I joined an app for offering my services as a dog walker because I am me and I can’t advertise myself without help.

(Shy, introverted, awkward…)

And by advertise I mean market myself. Like, post flyers on community boards and talk to people. That type of marketing.

Ugh.

Which isn’t to say that I didn’t do that.

I did post flyers on lamp posts around the neighbourhood before the weather got nasty. And I gave out my info at boot camp. I sometimes put a note in facebook but I hate facebook and once I got a weirdo from California offer himself to be walked on a leash by me so I stopped posting there. At least on the public forum. I still occasionally check in with the local groups I belong to…but, they don’t seem to work well.

Occasionally I even talk to people in my ‘hood, like at rinks or in grocery stores. Because word of mouth sometimes works better than advertising…

But I’m not pushy. I don’t solicit my services particularly well. I don’t do enough…

Anyway, the app works! A request came in and I set up a meet and greet yesterday with Marshmallow, who is neither a Pitbull nor a Rottie. 😂

He is a very bouncy, energetic, under 2 year old tiny white dog, a Miniature Poodle Maltese thing.

Omg. 😀

Regular readers here will remember Jasper, the Bichon Poodle I walked for over a year. He was similar size and energy as Marshmallow is, and we had a lot of fun (and adventures) together. You can read about Jasper here and  here and here (with pictures!).

Anyway Jasper’s family is on mat leave now so they don’t require my services at the moment, so when Marshmallow popped up in the app, I thought “here we go again”. These little dogs have such huge personalities, they are a hoot. 😊

At the meet and greet, Marshmallow jumped on me and got quite comfortable on my lap, to the point where my hand became his chew toy. We had some words which got him more wound up so I calmed him with a soothing voice and a belly rub and continued my chat with the owner.

Note to self: try this approach with the kids. Soothing voice, belly rub… 🙄

Then we walked him several blocks, me in charge of the lead and dog, her observing me do my thing.

Marshmallow did very well! He’s very young and his manners need a little fine-tuning but I’m not worried. 🙂

Anyway, when I got home I saw in the app that she had booked me. I start next week for 3 days.

I’m glad. I need the exercise and the mental break, and the money is nice (although it’s not a lot). It’ll cover a portion of the food budget at least.

So that happened on Thursday.

It was actually a good thing I had a distraction because there was a thing with a sleeping teenager during the school morning and an appointment got canceled later in the afternoon, both of which stressed me out. So, to console myself I ended up eating two bowls of pasta after the meet and greet, and later I wolfed down 2/3 of a bag of popcorn with butter.

When is this carb fest over?

Blah.

It’s Friday! The kids are home again due to another labour dispute with the teachers, leaving me a little discombobulated. I like it when they leave the house for a few hours… (SAHMs will understand).

But that’s ok. I have to leave the house today. Maybe I’ll treat myself to coffee someplace later. ☕