a new friend

wombat made a new friend today. unfortunately not a dog friend (but she did act kind of ok at the one dog we did have come very close to us) but a nice older lady. a few times on our afternoon walks we've passed this woman who is walking home from the bus or tram stop with her "old lady cart". she always stops to say hi and tell wombat she's a good boy (obviously she hasn't noticed wombat's saggy nipples and large girly bits). she also talks about her little terrier (that died sometime in the past few years). today, after talking for a few minutes about her dog (wombat sat herself down and waited patiently which was really good) she asked if i ever give wombat doggy chocs. wombat LOVES those (and we don't get them very often cuz they are really doggy junk food). she dug thru her cart and found a packet with a few left. she didn't realize i could feed wombat thru the muzzle (or i could have taken it off cuz there were no dogs around) so she said i could have what was left for wombat (she carries different dog treats with her often to give to dogs she's gotten to know). it was really kind of her. the best part was that after we started walking away wombat was COMPLETELY focused on me and heeling amazingly while she tried to eye the treats she could smell. i stopped every 20-30 metres to give her one and kept talking about "treats" the rest of the time. wombat was sooooo good. i may have to start carrying treats again on walks. the first dog trainer we went to showed us how to teach her to heel using treats to have her focus on us and also to redirect wombat's attention when other dogs were around and teach her that seeing other dogs was a positive thing). it did help a bit with other dogs but then she picked up on the idea that if she makes another dog bark then she gets a treat so we stopped with that. we may have to retry learning to heel using treats though (it can get tricky trying to get them through the muzzle).