The Dogs of Team Stryker

A little background for my readers who aren't involved with Team Stryker. Friends of mine, Genie and Rich, are in Baltimore while he is in the hospital. A large group of friends are pitching in to help take the burden of daily chores and some care giving off of Genie and her family. I signed up on their care calendar to walk Mollie and Dante.

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I had a brand new experience today. I walked dogs for the very time in my life! That probably surprises almost everyone. I grew up with dogs, but I grew up on a farm and they walked themselves.

As expected I was greeted by barking, however Mollie and Dante are getting used to strangers,  because it stopped as soon as I entered the house. I've never been to Genie and Rich's place, so I had prepared by looking on google maps for directions, writing down her dad's contact info and the access code I needed.

I failed to look up the mechanics of a choke collar. I determined which was larger and managed by telling the excited dogs to "hold still.... hold still..... hoold still" "come ooon hoooold still" to get them on. When they were finally both ready, after looking in vain for a pooper scooper to go with the poop bags (good thing they were readily available because it wouldn't have occurred to me until it was too late), I picked up the leashes and headed out the door. 

Soon we met their neighbor Sara and her kids. Mollie and Dante about jerked my arms out getting to her dog. I'm glad they are okay with each other. That is when I realized that although my folks black lab was bigger than Dante, he was still plenty big enough to make me feel like a light weight!

I felt sure they had done it with Genie, so we jogged for a while. 

They did their business and I made sure I got every little bit of it. Then I started wondering if it was acceptable to drop it in someone else's trash barrel. There was one sitting at the curb. I decided that surely it's a social "no no" especially if you aren't really a neighbor and resisted.

Interesting Smells to Investigate

Part way through the walk, my shoe lace became untied. "Hold still" "No, hooooold stillllll. It's my turn to stop!"

About two thirds of the way through I realized that one of the collars had flipped wrong side out! It then became apparent that I had not fastened the collars correctly. duh... no choke potential this time!  It was again obvious that I hadn't done all of my homework. No trying to back out of the collars. In this they were total angels, they did not in the least act as though they realized my error. 

One plus to walking dogs is the people that pay attention to you that wouldn't otherwise. A man obviously grinning at the sight of me walking two dogs (they were behaving beautifully), Genie and Rich's neighbor Sara, a little girl across one street who said hello to Mollie and then started talking to me.

They were very good about letting me pull leashes out from under them, helping them take their foot out of the extra hand loop, not insisting on moving when they had stopped at a corner to look across the street and then had traded places when they decided it was time to turn that corner FINALLY and move on and I was still facing the street and had to flip around.

The Corner

Mollie tired out and became positively docile. It was a brisk day and I was looking forward to a nice walk to suit the day. By the time we rounded the corner for home, I was beginning to wonder how much dog walking actually consists of walking. There seems to be a LOT of halting to investigate wondrous smells.

I feel sure it will go more smoothly next time.