We once had an interesting client (Shih Tzu) whose owner has found it a bit tough to walk his dog in the summer heat and humidity here in Naples, Florida. So he contacted us to do the walking (and sweating!). No problem. However, what wasn't told to us was the owner's other challenge was that his dog often would not want to walk much if at all when he took him out.

After arriving and finding this out, the owner and I were in front of the house with his dog and the dog took two steps and then stopped cold and didn't want to go any farther. With the owner's eyes on me, I'm thinking, wow, this is an interesting situation. I decided to gently pick the Shih Tzu up, and walk under a tree where there was some shade and just sit with him. The owner then went inside.

After a few seconds of sitting, I figured I'd just start talking to him and after literally 10 minutes of this, he suddenly got up, and was ready to go. He walked and trotted around the block 4 times! I had a great feeling of accomplishment where this was also a dog who did not get much exercise, and he was a bit winded but not exhausted (you really do not want to exhaust a dog, especially on hotter days. A bit of panting is fine and gets the blood pumping but it's not good to push the dog too far nor let them push themselves too far).

Maybe all my watching of "The Dog Whisper" are paying off! Not to mention a good does of patience.

Needless to say, the owner was very happy and has invited me back for more walking.

Was out relaxing for some fishing on Naples Pier and one of the other fisher people had accidentally hooked a seagull. This can happen if you are fishing with a bait that does not sink quickly, and you are not paying attention to how aggressive the birds are that day.

This can obviously be pretty traumatic for the bird and while the hook itself might not create much if any lasting damage, it's the struggle the bird goes through while on the line that can really hurt it.

Fortunately, in this case the fisherman got the bird onto the pier but he couldn't get the hook out. I was fishing nearby and when I saw he wasn't able to get the bird off the hook I went over with my needle nose pliers and we quickly released the bird. It's hard to see in the photo but look for the 2 red arrows above the fishing rods. That's the just released seagull starting to fly away. 

Pet Sitters are animal lovers by default. So when I saw what was happening I ran over there and helped. I am happy it was my pliers that did the trick and the bird was fine physically. The key is to pay attention when fishing to avoid unintended catches to begin with!