Conquering the Peanuts

I didn't bog yesterday because, for the most part, nothing really happened.  Tucker and I stayed home and took it easy - playing and working on "down".  He's getting very good at it - almost too good. :)  I have to work to keep him from sliding down before I give the command. 

If Tucker were to tell you about today, he'd begin with, "she dragged me to work again."  At first, he wouldn't quiet down in the kennel (mostly because another dog was whining), but he eventually got the hang of it again.  As usual, we were busy today and I didn't get to take Tucker out as often as I should and he had two accidents.  What surprised me was that he never once barked or whined to be let out. 

At lunchtime, my co-workers, Tucker, and I went to Binion's.  For those of you who live elsewhere and are unfamiliar with Binion's, here it is in a nutshell:  a steakhouse that lets you throw peanut shells on the ground. 

The peanut shells didn't occur to me until we were on the way there, and I started to get nervous.  He'd done well at restaurants, but what would he do in a place where people intentionally threw shells on the ground?  As it turns out, he was so much better than I ever expected.  I won't lie, getting from the entrance to the table involved quite a bit of tension on the leash, but once we'd made it to the table, he was almost perfect.  In fact, he would have been perfect had there not been two babies sitting near us.  He wanted to play with them, as he does all children, and whined a little when they started to fuss. 

While I did push the few present peanut shells out of reach with my foot, I have no doubt that the entire floor beneath our table must have smelled like peanuts to Tucker.  In fact, at one point the lady at the table next to us dumped a whole handful of shells about two feet from Tucker's nose.  His head popped up and he watched her carefully, but he didn't attempt to go after the shells.  I was so proud of him! 

This afternoon Mom picked Tucker up early from work so he'd have time to play at home before we went out for dinner.  According to her, he was a little hellion.  (Although she did say he did a great job of telling her when he needed to go park.)  She said the only time he stopped moving was when he went to the bathroom and that he wasn't satisfied with any of his toys; he only wanted to chew on her.  By the time I got home, he'd almost worn himself out, so he did a great job at the restaurant for dinner. 

He played some when we got home and then fell asleep by the couch while we watched a movie.  He was so out of it when the movie ended that my little sister, Mattie, had to carry him downstairs (my back is still killing me) and outside to go to the bathroom.  Oh, and when he was sleeping during the movie, he did something none of us had seen before - he barked with his mouth closed.  We thought that was pretty funny, but he then proceeded to make even stranger noises, and it was all we could do not to laugh - we didn't want to wake him up. :)