One of the great lessons I learned in my journey from cat lover/dog ambivalent to cat lover/dog lover was that dogs like to be walked. I mean really like to be walked.
Of course I knew that dogs love to get out and about, being generally far more active than our feline friends [note to any dogs peering over their owner’s shoulder with the gift of literacy – I am in no way implying you like, or have ever liked, cats]. But what I hadn’t fully grasped was just how much dogs like to go out, expend some energy and explore the neighbourhood.
I was given an insight into dogs’ love affair with the daily walk, or should I say walks, when I dog sat for my friend Toby some years back. He had two dogs at the time – a gorgeous dog who was reasonably well behaved, and a super-energetic Kelpie cattle dog who, let’s just say, had behavioral issues and leave it at that. They spent their days in a yard that afforded them some room to run around but not enough to burn off as much energy as they needed to.
So they really looked forward to the leashes coming out of the cupboard and Toby announcing it was time to go for a walk. (I learned quickly not to use the word “walk” in any context when they were in earshot and we were not about to go walking; their disappointment when I didn’t get the leads and go marching out the door with them was palpable.) Naturally when I was appointed Chief Temporary Dog Sitter, I was given, along with notes on when to feed them and how much, instructions on when to take them for walks, and their preferred routes (yes apparently they had them).
I was also informed that the Kelpie, being the excitable doggy teenager that he was then had a great love for “making friends” with passing people and dogs. This meant he lunged at them. All good-natured of course but the hapless passers-by weren’t to know that.
So the extra duty I was assigned, along with ensuring they got out successfully into the big wide world, was to make sure that the Kelpie (and yes I have forgotten both their names alas – bad, bad!) didn’t make “friends” with anyone.
As a result, I spent most of the walks – OK all of them – trying desperately to corral two dogs into some semblance of an ordered walking pattern, leaping with all the grace of a ballerina as one of them unexpectedly went in one direction while the other stayed the course threatening to trip me up with fast moving leashes, and making sure the Kelpie didn’t send a small Terrier leaping for the safety of its owners arms.
Truth be told, for all the exertion of keeping two enthusiastic dogs in check, I had a ball! And you could tell the dogs loved it. They excitedly ran from bush to post to the next bush, lost in the joy of the daily walk. And they were always happier after the walks, sitting contentedly at my feet afterwards, thrilled they had gone out into the neighbourhood.
Of course if I so much as mentioned the word walk after that, well… let’s just say I came up with a great many creative ways to not say the word “walk”.
Meet Our Men Love Dogs Too Contributor
Andrew is a cat person, who also happens to love dogs now thanks to the evangelizing ways of some adorable canines he knows. When he is not trying to keep his new found love for dogs quiet from the cats in his life, he loves listening to Coldplay, eating New York-baked cheesecake and blogging at sparklyprettybriiiight.com. He lives in Sydney, Australia.
