Togo Goes on Morning Watch

Mornings are the best! They begin with heart-felt hugs, flavorsome breakfasts, and my morning walks. Since I like mornings best (followed in a close second by bedtime), I know that if I was ever in a movie where they were assigning watches, I’d want the morning watch. Something tells me that I could be much more watchful in the morning than at any other time of day.

I’ve recently become an inside dog. I resisted for a long time. But Daddy and Momma finally got the message that I needed more room to stretch out in than they were making available. So, first, they bought me this big crate. It was so much bigger and Momma found a special cushion that makes me feel better.

It really wasn’t big enough. You see, I like to sleep on my side. But even the larger crate wouldn’t really let me do that. So, with a little coaching from me, they recently decided to fix me a sleeping pad in front of my crate. The door to the crate is always open to allow me to go back and forth. I’ve gone rapidly from outside dog to comfortable compact living dog to multi-room luxury dog.

When people begin stirring in the kitchen, I venture out to meet the day. I wait, almost patiently, for Momma to get my breakfast ready.

Then it’s just a waiting game until Daddy says the magic word and we’re off on our walk. I’ve told stories about my walks before, so we’ll just keep this focused on the morning aspect.

For those of you who aren’t early risers, the sun comes up in the morning. That’s one of the coolest features of the day. Here’s some of my better sunrise pictures.

When we get home and are back in my backyard, I have to perform a bit to earn treats. To be honest, I think I could score as many just standing there. I think it makes Daddy feel accomplished if I Sit, Shake Hands, Lie Down, and Leave-a-treat-alone-until-he-gives-me-the-signal. Several years ago, I also trained him to give me a couple of extras through a little opening in the fence.

Six treats. A great culinary ending to my morning watch. And the best morning watches are best topped off with a morning nap.