Dog Walking

It turns out that being unemployed keeps me busy!  Well, I’m not completely unemployed  - I have a long-distance telework arrangement with the winery, and I teach a graduate class on Fridays.  Both of those are occupying some of my time.  The other parts of my time are filled up by editing my dissertation, preparing a follow-up study to my dissertation, creating additional studies, and a few other academic pursuits.  The dogs are enjoying the house.  I find myself wishing that I could take them for more walks or do more water retrieving, but doing so involves us out and about in public.  Both dogs have small issues I have to work on, and taking both by myself just seems somewhat insurmountable sometimes.  Well, not insurmountable, but more difficult.  And if I only take Cosette, Trooper howls and yelps up a storm (separation anxiety – which is an issue unto itself).    Cosette is in need of a few retouches on her heeling – she regularly walks with her shoulders ahead of the line of my hips, which is a no-no.  I’m considering going back to basics with her, and restarting.  Trooper is just in general all over the place, so he needs attention 100% of the time when we’re walking together.  Together, they are a little too much to handle – especially if there is another dog crossing our path.  The other day we were having a bit of a challenging walk and there was a dog standing in his own lawn minding his own business, and Cosette and Trooper saw him and just went nuts and ran in front of me to start barking.  Luckily I had a good grip on their leashes and gave them a quick correction and walked away from the distraction.  But, it still stands:   I don’t have as much control over my dogs as I want.  

This is a several part problem:  (1)  not enough exercise, (2) not enough training on my part, (3) not enough consistency.  It’s very much an avoidant thing – because it’s bad, I avoid it, and by avoiding it, I make it worse.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, they aren’t terrible or anything, but they certainly are not laid-back Labs.
Sigh.  I should go walk them some more.  I’ll go walk Trooper now, and Cosette later when Joel gets home so Troops has some company.  Peace!