Doggie Dining Outdoors

Today I went out for frozen yogurt with a friend and we decided to eat outside on the patio because it was such a beautiful day.  Isaac thought that was the coolest thing ever.  The tables where very small, round tables, and there wasn't really room for a doggie to lie under them.  That was OK, though, because the patio wasn't crowded and he was able to just lie between my chair and the fence that surrounded the patio.  He liked that a lot.  He lay down and dozed, occasionally picking his head up to sniff the air and look around.  There were a lot of people walking by and things to look at and, apparently, stuff to sniff.  He thinks we should dine outdoors all the time.  He found it much nicer than lying under a table inside a restaurant, where he can't really see what's going on.

It's kind of funny, because Isaac seems to enjoy going to restaurants with me.  I would think it would be sort of frustrating, being around all that good-smelling food and not being able to have any of it, but he doesn't seem frustrated by it. 

When I first got him, he didn't really like going under the table.  I'm pretty sure it was because he doesn't like not being able to see what's going on all around.  He would do it, with a fair amount of encouragement, but would try to creep back out multiple times during the meal and after 30 minutes or so, would become too restless and we'd need to leave.  I started practicing with him at home, putting him on his leash and having him go under the dining room table while I sat at the table and worked on my laptop or chopping veggies for dinner or something, and I would give him a bite of hotdog every couple of minutes as long as he lay quietly.  We started with about 10 minutes under the table and then slowly increased the time until he could do it for an hour.  I also slowly increased the amount of time between bites of hotdog.  It took us quite a while, but now he handles an hour in a restaurant easily.

I still don't think he really likes being under the table, though.  He doesn't seem unhappy when we go to restaurants, but then, he likes to go anywhere.  He loves going to the vet.  He likes riding along to the gas station, when he doesn't even get to get out of the car while I fill up the gas tank.  He goes under the table when I tell him to, usually, although occasionally I have to tell him a couple times.  Occasionally he tried to lie down next to the table instead.  Occasionally he goes under but then wants to lie down with his head sticking out.  I know he just wants to see what's going on around him.  It's just usually not possible for him to lie like that.  He'd be in the way of people walking past our table.

But he loved lying on the patio at the frozen yogurt place today.  He just thought that was the best thing ever.