Tuesday, January 1, 2008

A slow start! and walks

Well, Ike and I slept in quite late this morning and took a somewhat leisurely walk just as the snow started to fall - before it turned to cold rain. Other than that, not much happening. I did NOT get my table painted today. I did take the birds in the shower, which they adore. I will post pics tomorrow - my USB cord is fouled up and won't download my pics. : ( Very annoying.

Yesterday morning I was up early anticipating a SNOW STORM and instead we just had a dusting. Ike and I walked downtown and our footprints were the first of the day. It was quite cool to look at them on our return trip home. I am very fortunate, Ike has always been a natural loose leash walker. Don't know how I could have gotten so lucky! He walks between a foot to three feet from me at all times.

So, as I was saying on our return home we had a lovely set of matching prints to look at. It made me think of the chapter in Suzanne Clothier's book Bones Would Rain From the Sky on walking and how she views it as a reflection of a person's relationship with their dog. I tend to agree with the thought. While Ike is naturally a LLWer, our walks are all about checking in and management - after all you never know when a scary person will appear. Ike has trained me really well to have successful dog relationships in the future - he has set the bar high in quite a few ways. Of course, the way that Ike and I walk together is nothing like the way he walks with John or my in-laws. They all think he is very stubborn! And I suppose he is, with them.

Wet bird pics tomorrow!!

3 comments:

Katrin said...

This is your "back to earth" reminder:

And every dog will, I promise you, change that bar and make you reevalute what exactly a "successful dog relationship" is. I promise.

re: "Ike has trained me really well to have successful dog relationships in the future - he has set the bar high in quite a few ways."

Sounds like you had a very nice walk. Happy New Year to the lot of you. :-)

Jules said...

Oh believe me, I can't even imagine what my next dog will be like. I am afraid-in-a-way, to be honest.

This blog is such an "I love You" note to Ike it's silly!

Katrin said...

Hmm, are you letting him read it? Monty insists on reading his! Lol!