Oskar will be 12 in August. He's my steady-freddy dog, dependable, trustworthy.
He loves to take a walk and see what's up in the neighborhood. In the past year he's developed some arthritis which has slowed him down a bit, but he's also developed a funny habit of slowing down on the return trip. Whether we go 1/4 mile out and back, or 1/2 mile out and back, after the turn around his speed drops by half. It amuses me. He seems to want to extend his walking time in any way that he can, and he slows down more and more the closer we get to home. If I make a turn that says "let's go another block" then his speed doubles!
He loves to take a walk and see what's up in the neighborhood. In the past year he's developed some arthritis which has slowed him down a bit, but he's also developed a funny habit of slowing down on the return trip. Whether we go 1/4 mile out and back, or 1/2 mile out and back, after the turn around his speed drops by half. It amuses me. He seems to want to extend his walking time in any way that he can, and he slows down more and more the closer we get to home. If I make a turn that says "let's go another block" then his speed doubles!
This morning we took a nice mile walk, half mile out, half mile back. I had my camera along, so I took a few pictures, and a little video.
He's due a brushing, his coat doesn't look great, but you can see I even put his leash over his back and he was so good. (My dogs were raised in the city/suburbs, so they're usually never off leash outside of a fence.)
When we got home, the light on my pansies was so pretty I wanted to take a photo. This one.
And he was off! There's a gate there, on the other side of the house, and he perked right up and raced through the gate.
Sorry, there are no more pictures. I was chasing him into the deep grass that's still flooded from all the rains we've had this past week. If I'd had the camera on video, you'd hear a fair amount of cursing as the water squished into my sneakers. And my sneaky dog went around back to check out the chickens' run.
Finally I remembered our obedience training all those many years ago. "FRONT!" I hollered, and he came right over to me. Where I could grab his leash, and lead him squish squish squishing back into the fenced yard.
He walked with a happy jog in his step.
4 comments:
He is so sweet! Oscar looks do be doing pretty good for 12.
Wow, can it really be 12 years?
Nice catch, remembering to use "front". It's a good cue to have in your repertoire. Unlike "come" it doesn't get overused so once you've got it down, it can work like a charm even if it's been ages since last used.
My Country knows what "COME" means, but sometimes she pretends to be deaf.
She'll also creep up to me so slow it makes me want to pinch her head off.
Gotta luv our mutts.
Hey Johanna! Thanks for checking in! xo
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