Ninja's people gave me a call to tell me about a noteworthy event- they got a very nice compliment from a spectator who looked on as Ninja did a sit-stay, while he was excitedly anticipating a few kids coming up the sidewalk. When he was told to sit and stay he did it without fussing, and waited until he was released by Mom to then say his hellos to the kids. The watcher was sitting in his car silently noticing this whole scene, and had to acknowledge it. So he paid a drive-by praise to Ninja, which sent his owner into a solid moment of sheer pride.

The second event went like this: Mom falls while walking Ninja, hurts her knee badly and lets go of his leash because of the impact. NInja decides to go off and keep walking. Mom takes a chance and begs him, "come Ninja, come"-exact words. Ninja comes back to ailing Mom and hangs out there while she readjusts herself. This is a big, big, huge deal. It could have gone either way because, although the family had gotten him used to coming when called inside the house, they hadn't practiced it at all outside with distractions. I told her not to count on it happening again, that she shouldn't take chances like that if she could help it. But in this case it turned out to be so good.....