Notes on adopting a dog

It’s been three weeks since my wife and I adopted our dog. This post is intentionally brief: Our walks started off far too ambitious. Our dog needed more time to get used to our neighborhood, as well as the sounds of the city. (I had no idea how loud downtown Toronto was!) I used to go on long walks with my previous dog, with the assumption that she enjoyed it and needed to burn off energy. I needed to update the expectations and norms that came with that experience. Getting her emotionally comfortable now, with these brief walks, will set her up for success later. Being hard on her is not constructive. The neighboring condo has a big round driveaway, with beautiful in-ground lights. I never appreciated this until I walked the dog at night. Beside that, there’s also a patch of grass with a water feature I love listening to. I spend a lot of time near that condo now, because that’s where one of the quieter pockets around my condo are, and our dog feels safe there. My wife and I wake up…