Saturday, January 8, 2011

She's being difficult


My dog is very annoying. I can't take her on what you would call a "walk". All she does is sniff. She'll walk 10 feet and stop and sniff, then she'll squat and pee. Over and over and over. After 10 or 15 squats I'm sure she's empty, but she still tries to leave her symbolic "Emma was here" calling card anyway. I'm thinking she's a narcissist. After a few block of this I get fed up and start pulling her forward. Sometimes she'll drop anchor and try to hold her ground, but as I outweigh her 215 to 18, I win. Sometimes.

Often we'll get to a corner and I'll want to go one way and she'll want to go another, so she'll tug hard and look at me with those big brown eyes as if to say, "I really want to go this way, dad. Pleeeeeease? There's some really cool smells down there." As I'm a sucker for big expressive brown eyes, I'll usually cave.

Just once I'd like to walk in a straight line for a few blocks. I've almost forgotten what that would feel like.

S

6 comments:

  1. How cute! Her twin is one of my pet therapy dogs at the hospital. She just started making rounds and everyone is talking about how adorable she is.

    Have a great weekend Low!

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  2. Have you considered a class for her?

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  3. Dorrie...I've never had a cat, so I can't compare.

    Joan...Yep, she never fails to make me smile.

    Wildstorm...She didn't used to be like this. I think there's just such an extreme concentration of dogs in this neighborhood she's just overwhelmed. At this point in her 11+ year life I'll just humor her.

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  4. Very sweet story. I think it is nice that you just go along with her ways.

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  5. While I'm in dixie, I get chief dog walking duty, and there is a lot of similarity in what you describe, with a few differences.

    Mine weighs 70 lbs and is ALL muscle. He has the pulling power to pull a power lawnmower uphill (we tried it). Long ago we escalated from his pretty collar with all the dogtags on it to a choke chain, which he virtually ignores when he gets fixated on something extraneous. It can be another dog barking, or a cat or bunny trail or even remote sounds I can no longer hear.

    So we had what BG called a "come to Jesus" meeting the other day, and I promised him that he either learned to do what several other million dogs have learned to do, or we are escalating another notch up the dog collar chain (which I do NOT want to do).

    Our compromise now is that he gets once around the yard at his own, leisurely, sniff and pee pace, and then out onto the street where I get to set the rhythm of the walk.

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