What a lovely day for a walk. We had a lovely walk today. Yesterday’s walk was lovely too. Not because it was a warm, sunny day, because it wasn’t. It was cloudy and cloud and rainy and miserable. Which meant we had the whole sidewalk to ourselves.
We walked further than we ever have before. Nearly 1.25 miles! We even got to walk a little way along the bike trail that runs near our house. We never get to do that because it’s always so busy, full of walkers and joggers and cyclists. And dogs. But not yesterday. We didn’t encounter a single living thing. It was beautiful.
As always, walking with Miss D is a constant battle. I am always reminding her that I’m the boss. Me. The Human. I’m alpha. I decide when and where we go. She tends to disagree, which is probably at the root of our leash-aggression problem. She thinks she’s in control, the protector, and she takes her job seriously.
But when we’re alone, I have more opportunities to remind Miss D that I’m the protector, not her. I’ll decide what’s a danger, not her. And yesterday was the culmination of several such walks. It was awesome.
Today was lovely too. A warm, sunny, cloudless day. Obviously, that meant we were not alone. But Miss D, with yesterday’s reminders fresh in her mind, followed me. She ignored one walker, a pair of joggers, a pair of walkers, a jogger, another jogger, and a walker with dog. OK, she didn’t quite ignore the walker with dog, but she did sit quietly. She was on alert the whole time, but she listened to me and got her rewards. By then, we were nearly out of treats, and I could she Miss D was pretty tuckered, so we turned around and headed home. That’s when she went nuts upon seeing the Boxer. But I was able to ask the owners to stay still while I took Miss D in the other direction to get some distance and some semblance of control.
Our final encounter was a lovely, older couple. Miss D went on full alert, but they were understanding, saying they’ve seen us walking before and know we’re still a work in progress. In Miss D’s defense, the man was egging her on. Leaning forward, staring, and barking right back. I know the tendency is to poke fun at the little dog who thinks she’s so scary, but I really wish he had ignored her like his wife. It’s eaier to regain her attention when she doesn’t get any reaction.
Oh, well. It was still a lovely walk.
Tuckered Out
I can really relate to this. My problem with Zak is that taking him for a walk is a nightmare simply because he is so strong (and I am chronically ill) and he hates walking – he just wants to run and sniff and pee on everything. He loves meeting other people and other dogs and that is fine. It is just the pulling that I can’t beat yet. Luckily we have a couple of parks we go to which are huge and I can let him off the leash so he can just run and run and run. He always comes back (eventually) and he is so happy. We just have to choose times when no-one else is there. Our city has a big dog park which should be great but we avoid it as so many people are idiots and just keep walking away with their dogs and won’t stop to let the rest of us grab our puppies (or dogs who have gone completely deaf in both ears) and the top of the park is against a very very busy road so the stress isn’t worth it. And we also have to deal with idiots who underestimate small dogs and think it is funny to tease them etc. Grrrrrrr. Anyway, Zak is currently barking loudly at the screaming kids who live behind us and I think I’ll go and join in as they are the most horrible children you have ever seen lol.
LikeLike
Ugh. We never go to dog parks. Checkers didn’t enjoy them, the dogs were too crazy or ball-obsessed for her tastes, and then there’s Miss D. Can you imagine? (Shudder)
The first month Miss D spent with me, we spent most of our time getting her to stop pulling. She has since learned (mostly) that she gets more freedom and more leash when she walks nicely. If she starts to pull, we stand still and she doesn’t get to go anywhere! We also got a special harness that clips in front rather than on the back, so it’s less comfortable for her if she’s in front.
LikeLike