We got the nat geo station and I've been watching every single episode of the Dog Whisperer ever since. I DVR the series so I don't miss a single one. Turns out, I have two unbalanced dogs, which I knew before the show. I had tried walking Bandit last year and had to give up in defeat. He could drag me for a block and spit me out. If he saw a cat, I was done for. In a last ditch effort before throwing in the leash, I would get up at 5am to walk him because there was hardly any distracting life form outside at that hour. Even that didn't work, it was hopeless. At least I thought it was hopeless. The Dog Whisperer gave me the crazy notion that I could do this thing.

So I did. I proceeded to work on doing this thing. I channeled my calm assertive energy and started up again about a month ago. The results have been amazing. I really do think Bandit appreciates it. To think that, all this time, poor Bandit was calling the shots and he's a mental case. I know that I am a mental case too, but I am a rational mental case, which makes a big difference. Sometimes. Cesar had prepared me for a variety of obstacles that I may encounter. Every time I came across a loose dog (a little yorkie really shouldn't run up to a dog like Bandit but the little dogs don't seem to have a bit of freakin' sense) or a cat, or a jogger, I would say to myself, "this is a great opportunity," relax my hold on the leash and believe that I was up to the challenge. It works! I guess it works in life too, now that I think about it.

But tonight, tonight was the icing on the cake. Probably one of the best nights of my life. Definitely a great accomplishment. Denis is out of town and he usually walks one of the dogs while I walk the other and we all four go together. So seven p.m. comes along and the dogs, who are really routine-digging dudes, start getting excited and giving me these 'looks.' I had choices: (1) don't walk them and let them get over it. (2) walk Bandit, come back, drop off Bandit and walk Dingo. (3) walk them together. Yes, I know it's insane, but I felt like I was ready. I put the leashes in my left hand, with the dogs attached to the leashes, and we were off! They walked together so perfectly. I could tell that they were proud of themselves. I had my Mom take a picture of us when we got home. She is not as good with the camera as the dogs are with the leash, but we got a picture. If anyone would have told me that I would one day not only walk Bandit without him pulling, but actually walk him with another dog in the same hand, I would have said, "yeah, right." But, "yeah, right!"