Loose Ends: The not-so-wild kingdom

The graying muzzle and backside of the old dog make it obvious. He has become too old and slow-footed to make much progress on his twice-daily walk. Yet, traces of the pup remain. Jumping up and down in anticipation and getting ready for each outing by holding the leash in his mouth, he pushes ahead of his owner. Once they get outside it is as if he finds himself in a dilemma. He finds the sights and smells exciting but can’t make the effort to walk more than a few steps.
Some days he drops the leash out of his mouth to let his owner know he has changed his mind and refuses to move forward. Although he knows the route to go conduct the business at hand, he pulls his owner toward the opposite direction to check in at the local video store for a treat or a friend’s front door for a pat. He ends up compromising and picks up the pace if he sees kids or other dogs. He also heads toward the part of the neighborhood that will take him past the yards of his incarcerated canine buddies.
Even with less sharp hearing and vision, Old Dog is able to tell if his services are needed. He will often appear to be going one direction and suddenly veer to another. The woman finds herself protesting and pulling and yanking the dog away from a seemingly empty yard. Wagging his tail against the metal fence, old dog makes such a racket that even the least interested dog comes to attention.
Old Dog not only walks the shorter distance for less time, he likes to break up the monotony of the plod by plopping himself down, sitting back on his haunches and sticking his paw out for his owner to shake. It is an old trick he learned at the paws of a master, the former household queen, Even Older Dog. Anyone seeing this is amazed at his skill, as usually giant dogs can’t balance quite so well. Passersby point and laugh and he might as well be wearing a clown costume and funny hat. If that doesn’t cause enough diversion in his daily constitutional, lying down on the side of the road does.
There are days when the walk is more of a push-you, pull-me venture. The owner remembers walks long ago, when she and Old Dog met an owner on the route, who faced the same problem. Their own ancient critter needed help getting home. One gentleman had a medium-sized mop-top in his arms, another was pulling a bigger dog in a wagon.
The old saying about the old dog and new tricks may not apply, yet when it comes to walking older dogs, teaching old dogs old tricks is entirely possible.