No worries, I haven’t adopted someone elses toddler.  For all that I love my kids, I really don’t miss the potty-training stage, and the screaming tantrums because I forgot to slice the apple the right way can remain distant memories, as well.

What I’m attempting is to teach our dog, Zeke, to walk on leash.  We adopted him almost a year ago as a near full-sized one-year-old.  He sits beautifully, will come when called, behaves in the house and leaves food alone unless it’s put in his bowl.  But he won’t walk on leash.

His training has been rather eratic becuase I’ve been busy, and part of the time my fractured arm made handling him impossible.  Plus, getting him trained is more of a want than a necessity, since he’s got four fenced acres to roam.  But he absolutley loves to go for walks, and I like taking him.  I’d just prefer that I came back with my arms still firmly engaged in the shoulder sockets.

But now I’ve discovered his great weakness–ham.  He loves it, loves it, loves it.  I can’t say that we’re ready for the show circuit just yet, but we ARE making progress, so long as I have a baggie of the good stuff tucked in my pocket.  For now that’s easy, as we have some ham left over from Christmas.  But, come a few weeks from now, if you see me carefully considering the sliced ham in the grocery story for that dog-salivating flavor, you’ll know who I’m buying for.