Sometimes I forget whether these night patrols are meant to exercise Miss D or me. It’s exhausting! We only walk a mile, but it’s filled with obstacles: the bicyclist zipping past, the neighbor passing by who “snuck up” on us while we were distracted by the Westie across the street. Miss D has begun to take her training to heart. She gets excited, starts breathing heavy and leaning forward in excitement, then stops, sits down, and waits for her cookie. That’s good, right?
Except it’s difficult to get moving again. If Miss D thinks she wasn’t rewarded enough, or is still excited, she’ll just keep sitting there, turning to watch the dog or bike or whatever disappear in the distance. While what I really want to do is pull her up and move already, there’s a little voice telling me to be patient, don’t send her mixed signals, and wait for her to focus on me again, then give her the release signal and be on our way.
As you can imagine, this makes our walks infinitely longer, frustrating, and well, exhausting for me. Add in my rather debilitating seasonal allergies and the rampant, out of control pollen count this spring, my patience wears thin. Fifteen minutes into our walk we’ve barely gone a block, my eyes are itchy, my nose is running, and I just want to turn around and lock myself in the house with the air conditioning on full blast. But I can’t, because Miss D is just sitting there! MOVE you miserable mutt sweet little dog!
