She, like Cesar Millan, stresses the importance of exercise to keep your dogs minds and legs in the right place. I must admit I'm the worst about this. I don't exercise my dogs enough. I am the horrible dog owner who falls into the trap of, "I don't have time to walk 4 dogs" or "I do have a huge backyard" . . . . it's not a good excuse and it doesn't make up for the time with you. Also, dogs get bored of the same ole same ole backyard. Don't get me wrong, my dogs are not ever left in my backyard. They go out to potty and I'll leave them for about 15 minutes but if they go more than that it's a long time for them to have for themselves in the yard.
My dogs do get a lot of off-leash play in parks, playing ball and training . . . so I guess I can use that excuse--ha ha! And that is actually more than many pets get . . . so I'm saying walk your dogs. I'm only saying this now because I'm of the notion practice what you preach, and well if I wasn't walking my own dogs on a regular basis how could I preach to my clients that they had to? I could, I should but I'd feel like a hypocrite. '
However . . . I just got back from another walk with my new Alpha Pac leash system (I know I keep mentioning this don't I?) and this time I used it with two of my dogs attached. I took Noah my Border Aussie and Trevor my Jack Russell. I bundled up my little girl (now 12.5 weeks old) and put her in the jogger stroller. Off we went! We only did about 15-20 minutes. I forgot my watch so I didn't time it. I should have -- Time your walks so you know how long you went! Anyway, it was a great walk.
We passed by a man walking his two dogs. They appeared to be Min Pins, and they went nuts-o when we walked by. They barked and snarled and the guy had to hold on tight to their leashes with all his might. Noah perked up and looked at them and Trevor kind of stopped and looked in awe. We just kept walking and I told my boys, "Good boys! Such good boys!" as we walked by and they didn't act a-fool like those other dogs did. We made a loop and I noticed the same man coming again toward us. This time I decided to make my dogs sit calmly while they passed us. They were on the opposite side of the street of course but it was only about a 25 foot span. Noah sat the whole time like a handsome boy, ears perked but still sitting. Trevor stood there. He was watching them intently but he took me asking him twice to sit, and helping him in the position. I noticed that it was harder for him to sit with his little body harness on. Remember the harness I mentioned before? Yes. The Webmaster from Ruff Wear. Anyway, there I go again with excuses . . .Ok. Today I have no doggie clients and so I will be running errands and taking a trip to the park later with my dogs to play some ball and practice their recalls--you never can practice that enough!
Tootles!
No comments:
Post a Comment