A Year of Blogging: February 22, 2011

February 22 was Walk the Dog Day. I have to admit, we don't walk our dogs. We have a backyard, and they are allowed to run in the backyard and play. If my Vet is reading this, she is no doubt cringing. We have tried in the past to walk the dogs. We have a decent neighborhood. The street is busy during school time, but it's not like the three lane boulevard behind the house. The neighborhood has sidewalks throughout it, and it's not a bad walk. The problem is many of our neighbors have dogs too. We failed as puppy parents by not socializing our dogs as puppies. We adopted them in winter, and they were so tiny, we tried not to take them out much. Our dogs were never properly socialized, and as such, do not really get along well with other dogs. The beagles think they should be the only dogs in the world. They get upset when other dogs walk past our house. Onyx even gets upset when she sees Axel, Erich's parents dog, and she knows him! Our attempts to walk the dogs always ends up in raised blood pressure for us, and some breathlessness. Ms. Onyx believes she is small, but mighty, and must take on anything. Prince Cobalt is afraid of his own shadow. When he feels threatened, he barks, as beagles do. This horrible, deep wail that reverberates through the neighborhood. Add to this the beagles tendencies to follow an interesting scent, and walks are well....very unpleasant. My parents tried to walk the dogs one year. Mom started out with Cobalt, because he is the calmer dog. What she didn't realize is he pulls so on a leash, you feel like he's pulling your arm out of the socket. He is a very muscular dog. So she quickly traded with Dad, and took Onyx, the smaller of the two. Everything was great, until they rounded the corner. There, in a fenced yard was a German Shepherd. Onyx took offense to his presence, and tried to go through the fence after him. Cobalt got scared and started barking. The German Shepherd started climbing the fence to get Onyx. Dad walked quickly with Cobalt and got him out of there, and Mom scooped up Onyx in her arms and took off running. They came back to the house and said 'Never again!' As they told their story, Erich and I laughed, because it was so familiar. Some dogs do well on walks. Mine do not. So it is best to not even try.