Up town...

In my constant effort of ‘doing new things with the dog to make him a go anywhere – do anything dog’, I found this group on the internet. They meet maybe once a month in London, with an annual trip to Southend. As there was no training on Sunday, (yes! A whole day off!) which co-in sided quite nicely with their April meet, I thought a day trip to London would be a fantastic idea.
Tommy has often gone on the train so settled quite well on my coat, with just occasional glimpses out of the window as to where we were going – especially after the first half hour as he’s never been on the train longer than that.
We got to Fenchurch Street and as usual at the weekend it was disserted. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t realise that Tower Hill underground station was shut! So off we went round to Bank to catch the tube to Morgate.
Tommy seemed very different to walk in the city rather than in Southend. He held his head a lot higher and didn’t seem to sniff the ground so much – maybe not so much to smell? We got to Bank tube station and I found what platform to catch the train from. We waited for the second tube rather than the first. This was so that I could get him steady in the sit; take in the noise, smells and airflow and to see what was expected of him when the next tube pulled in. On we went and as it was only two stops, we stood.
At Morgate we changed lines. More consulting of the map and walking Tommy for miles over to the other line. He seemed to be enjoying himself. Eyes bright, tail wagging and walking to heel. He looked up at me a couple of times as if to say ‘am I doing it right?’. The response was always ‘good boy’ and sometimes a treat as well.
When we got to the other tube, it was a long wait before it was going to pull out, plus half hour journey to Baker Street. I got on a reasonably quite carriage and took my coat off to put on the seat for Tommy to sit on, and then sat down. Tommy jumped onto the coat and someone else on the carriage said ‘don’t let him on the seat love’. I was going to explain that he was on the coat, but the gentleman had a point, what if the tube got busy…maybe I should make him stand / sit on the floor. Which is what I did. The rest of the journey went without note really, lots of people smiling at Tommy and asking about him. I was only too happy to let them fuss him and give him a tiny bit of treat if they wanted too.
When we got to the park, we were an hour and a half late. Oh well, I thought; let’s go for a walk anyway.

More tomorrow