The Dog Who Shares My Walks

No, it's not one of my own dogs.  Usually.

See, Daisy is a puller.  And Daisy is freakishly strong.

Rudy doesn't pull much.  And if he did pull, he's pretty little, so it's not like it's a big deal to keep him under control.  He used to flop around at the end of his leash like a fish, but he got over that.

Anyway, I feel bad that I don't take them when I walk.  And I know there are things you can do to teach dogs how to walk properly.  (EG just had a puppy graduate at the top of her obedience school class, so she assures me, it can be done.)  But when I just want a nice walk, it's too stressful to take a dog who's likely to drag me through a neighbor's yard against my will.

So, I go it alone a lot of times.  And when I do that, there is a neighbor dog who often joins me.  He's a very sweet yellow lab, and when he sees me nearing his house, he runs out to greet me.  We have some petting and ear scratching time, and when he's done with that, he takes off walking, looking behind to make sure I'm following.

We'll walk on that way, and every once in a while he'll stop and ask for more ear scratches, and I'm happy to oblige.  When I turn back towards home, and we get close to his house, he'll trot off back from whence he came.  It's very neighborly.

I hadn't been walking much lately, so I hadn't seen him for a while.  But today when I went out for a stroll, there he came, running out to greet me, tail wagging.  We did our thing for a few steps, but then something happened.

Someone started yelling for him.  I didn't understand the name that was being called, but clearly, he did.  He immediately took off running for home, without so much as a wave of his paw.

I watched him racing toward the chain-link fence surrounding his back yard, and I had a moment of thinking, "Oh, dear.  He's trying so hard to be good and go home, but he's confused as to how to get inside the fence."

Wrong.

I watched this big yellow lab climb a chain link fence.  Just moseyed up to it, and paw over paw, climbed it as easily as you or I would climb a ladder.  Probably more easily.

I'm so glad my dogs don't know how to do that!