Riley knows "shake"

I got in a good solid 6 hours of work today and then had a mental crash. I had absolutely no motivation to do real work. I took a break in hopes of regaining momentum, but that didn't really work. I looked at the Chicago marathon Intermediate training plan and back-tracked to see how many miles I need to do the next few weeks so it won't be a major increase in mileage. The race is 19 weeks and 2 days away. The first week of the training plan (17 weeks) calls for 26 miles. For an even increase in mileage, I calculated that I need to add 3.5 miles a week to get there. So I've revised my goal from 13 miles this week to 15.5 miles. Since I've only done 5.45 miles this week, I either need to do two 5-milers or one 5-miler and two smaller distances. So I decided to do 2 miles tonight, 5 miles on Saturday as originally planned, and 3 miles on Sunday as originally planned. I also looked at Gold's Gym class schedule. They offer Group Power classes on Monday and Wednesday evenings at 6:45 p.m. Since the Chicago marathon training plan calls for strength training on Mondays and Wednesdays, I'm going to start attending this class next week. Kyra has swim practice on Monday evenings in June at the same time and I can just take her with me on Wednesdays and let her bring her electronic gadgets to play with in the childcare center. I was also really disappointed with my weight this week and decided to eat less today. When I got home from work, I changed clothes, got the dogs ready and we went out for our jog. I got frustrated with Tasha. I asked her to sit, she did, and as soon as I'd try to put on the harness she'd lay down. I'd say uh-oh, wrong, and tell her to sit again. We repeated this several times until I just gave up and put it on her while she was lying down. Now here's the funny part. I told Riley to sit. I put the harness over his neck and reached down to lift his front right paw to put it through the strap. He lifted his right paw as I did so. And then it hit me!!! Although I didn't say "shake" I gave him the signals for shake so that's what he did! Wow, he's smart! He didn't lift his left paw, as expected, but sat still while I did so. We started out our run feeling strong. We stopped a few tenths into it when we met up with Cathy and Philip who were going for a walk. We chatted with them for a few minutes. Philip mentioned that Riley has never let him pet him. (I guess he comes by our yard often while Riley is outside.) Riley was shy and wouldn't let Cathy or Philip pet him at first. But I told Riley to sit, and I pet him, and he slowly let Cathy, and then Philip approach and pet him. It was a proud and happy moment for all of us. I wonder why Riley's so shy? After a few minutes we continued our jog. I started feeling hypoglycemic at about 1.5 miles and walked a good bit of that last half-mile home. I guess I cut back too far on the calories today. After the 1.99-mile jog, I immediately ate turkey sausage and pickles; yes, I know it's a weird combination but I desperately need to go to the grocery store.