Skip to main content

Dog Walkin' Woes

In my Dog Whisperer enthusiasm, I've taken it upon myself to 'master the walk.' In the words of my man, Cesar Millan, it's important that I don't let DogSpot drag me along on our walks or she's gonna think she's the pack leader. And we can't be having that, now can we?

But DogSpot doesn't see things that way. Each morning, she gleefully hops in to the back of my Explorer, enthusiastically hops out when we've gotten to our walking spot, and then she just takes off. The poor thing has about strangled herself and crippled me in her quest to lead us off into the wild blue yonder and she's just about yanked my arm out of socket a time or two. You'd think the little beast weighed more than 33 pounds.

I've tried all the tips. I faithfully recored each and every episode of the show and pore over all the instructions. And I try to follow them, I really do. But my dog just doesn't turn into the little miracle that Cesar promises she will. I've used a regular collar, I've used a harness, I've used a backpack (which is on hold until her fix-it stitches totally heal), I've even used one of those slip collars.

I'm coming to the sad conclusion that it's not the dog. It must be me. I guess I just have bad energy. And according to Cesar, you just can't walk a dog when you have bad energy.

Comments

Mary Ellen said…
Why not send ole Cesar your plight? Maybe he'll come to your rescue and you'll both get to be on his show AND you'll end up with a well behaved dog!?!?!
Rochelle said…
I have resolved a similar problem with a much bigger dog (60 lbs) with the Gentle Leader (to be had at Wal-Mart, or PetSmart,etc) It works fabulously. My dog doesn't drag me on our walks anymore...I LOVE it!
Unknown said…
It's been sooooooooo long since I've had a dog, but our last dog was a Doberman and was already trained when I got him. I walked him daily for miles and he was so good walking right by my side. I thought he was the most handsome dog on the planet with his beautiful sleek black coat and I felt like a queen everyday on our walks. But I draw a blank when it comes to training a dog.
Anonymous said…
Well, Jennifer, she is keeping us in shape with her energy. She is a great pace setter. I thought she was doing well!

~Sue
LindaJo49 said…
It makes you wonder what you said to her to get the expression she has here? Quizzical? Baffled? Bored? Or, I can pose!!

Popular posts from this blog

Too Close For Comfort

Depressing: Def., "Realizing that you and your Dearly Beloved are entirely to close to wearing the same pant size. Case in point - Hero Guy came ' har har-ing' out of the bedroom relating that he had accidentally been wearing a pair of my jeans for the last 15 minutes. He wondered why they felt so weird (translated - TIGHT) until he took them off and inspected the tag. He gloated that at least he knows he can fit into a Ladies Size ___ (you really think I'm going to tell you the number?!). My Observations: 1) He had a MONSTER wedgie, so the jeans were entirely too small for him. 2) They are my "fat" jeans, a size bigger than what I actually wear, but I just like the broken-in feeling of them. Or the roominess or something. 3) They were the stretchy kind of jeans, so an elephant could have painted itself into them. 4) What's he bragging about having a girlish figure for anyway? Not very macho if you ask me. Hmph.

Stickin' It Out

I got married today. Well, not exactly today. It was Friday, June 2. But the year was 1989 - 17 years ago. "Amazing", people say. "Good for you", they comment. "You must have picked the right one", the add. Amazing? Yes. Good for me? I'll admit it. But it has nothing to do with picking the right one, really. It's not because I found the perfect boy, and it's certainly not because he found the perfect girl. It might sound a little unromantic, but there never really is a 'right one' floating around out there waiting in the cosmos for the other 'right one' to crash and connect. There may be 'better ones'; there may be 'more easily compatible' or something or other. But the real story is you start becoming the right one the moment you vow that "you do". When I married, I had been 20 for a whole 33 days, we had just completed a 2-year long-distance realtionship and HE was five years older tha

Mixed Feelings

It's been a long time in coming, but as of this morning, I'm no longer a medical transcriptionist. I'm not sure how I feel about that...a little bit relieved, a little bit sad, a lot bit uncertain about whether I'll regret this decision. For the last year or so, I've found that the transcription work isn't fulfilling the need I once had to stay at home with my babies and have an income. I've increasingly felt that I need more interaction and less monotony. I've also felt the pressure of work that constantly needs to be done, with no sense of ever being really "finished." No matter how much work you've done for the day, there's always another note waiting to be transcribed. That goes for sick days, holidays, vacations days or any kind of days. This year, I've dabbled in substituting as a school monitor and office staff, and kind of found my niche in the last few weeks. I'll be working a couple of hours a day in one of the