9.26.2014

September 25, 2014

White Dog watched until she could no longer see them walking down the block. Today was the first day of Zsofia's distance walking, real world leash training with YoYoMa and Steve.

The entire White Dog Army supervised the fitting of the squirmy girl into Oso's harness, the blue one he had worn as a adult that our Baby wears at just short of three months of age. Zsofia watched as Yo calmly stepped into his and then sat waiting for it to be fastened; he moved aside and nodded that she should copy what he just had done. Zsofia danced over to Steve, sniffed the harness and then played "circle around the table" until he said "FINE!" and just sat down. When she came close again, he nabbed her. After five minutes of trying to bite the harness and twisting to buck it off, she sat next to YoYoMa and looked at him expectantly. Steve clipped leashes on each and led them out of the front door.

YoYoMa is our best walker. He is a powerwalker and serious...no wandering or lolly-gagging. When they are out together, he and Steve walk to cover distance, often as much as 5 miles. Yo is focused and all business. He was chosen to provide the training and exercise our growing pup needs because the WDA knew he would not be distracted by kiddie games or puppy charm or stopping to collect sticks.

The Darker White Dog took off like a shot straining and pulling at her leash then veering to bite at a bush or nose an interesting smell. Steve worked to keep her in line and in pace. Those of us watching out of the window chuckled. "I KNOW she won't be crazy like that when they get back," Taiko observed. "I've walked with Yo; she'll be lucky if she is keeping up at the end."

Sure enough when the trio came back up the driveway YoYoMa was setting the lead pace and Little Miss Zsofia was huffing to keep stride. Even Steve was a bit sweaty when they came through the door.

They had completed a one-mile circuit.

Both dogs rushed for the water bowl and Yo graciously let the young one drink her fill before stepping up to quench his thirst. Before Steve had even returned from the kitchen with his own glass of cold water, Zsofia had crawled under the sofa and was nearly asleep.

"Kids," Yo muttered as he circled and curled up on the hearth, not even winded. Zsofia took a two-hour nap (to the great happiness of her oldest siblings and Sachi, her non-stop wrestling partner).

2 comments:

KB said...

Great story. Yup, those long walks will help with stemming that puppy energy!

Tweedles -- that's me said...

And fast walking tooo! WOW!
love
tweedles