[Tango-L] For Dog Lover's Only

[joanneprochaska@aol.com]

 Dear Ed,
After watching many "Dog Whisperer" shows recently, I must conclude that your dog is indeed "leading" you and you are the "follower".  You only "think" that you are the leader!
You have permitted your dog to be the "pack leader" ... and you are his "pack".
Joanne Pogros
Cleveland, Ohio
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: doyleed at gmail.com
To: tango-l at mit.edu
Sent: Mon, 7 Aug 2006 9:52 PM
Subject: [Tango-L] For Dog Lover's Only


If you don't love dogs, don't bother to read this as you will surely
conclude I am crazy (and you will most probably be correct).

Anyway, today I was walking my dog and dreaming of dancing tango.  I started
to notice things I had not noticed before.  My dog typically walks about
eight feet in front of me, our connection being the eight foot leather leash
(maybe this could loosely be called an open connection :-}} ).  Although she
has her eyes open, she generally looks forward and can not see me (unless
she turns her head around deliberately to look).  Although she is eight feet
in front of me, clearly I am leading and she is following. I determine where
we walk, I am not following her. She has learned through miles of walking to
keep a constant '2 pound' tension on our connection, the leash. If I walk
faster or slower, she will adjust her walk to maintain the same 'feel' in
the connection. She is not leading, and if I turn and walk another
direction, she will adjust, and get back in front of me in the new
direction.  She does not allow the tension to increase as that would engage
the choke collar and be uncomfortable for her, or pull me off my balance.
She does not let the tension decrease as the leash would go slack and she
might trip on it (or maybe I would fall over it, although I doubt that is
her motivation for keeping the slack out of the connection), or at least
walking would be less natural for her.  We both have some desire to make the
walk pleasant for each other. If she tugged and pulled, I might not want to
walk her as often or perhaps might make her heel which is a different kind
of walking - maybe not as pleasant as our free walks.  If I did not give her
time to sniff and do her own thing (her adornments) at times (but within the
bounds of our connection) she would probably become less interested in going
for a walk with me.

Well, there is no purpose to this posting, except to share my musings with
anyone who might find them amusing.

Ed
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