Once again I find my furry little self in timeout giving me plenty of opportunity for contemplation. My thoughts are filled with the experiences of our walks together this past week. And they have been stressful whenever my two little puppies accompanied us. You see, walking on a leash, following the lead of others seems to be a learned activity and does not come easily for some more than others. Walking is not so simple as you would think.
Mommy has been working with my tiny girls for a week now teaching them to walk nicely on a leash. It is a slow process.
One little girl took to the basic idea on her first walk and tried to keep up and enjoy herself.
The other little girl found the entire experience frightful and refused to even try. Nothing helped the first few days - no kind words, no pulling of the leash or encouragement, not even laying out her favorite treats in a path appeared to help. Maybe the memory of those treats helped on later walks though. But she just could not get with the program for days.
I never realized how hard Mommy works each day at training each of us how to be a better dog and how to enjoy our lives and make people around us pleased with our behavior. It's a job "juggling chins" as Mommy calls it.
Last night my puppies came with me on a walk though, and they both did it! They walked along nicely except for frequent bounces out of line almost tripping mommy. After each round on our little street we got to stop and play in the front yard in the grass and the girls got to leap around in the ivy bed. They really enjoyed lurking and pouncing on everyone in the ivy and making lots of noise. At long last they discovered just why it is the rest of us eagerly look forward to having a leash put on us and going out the door. It isn't because somebody is trying to be mean to us or control us, it is to help us to have great fun and do it safely. There are scarey things out here, like big cars with big wheels that could mush us and a big hole we saw at the end of the street in the gutter where cats live that we could fall into and get hurt. That leash guides us so we avoid these dangers. And we all have fun together until we are ready for a nap.
Life can be like that for us animals as well as for people. There are rules and things that are intended to keep us safe that sometimes we all resent and even hate because we don't understand why and we fail to look at all the fun opportunities all around us we really should be leaping at. It is all what we focus on - attitude.
So, here I am in my cage adjusting my attitude. I think I will take a little nap. I will go for one of those walks soon. And I do have a yummy chewie cookie here I should be enjoying so I won't feel sorry for myself or bored. I hope I get to dance for my people today for treats.
Skoshi Blog
Friday, 07 May 2010 07:47 | 
Written by M. Coffey | 
