November

I hear my human talking about something big happening. I don’t know anything about elections, but I know I love my morning walks.

It took my human a long time to find our bike path route. When people pass us, I get so happy. My human laughs at me as I bop and bounce to catch up with bicyclists or other pedestrians. Even on weekend mornings, we sometimes don’t see dogs. If we do, they’re leashed to respectful humans who give us space when they see me stop eating my treat scatter, and my human holds my chest to keep me calm. I’d never redirect, and my Mabel swaddle helped keep me from getting on my back legs, squealing like a pig, and wriggling so much my human worries she’d fall (it happened when a dog stared at me too long in agility class; we now take private lessons) or I’d hurt myself on my harness.

Now that the weather’s too cold to chase water, I don’t like my SniffSpot as much, so we’ve been trying short training walks at the nearby park. My human cheered me on because I was way (like a lot, a lot) less nervous than the last time we walked there, but she still saved my extra special treats just for those walks as she tried to figure out the best time and path to take me where it’s quietest so we can enjoy our stroll. 

The other day, we saw another dog that needed to stop when it saw me. I get it; I do that too, and my human doesn’t want to tug me, so she carried me up a tiny hill. I’m not a small dog, and as she huffed and heave-hiked, trying to keep me calm, safe, and under my stress threshold, two friendly people asked if she needed help. I bet it looked like we were in real trouble, but it wasn’t so bad. I got super yummy snacks when she put me on the ground again, and I was a good girl. I love the snacks, all of them, even vegetables. 

So, we keep trying. If your dog barks and lunges at other dogs, I bet you also look forward to November weather. There will be less dog traffic but fewer treats, too. Maybe other dogs aren’t so bad after all.