How not to walk the dog

A rare occassion of coming home at 6 p.m.. meant i got the chance walk Ruki today. :D

After the usual struggles of getting his leash on, we began our trip down my road....somewhat dignified walk apart from the occassional forward jerks when he sniffed something interesting.

A couple of houses down, I noticed that he was breathing unusually heavy. *remembers instructor saying if collar put on wrongly, dog can choke and DIE!!* So, i stopped to loosen it. The next thing I know, the collar came off and Ruki bolted off!!! He ran like someone escaping from prison...well, except he stopped at spots to sniff and gobble whatever he could.

OK, I didn't panic (cause he bolted off outside twice before). One learns a lot from experience....and develop a series of questions for next course of action.

First, do you have your leash?
If NO, run back home IMMEDIATELY and get your leash. You then need your car to catch up him as you are neither a sprinter or marathon runner.

LESSON 1 - You can't catch dog with your bare hands. You can't walk home holding your dog's collar. Very UNCOOL. (I had to drag my dog back home by his collar once. Luckily, a man cycling with his dog on tow saved me from total embarassment. He had him chasing his bike + dog all the way home. Phew!)

If you have your leash and am confident without your standby car to bundle him in, continue to follow him. But, you need to stay CALM at all times...ACT NORMAL ....or else your neighbours will think you are some kind of MAD dog-woman!

Lesson 2 - The more you call and run after him, the faster he runs away from you.
Lesson 3 - No amount of dog treats is tastier than yummy roadside poo!

As in prior prison breaks, he ran-and-sniffed all the way down my road in a matter of seconds. Calling him is futile coz he was too busy sniffing to hear me. In total trance. Then, I saw a lady with two dogs at the end of the road. I thought "Oh good, i bet Ruki will stop and take a look/sniff and play." Chance to leash him there.

As I got nearer...OH MY GOD .... that BIG black dog ahead was a ROTTWEILER!!

*panic*

The skinny-woman-with-two-dogs frozed.
Silly Ruki runs over to "play". Get down on back to expose his belly!
Rott starts jumping and ready to pounch on him.
Ruki yelps once.
NOooo....my silly boy rolls back up and goes to approach the Rott again!

*shouts* *screams* NOOOOO!!!!

Finally, Ruki got the message this dog is not for play-play.

Luckily, skinny woman managed to yank the dog away. Finally, after more stern calling *NOOOOOOOO* *COME HEREEEE* ....I managed to get Ruki back on his leash.

He got a EARFUL from me. *lecture* *lecture* all the way home.

Skinny woman came out again later with her poodle. I apologised. Learnt that her Rot is 2 years old. I must say she was MIGHTY STRONG....to be able to pull the adult Rot away. eerr...I can't even hold down my 6-mth old skinny lab. :D


Who in the right mind would want to walk 2 dogs together. *rant* *rant* She was walking a ROTT and a toy poodle!! Silly woman. She must be thinking the same about me though...who in the right mind walks her dog without a leash!!! Silly me. LOL

Photo on 25 Jan 2009 (at almost 6 months)