– as quiet as they get in Berlin – several museums and exhibition places are open today, and tomorrow there will be more signs that things are getting back to normal.

Yesterday (24 December), the weather was dark and sleety, which Max hates, so I had to drag him out the door for a couple of very short walks. I do have three coats for him, but he refuses to move no matter which one I put on him.

Also yesterday, this toy arrived – no, that was not intentional – do I come across as someone who would give a dog a Christmas present? I don’t even buy any presents for any human I know. It is a lucky coincidence that Max is an atheist like me. It was recommended to me to get something which has a battery-driven thing inside it which makes it sound like a heartbeat. It does not work, at least not on Max. It seems to irritate the sh.. out of him when the thing is switched on (here is how he treats it). When it is switched off, he completely ignores it.

Today, the weather is the opposite of yesterday, with sun and that blue winter sky. I had recently become aware that there is a dog enclosure in Volkspark Friedrichshain, which is within walking distance, so off we went. It is not a very nice dog park, but the dogs don’t care, do they, as long as they can run off leash and sniff each others’ butts. Here is today’s route on MapmyWalk.

I did notice Max shivering from the cold a couple of times yesterday. Earlier on I had tried to make him wear a coat, but he refused to move, so I had decided that that would be one of the issues to work on with a new trainer, Sabine, from Instinkt & Intuition, but on 26 December, the weather was every bit as glorious as the day before, but even more frosty, so I dropped the idea of walking to Tempelhof and back in those temperatures and instead give the coat training another try. This would require several short walks instead, and it actually went quite well, so there is hope (but we would definitely not have made it all the way to Tempelhof without drama).