Walking With Cleofatra

Ruby is used to our morning walks. BEFORE the crack of dawn, we go around the block, takes about 10 minutes, she gets all of her business done and I get to work on time. Kevin is gone for a couple of days this week, so I need to manage Sophie, a.k.a. Cleofatra/SoFat/Fatdog in the mornings as well as Ruby. I decided to invite Cleofatra along for our walk this morning, because I HAD extra time. Our brisk morning walk turned into a slow walk/stop/beg, and me rolling into work 10 minutes late.

My head was apparently not on straight or I would have never invited her, nor would I have decided to forgo the leash. I know she doesn’t NEED it, it’s not like she would go anywhere, but I should have remembered that she needs the occasional pull-start to exercise. We got across the street the first time she stopped. Then we got two houses down. Then we got to the corner. And the next corner. Each time, she looks back toward the house, or ‘promised land’, and then at me as if to say ‘Are you out of your MIND? You do this EVERY DAY??’

The opposite side of the block ALONE took ten whole minutes and four treats to get her from one end to the other. At the point when we turned toward home, when Ruby typically takes off for the driveway, Sophie picked up the pace to an actual walk instead of a trudge. She collapsed in her kennel and I had to coax her out to eat her breakfast. She couldn’t get back to sleep fast enough.

So lesson learned, don’t try to walk a bulldog. Especially not at 5:30 am.

In other news, Ruby’s choker paid off in spades this morning. One of the many times I was begging Sophie to keep up with us, Ruby took off after what I assume is a very hungover Easter Bunny. I didn’t feel the flexi releasing and by the time I turned my head to the left, she was at the end of the leash. I nearly lost my footing and my right arm, but when she hit the end, she was in the shadows in someone’s side yard and all I heard was a very painful yelp. I’m sure it’s wrong that I felt a twinge of satisfaction at the sounds of my dog in pain. My goal is to make sure she associates the consequences of that device with her own behavior and not with the person walking her. She’s catching on. Without the choker, I’ve no doubt I would have made a divot in the neighbor’s yard.

All for now.