thought he would come leaping up to me for a hug. And, at first, that's what he did: he ran toward me. But just as I was reaching for his leash, he grabbed it in his mouth and did this:

Oh, he was happy!

At first, I kept calling him. I tried playful voice and angry voice. The angry voice got his attention for about a millisecond, then he remembered: I'm FREE! and kept dancing. I pretended I had a treat to give him. Not one f%^$@k was given about a treat. (I don't use treats anymore. I don't even carry any in my pockets.)

Then I thought: I'll start walking to the path that leads home. Kane noticed and started heading there, ahead of me. On either side of the path, there are broad fields still covered with snow.

Kane loves snow, as you can see in this short video.



Finally, I went back toward the school and sat on the old school steps. He followed me there, and came nearer and nearer until, finally tired, he walked up to me as if nothing had happened. In order to reinforce his coming to me (even though it was on his terms, not mine), I greeted him happily, took the leash and walked him home.

Lesson: I really need to do our recall homework. Like, now. Kane is so good that, once we train him on recall, I'm confident that he will be a master of it. I just need to do the work. Stay tuned.