Saturday, March 20, 2010

Slow Walking

Charlie and I, it seems, have different ideas on what constitutes a good dog walk. For my part, I want it to be long enough to burn off excess canine energy that otherwise might will be directed toward me (and probably involve teeth), slightly brisk, and far enough away to see new neighborhoods and experience new things.
Charlie, however, completely disagrees. In his mind, the purpose of a walk is to check pee-mail, score love, and, who knows, maybe find some dropped food. One should not go past anything scary, like the schoolyard, or the house with the whirlygigs, anywhere there are workmen, or anyplace new. So his preference is to just go around the block. Slow. Real slow. Sniffingly slow.

So we compromise. I make him go farther than he wants to, because he needs to be desensitized to the idea that new = scary. But we go slow, and we smell the flowers.


18 comments:

Moose said...

Ditto! I think Moose would go on and on and on though, just really really slow sniffing everything & looking for food. He would go until he had no energy to make it back if given unlimited time! When I adopted him I had in mind that I could get exercise walking a dog... Not so much. We go so slowly that it is probably the same as standing still! Everynow and then I can get him up to a trot if I say quick quick quick but that only works from one stop to the next! Goof!

NAK and The Residents of The Khottage Now With KhattleDog! said...

I tend to do do the khwikhk method fur one of my walks and the sniff EVFURRYTHING imaginable on the other -

It is great fur frustrating my mom!

Merdie on the other hand tends to just plod along if we are walking in the neighbourhood BUT if we go to the park she tries to smell evFURRYthing too!

Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra & Khousin Merdie

Lacy said...

w00fs, heehee mama says she hopes that charlie dont try to pull ur mamas arm outta socket like me does mama..and mama says to thank u both for the package..and the cranes and me loves me loves it all..

b safe,
~rocky~

Jans Funny Farm said...

Hmmm, want to borrow Buddy? He loves to walk fast, the faster the better -- and he still smells everything. And he'll keep going and going ...

Kelly Ann said...

Stella doesn't like those whirlygigs either...must be a golden thing..

Kari in Alaska said...

sounds like a good compromise to me!

meemsnyc said...

Looks like a great walk. It's nice to be able to sniff everything isn't it? Especially flowers!

Lorenza said...

Haaa! Sounds very familiar!
I like peaceful walkies with lots of things to sniff... and I like to take my time to do it!
Kisses and hugs
Lorenza

Jan said...

Walking four dogs at once, each with their own ideas of a walk, is my twice daily challenge.

Noah the Airedale said...

Charlie, I love your walking style. It's just like mine matie...slow and steady, lots of sniffing.

Noah x

Meeka said...

Hi Charlie,
Sniffing is the reason we go out for walks, right? We can easily burn excess energy by just running around the coffee table ten times.

Golden Samantha said...

A furry pretty walk, but I know what you mean! (That's why we try to go on hikes offleash, cause we selfish hoomans can walk at our own pace heheh!) Neighborhood walks are not Sammie's forte, for the exact reasons you state! I totally get it! Sam would give Charlie's style 10 nods!
Hugs xo
Sammie and Mom

Wrigley said...

We feel your pain. Our walks are a constant battle between mom wanting to go fast and me wanting to stop and smell an interesting spot for 10 minutes! I can turn a 30 minute walk into a full hour pretty easy.

Wags and Kisses,
Wrigley

Ben said...

Me and the fellas quick walk on the way away from the house and slow sniff on the way back...
Ben

Curt Rogers said...

Every time you say "pee mail" I giggle.

Thanks for sharing! I love your photos! Charlie looks so beautiful next to the flowers.

Life With Dogs said...

That last pic is brilliant. Love the color contrasts. Worth slowing down for! :)

How Sam Sees It said...

Wow! That last picture is really pretty! Sam has areas where he just needs to sniff, but for the most part, we have him trained to march on!

Sam

Rick said...

Oh this sounds all too familiar.