Running Styles

The dogs… right. It’s been a really really long while since I wrote about their silly antics.

For yesterday’s walk Stryder was up to his usual silly self and while chewing on a stick it left a big piece wedged between two of his teeth. He then promptly started running in circles while making “nuk nuk nuk” noises and pawing at his head. For a few moments I thought he was choking and wondered if I could successfully do abdominal thrusts on a dog. When he finally stopped and let me pry open his mouth to see what was going on. The piece of wood was easy to remove and after he happily trotted around glowing from all the attention he got during the ordeal.

About 10-minutes later, while chasing a snowball he clumsily managed to slide through a huge pile of poop left by another dog and walker. Not only did he smell horrific after, but he seemed to like his new pong and pranced around showing off to anyone who came close. This earned him a nice long bath, but not before the stinky ride from hell. Once in the jeep we all suffered from his pungent stench and after a few minutes even he tried to jump over the seat to get his head out the window.

However, instead of making it over the seat he somehow managed to get himself stuck between the side of the jeep and the back seat. And, there he stayed wedged struggling like a trapped bug until we got home and I set him free. I’ll admit, I got a great deal of enjoyment watching him in the rear view mirrow as he unsuccessfully tried to wiggle himself free.

Skip to today when Stryder the pain in the ass decided he liked the way he smelled yesterday and went searching for poop to roll in. We’ve been in this vicious cycle with dead ducks and I’m sure that if Calgary had dead fish in the parks, Stryder’d be in seventh heaven. But for now he’s now on a leash.

Then there’s Kima. Sigh. Here is a dog who once hated to exercise. For over a year I tried to take her on runs and she’d either turn into cartoon-crazy-dog chasing-a-squirrel or flat out refuse to run at all.

Something seemed to happen this summer and suddenly Kima enjoys her weekend run. As their walk time approaches she does this little thing where she stands on her hind legs puts her front legs on my body and pushes as hard as she can towards the door. I guess you can say it’s a not-so-subtle hint.

Her style is so contraditory as well. As I am getting ready to leave she does a little gallop – dolphin/seal dance around the front entrance. Stryder just stands calmly by the door as he waits for me to put on his harness as he watches Kima act like a freak.

Once outside, the whole way to the jeep she bounces, sprints, runs in circles, wines, and bites Stryder in excitement. The controdiction comes when we actually get to the park: she leaps out of the vehicle, runs into the park and stand completely still as she waits for me to put her onto leash. And, she actually won’t move until she is on leash and can begin her relentless, consistent little Benji slow trot around the park… without ever stopping.

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