A small advance . . .

Trooper chills as his partner works the NuStep.

. . . but an advance nevertheless. At the Levy Center today, Trooper lay quietly beside me as I used one of the machines in the fitness center. It was a NuStep, and it makes alarming clanks and whirs that had spooked him in the beginning.

One small step for a service dog, so to speak.

 It was icing on the cake, however, because Trooper seems finally to have gotten the idea about heeling without pulling at the leash on our walks around the Levy Center corridor.

Jan. 28: Today he did the same task, lying quietly as I pumped the recumbent exercise bike. Good boy.

By the recumbent bike.