City Dining - Doggie Style

Barry hanging out with us on the roof top.

We try to incorporate Barry into most of what we do when possible. He enjoys being outside and with us and leaving him stuck in the condo on a beautiful weekend day just doesn't seem right. He doesn't get to go out to see his friends and do whatever he wants. He completely and fully relies on us to take him out. Most of the work week he is stuck at home while we are away and working, going out to lunch, getting to go outside, and generally having our day full of things to do. Not Barry. He's just waiting for us. Sure the dog walker comes mid day to break up the monotony and so he can go to the bathroom but then he gets locked back up in our condo until we get home from work. We are his whole life. The least we can do is attempt to incorporate him more often on the weekends.

Recently we have been enjoying al fresco dining with Barry. So far we have brought him along four different times. Each experience gets better and better. It is trial and error. We have learned there are a few very important things to bring along.

1. Water & bowl
2. Good treats
3. KONG bone stuffed with treats

There are also the not-so important things we bring or the everyday normal stuff like poop bags (which happen to be very important but we bring bags regardless of where we're going) and a small mat for Barry to lay on. The mat is nice but not necessary. I think he enjoys having a spot for himself and he's not laying directly on the cement or dirty ground.

We try to give him as much room as possible. We connect his leash to a chair that either Husband or I am sitting in and he's free to move around as far as the leash will let out. He has enough space to lay down as well. When we go to the little Italian deli there's not a lot of room but we attempt to give him the space against the building so he can stretch out there behind our chairs while people walk by on the sidewalk.

On our last outdoor lunch we brought along his KONG bone. After 30 or 40 minutes he started getting antsy so and I sat it down for him but he wasn't really interested. I stuffed some string cheese that I tore into pieces and shoved it into the small spaces at either side of the bone. He loved it. That kept him busy for most of time until we left. The bone will come out when he starts to get antsy and that should buy us some more time to eat and finish up.

Barry is good at relaxing. It's hard to get him to really relax outside but he's getting better. I think the last time was the best, in part to the KONG bone.

We are hoping that taking him with us out to eat and hiking will prepare him for our upcoming camping trip (next weekend). Barry will get to be in the great outdoors from Thursday evening until Sunday afternoon - the whole time. I think he'll love it.

Waiting for Husband while he picks up a few things from the store.