Dance of the Three Leashes

Gretchen says she can walk four dogs at once as long as the dogs are good on the leash. I’ve seen her do it, but when I’m one of the dogs at the end of the leash, I like for there to only be three leashes involved. Why? Because otherwise I have to watch Gretchen do the Dance of the Four Leashes, which means we don’t walk as far as fast. When it’s the Dance of the Three Leashes, a dance she’s pretty good at, then our progress is much more satisfying.

We walked a lot of dogs today — again, two of them twice — and I had to remind Gretchen on numerous occasions that three leashes is enough. Thankfully, she listened.

I stayed at home this morning to rest up after a busy day yesterday and an athletic agility class last night. The rest was much appreciated. When Gretchen got home, though, our work began again. First, we walked up to Monty’s house and with a loud WOOF, he announced his pleasure of seeing us. We then walked through the park and over to Saber’s house who, though he didn’t bark, was very excited to see us — especially Uncle Monty. We made our way over to the tennis courts because we all needed to stretch our legs.

Well, Monty stretched them a little and then he did his bench trick, which Saber and I found fascinating.

After our romp, we went for a nice walk to take care of our business and then took Saber home. But we reminded him that we’d be back in the afternoon. He was very happy about that.

Gretchen dropped Monty and me off for a brief rest while she went to Rosie’s house. Now Rosie has the Dance of the Tail down perfectly. When she hears Gretchen coming up the stairs, she spins and spins and spins in delight. After enthusiastic greetings where Gretchen rubs Rosie all over and Rosie snorts her delight, they went for a nice walk.

As I’ve mentioned, Rosie is very shy when it comes to the camera and today, since the weather was so nice, Rosie was all about checking out the last of the fall colors. Finally, Gretchen got her to look at the camera and Gretchen tried to get as close as possible to that beautiful face.

Of course, in the middle of their beauty photo shoot, Rosie shook her head and slobber went flying. Still, she’s a sweet-faced pup, isn’t she?

Once Rosie went home, Gretchen made her way over to Gemma’s house– another dog we got to see twice today. Gemma was very excited to see Gretchen and after their walk through the park, they came by the house so Gretchen could Monty lunch and Gemma and I could play in the backyard. That was super fun since Gemma and I play a lot alike. We make lots of noise, show our teeth, but never bite each other.

That Gemma. She’s very persistent and eventually, Gretchen had to leash us up and take us for a walk. Monty rested and digested at home.

We took Gemma home with another promise of seeing her later.

Next, we walked back to our neighborhood and picked up the boys next door. We were going to play at the tennis courts, but the weather was so nice today, there were tennis players who beat us to it. Oh well. We walked through the park and Gretchen did her best to get a photo of the three of us.

The problem with the boys, which really isn’t a problem unless you’re trying to take photos of them, is that they don’t like to sit in one spot. Well, Perrito will especially if he’s next to me, but Oshi is always looking for a way down and back to Gretchen.

Finally, I had to tell Oshi to sit politely, stop trying to jump down, and behave. He looked at me with the utmost respect and did exactly what he was told. Good Oshi.

Once the boys went home, Monty and I hung out in the sunshine of the back porch until Gretchen had to go back to Saber’s house for one last walk. On the way there, she ran into Jessica and Quillette and once they picked up Saber, all four of them went on a walk. Boo hoo. I wanted to walked with my Auntie Jessica.

Jessica was very surprised by how big Saber had become. He is almost as tall as Quillette and pretty close to weighing as much. But unlike Quillette, he hasn’t quite figured out how to get his body moving in the same direction.  Well, that is until Quillette shakes her head. Saber think she moves pretty funny, too!

Gretchen and Saber walked Quillette and Jessica home and then they came by our house and picked us up so we could walk Saber home. Three big dogs, three long leashes — yes, the dance got a bit more athletic!

Once Saber went home, Monty and I headed over to the school to meet up with our student. This was our second day in a row and we were very excited to play with him. Actually, Monty got to play with him and I had to practice my being patient trick.

I haven’t really mastered that trick very well.

So the student and Monty played a little fetch and then the student decided to take as many photographs of us as he could — especially of Monty. That kid is turning into a pretty good photographer, don’t ya think?

Once we sent the student back to class, Monty and I rested for a bit before we walked Monty home. I think we tuckered him out pretty well today, but you never know with that Monty. He’s a pretty energetic fellow when he wants to be.

Finally, in the cover of darkness, we walked Ms. Gemma one last time. Gemma was surprised to see us, but after our walk, she got to hang out at the house for a bit because her family would not be home until later and well, we didn’t want her to be lonely.

So while we had a lot of dogs today, Gretchen never walked more than three at a time. She took my advice, thank dogness, and so hopefully tonight, she won’t be too tired or sore.

Oh wait. Maybe I want her to be too tired and sore. I think I heard a rumor about a grooming and a bath. A Gretchen, can we talk about this? All that stuff I said about you not dancing the Dance of Four Leashes very well…I was just kidding.

Really. Ha ha?

Until tomorrow,

Rubin