For most of September I’ve been biking back and forth to work, and dropping the boys at school each way. As it’s gotten cooler, the biking has dropped off, but, I’ve still tried to walk down to the school each afternoon and get the boys and walk home.
Wiley loves this plan. There’s only one thing in the world (scrambled eggs) that Wiley loves more than a walk; you pull out the leash and harness and he’s prancing around ready to go and absolutely a pain in the ass until that harness is on and we’re on our way.
For the most part, Wiley is a good walking dog; he’s out about 10x as smart as the Beagle…we never ever get tied up around poles, which was a constant problem with Magenta.
What keeps Wiley from being a perfect walking dog is his reaction to other dogs on the walk. He goes absolute bat shit crazy nuts when he sees one. He barks, he whines, he pulls, he wants nothing more to be friends with the dog. At times, we’ve let him stop and be friends with other dogs, and he’s pretty calm once that starts, but, getting to that point is a challenge, and I usually choose to avoid the dog encounters.
Today, I’m heading down to Bennett Woods and I see, on the other side of Hulett, a kid (maybe in high school, not sure) walking his dog right where Wiley and I are going to be going. Look at the kid and dog, and see that it’s a pit bull, and make the decision we’re not going to try and be friendly….I’ll keep Wiley down on the grass near the road while the boy and pit bull are up on the sidewalk and get by them as soon as I can.
This strategy goes well; hold Wiley tight and we’re past them and heading away and another dog encounter is behind us…….until the pit bull slips loose of whatever collar the kid had on him and charges us!
So, you have one dog, Wiley, who is all excited and happy to have a friend come up unexpectedly (think Happy Happy Joy Joy) and you have another dog, who very clearly wanted nothing more than to rip Wiley’s head off…..the pit bull’s first move was to lunge at Wiley’s neck.
So begins the Wiley dance….I’m pulling Wiley to one side of me and the other, trying to keep him away from the pit bull. The boy is trying to get his arms around the pit bull and away from us….the pit bull is doing his level best to get at Wiley, and Wiley (Happy Happy Joy Joy) keeps asking “why can’t we get along?”
Happily, the pas de deux (French, woo hoo!) comes to an end, the boy gets his dog (after I’m introduced pit bull to my shoe trying to get him to back off) under control and Wiley and I clear the area. A busy stressful time….hope we don’t run into those two again; have never seen them before on our walks…..
