|
|
| |
| Who is walking whom? |
| |
I often take my dog, Amber, to a small local park where she gets to exercise and sniff her little heart out.
On a recent outing I watched another person walking their dog which led me to this observation…us humans truly ‘walk the dog’
When in theory we tell ourselves that we are ‘taking the dog for a walk’, the reality shows that we are rather directive in how we want the dog to have fun. Visualize this, the owner holds the dog on a leash and walks at a certain pace through the park. The dog decides to sniff a shrub, the owner stops and after a couple of short moments encourages the dog to move on. The dog submits until the next interesting bush gets his attention. At this one, he sniffs and pees. The owner waits patiently until the dog relieves himself and goes “come on Lucky, let’s go”. The dog keeps sniffing until he feels the collar tightening up and then moves on. A tree comes up on the left, the dog stops to sniff again and…you get the picture.
Upon reflection, the above truly describes “walking the dog”.
So I started an experiment with Amber. I went to the park, let her out of the truck and waited to see where she wanted to go. I did not use a leash for the experiment. However, later I tried it with a leash and it works as well.
Amber took off sniffing around the rocks at the park entrance. After a while she stopped, looked at me and then headed down a path. I followed. She moved off the path onto the grass, off the grass onto the path and finally stopped to look at me again. I could see some confusion. Her look said ‘what are you doing behind me, where do we go from here? Usually I am supposed to follow you.’ I waited and so did she. She looked and waited. After a minute or two she finally decided that time is of the essence and walked on, me in tow. She stopped another time or two to see if I was really not taking the lead today, and then took ownership of her walk in the park.
During that walk I realized how much planning I normally put into these walks. I decide how much time we have, which path we are taking, and how long we pause at any given bush, shrub or tree.
So what if Amber wants to sniff the shrub for a looooong time? So what if we don’t get to walk a mile but only half a mile? So what if she walks back and forth and around in circles rather then walking the path her companion prefers? |
| |
| The moral of the story is…if we don’t attach human expectations to the walk in the park, the dog ends up having a lot more fun…and isn’t that the reason we’re there? |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
