In yesterday’s post I mentioned Delilah had a little off-leash hike. If you’ve been reading for a while you know there are certain areas Delilah is prone to running off to. One of these areas is in the field.
When we entered the park I unclipped her leash and gave her freedom. I think off-leash works best for Delilah if I try to keep her focus on me, so I call her back to me quite frequently. She was returning every time I called.
We went to the field. There was one time where she turned and started running away from me and she didn’t respond to my call. I turned around and said, “Sampson come.”
As soon as I knew I had his attention I started running the other way and I said, “Go, go, go, go, go, go, go” really loud as we ran away from Delilah.
Do you know that worked?
And the only reason I can think why is that I sometimes psyche the dogs into going outside by giving them a little pep talk. I think the excitement in my voice tells her something exciting and fun is about to happen.
Of course I don’t know this with any certainty, but it makes sense to me.
After the field we made our way up the trails and then started back down towards the rail trail. As we approached the rail trail I leashed Delilah again, and shortly after that we ran into the couple I mentioned in yesterday’s post.
Naturally we got to talking about dogs. This couple had a Husky for 14 years. The man said he used to walk his dog every day and was so in the habit that he continues to do so. He also said he always walked his dog off-leash, there was an older man that he used to encounter and the man always said, dogs were meant to run free and not be leashed.
He went on to say, times have changed and people have changed. There are so many people out there on the rail trail now walking their dogs, but they don’t want you to look at their dogs or pet their dogs and he’s not sure what happened.
I’m not really sure what happened either. I don’t remember when it changed, but it certainly has. I don’t ever remember our childhood dogs on leashes. Is it because our parents didn’t walk them? Or because there were fewer people? Have people grown less tolerant of dogs? What do you remember about dog etiquette from when you were a child?
After we parted ways, I kept Delilah on the leash. I felt like it was best to end our walk with her remaining successful.
And she was.
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