Lead walking breakthrough

I'm still in shock after our walk round the square just now. Something really interesting and earth shattering for Grey's lead walking has just happened. I decided that seeing as I was going to give Grey his tea, that I would pop out onto the square with him and sit on a bench, watch the world go by and pay up for nice calmness. I thought it might be nice for him to see some things as long as it was calm seeing as he's a bit isolated at the moment still. So I grabbed his evening portion of kibble and went out on the flat collar and sat on a park bench in the shade. We never do this because we live here. We're usually always on the move walking.

I clicked and treated for a few minutes for being relaxed and then for looking at the other people in the park and back at me as long as he was calm. There were some other people in the park: a group of people 20 metres away with intermittent shouts and they had a staffie that they threw a ball for and then an old man came in with a long haired GSD that barked at us when it came in 15 metres away and Grey slightly whined but then managed to put attention back on to me and got to eat loads more of his tea. So things that usually would have him kangarooing on his lead. Then after a few minutes of calm rewards, I stood up and slowly in this relaxed mode took a pace and Grey just continued to be very focussed on me, gentle and calm! ! He was trotting about at my side with the lead in a huge loop down and was then allowed to sniff bits and I continued to click and treat with small handfuls of food. It even didn't go wrong when the stupid staffie owner chucked the ball near us and ran over with his dog to look for it. Grey did get a bit excited, but I was able to settle him down into a sit, a watch and a down and then we continued on our way.

I had to get L out of the house to watch me walking up and down the path as I have never in my days see him do this! Obviously this might have been a real fluke. But I wonder if I had short circuited the adrenaline surge by calming down outside? I have often tried to calm down inside before going out, but his energy has always been so high then it's hard to come down. So by calming for a minute or so before setting off I was able to get his attention.

If this never happens again, I will still be happy with the sheer joy of walking up and down outside my house with my gorgeous dog, Grey! A small glimpse of a possible future!