Walkies

According to Cesar, you must make sure your puppy receives ample exercise.  It engages their minds and wears them out so that they are better behaved.  With Ollie's sharp little puppy teeth, we're all over anything that will keep him calm and less apt to use us as a human teething bone.  Therefore, I've gotten into the habit of walking Ollie twice a day for at least a half mile.  The trick is that I don't always get a lot of cooperation.

Ollie does enjoy the exercise.  The trick is that he wants to do it on his own terms.  He wants to give a good sniff to every rock, leaf, bush and post along our walking routes through the neighborhood.  Of course, the first trick is to get the little twit out of the driveway.  He gets excited when I snap on the leash and we exit the front door.  He'll usually get about halfway down the driveway before he starts trying to paw and eat the leash.  Initially it was kinda cute because it looked as if he was trying to walk himself and he pranced along with the leash in his mouth.  Now it's just a downright nuisance since we've been taking walks every day since he came home with us.  

Once we clear the driveway, he likes to snuffle through the grassy verge on the other side of the privacy hedge that fronts the road.  This is one of his fave places to poop before we head out for our little jaunt.  Then he has to stop and give a good snuffle to the entry gate to the neighborhood as well as each of the ornamental posts as we make our way towards the initial roundabout that shoots off onto a less traveled road where we go walkies.

For the first part of any walk with Ollie, he does his best impression of a mule.  He digs in his heels and pulls against the leash.  If I stop to address it rather than just continue to pull him along in my wake, then he will plop down on his butt as if to say that he aint going anywhere.  

I know passersby wonder why this burly woman (that's me) is playing tug-of-war with a puppy.  How cruel!  It's a war I wage with him every day and I just keep walking until he finally gives up and realizes it's gonna be my way instead of his.  Once that is settled, he happily trots along beside me for the remainder of the walk.

For some reason, Ollie has it in his little puppy head that he can only pee here at our house.  We walk for a solid 45 minutes at a slow pace and I allow him to sniff at will.  However, he never pees.  He will stop and poop and by stop I mean come to a dead standstill and do his business - side of the road, middle of the road, wherever he happens to be standing when the urge strikes.  But not so with the pee.  He'll hold it for the entire walk so that I have to take him around to our backyard as soon as we get home so he can squat and empty his very full bladder for a good 30 seconds.  Isn't that just the strangest thing?  I always thought boy dogs were prone to watering every other blade of grass on a walk.  Maybe it's because he's not a big boy yet and isn't old enough to start hiking his leg.  

Above is a pic of Ollie sprawled on his favorite spot in his doggy area right off the kitchen.  The boiler pipes run under these tiles, so he likes to flop down here where it's always toasty warm when he comes in from a walk in the cold.  What a smart little pup!