So – the squirrels in my neighborhood are scary friendly. Even more so than the ones from college. And those would practically jump in your pocket if you weren’t careful. When I take the dogs for a walk – this is a common sight. This one crawled down the stop sign pole all spider-man like and just stared at us as we walked by. (I hardly used the zoom for this – by the way.)

And while it’s weird and unsettling, I guess it’s not really that big of a deal. Except. My collie, Piper, hates squirrels. Well – Piper doesn’t really hate anything (except baths). So maybe I should say she loves to hate them. But instead of getting frustrated – I try to look at the distraction as an opportunity to train. So I reward her for refocusing on me, and now when they perform their cirque-du-soleil-esque routine along our walks, she looks at me and gets rewarded for it.

Then it’s the squirrels who take notice.

Let’s just hope they don’t try to up their game.