Tuesday was sunny and nearly 70 degrees, but felt warmer. Naturally, Gambit and I needed to seize the opportunity to do something fun while it was warm but not yet sweltering.
We had lots of choices about where to go for our stroll, and ultimately I chose downtown and campus.
Gambit is an overly social butterfly and sometimes gets too excited about places he doesn’t get to go every day, so downtown walks are a good opportunity for him to work on focusing, calming down, and not letting his nose get the best of him. He’s only been on campus a couple times, so this was a pretty big test for him – especially at the beginning of spring when the air becomes fragrant.
After getting some treats at the bank, we went right through the heart of campus.
First, convince your water-hating dog that swimming makes for great happy fun times. Next, walk him by the edge of a pool where he’s not allowed to play.
The local college students are also great about not coming up to dogs downtown and petting them unless approval is indicated either through words or body language. While I’ll let anyone who wants to pet him do so, we try to stay focused on our walk. It does help Gambit’s overly social tendencies to be ignored a bit since he just gets smiles and not the attention he craves.
Gambit reacted less than usual to skateboards, his current biggest fear and enemy. They were still scary, but he didn’t lunge at them or plaster himself to my side afterwards which is an improvement.
While normally very offended by statues’ faces, he only growled briefly at two of them.
Doesn’t this look like a dog-eating statue?
Enemies
“Okay, Momma, the statue hasn’t tried to eat me… yet.”
Peace treaty.
He was surprisingly great for the first half of our walk and heeled wonderfully on a short loose leash, but eventually wanted to pull a bit while walking through crowds between class periods. It must be frustrating being surrounded by lots of people who aren’t petting you!
Fortunately, he finally found someone who missed her animals to pet him while we waited to cross the street back to downtown, where we were meeting up with my husband before heading to get a bite to eat beg for fries that had been abandoned on the patio.
Couches for Breakfast 
What a wonderful walk. Reminds me our local university is on spring break; I could take Justus there and then out to the park beyond the campus. Good boy, Gambit.