Here are some more things your dog might “say” to you on a walk or jog and how to recognize them.

1. “Could we please go this way?” Jamie and Callie never seem to forget a route they’ve taken. Almost every time we come to a “fork in the road,” they take it (to quote Yogi Berra). If they remember that we’ve been down a path before, they start to pull in that direction. So, once in a while, why not let your dog decide which way you’re going to go? It will appreciate getting to be the leader.

2. “May I please jump up on this rock?” This may be Callie’s special thing, since her mom and dad are agility champions. But your dog probably has some favorite thing it likes to do – jump up on a wall, run through some grass, or jump over a low fence. The golf course where Callie runs has a lot of one-foot-high fences for guiding golf carts. Callie loves to do a few “overs” when she sees one of these. Why not let your dog pick out a few entertaining things to do and give it the freedom to “goof off for a minute?

3. “I’d really like to walk on the top of this wall.” Callie seems to have a little “circus performer” in her genes. She likes to run on the top of a stone wall if there’s one around. Jamie had a favorite “tightrope act.” When we ran across the golf-cart-and-walking bridge across one of the golf holes, Jamie didn’t like to run on the slippery rubber mat, so she squoze all four of her doggie paws into the six-inch-wide wooden board along the edge. This was quite a feet-feat. You know how a tightrope walker has to walk with one foot in front of the other. Imagine doing this with four feet – both her hind feet and her front feet moving one in front of the other. She got so close to the chain link safety fence that her ear went “flip-flip-flip” against the wire.

4. “Let’s be smart and walk in the shade.” If you walk your dog on a warm day, be careful not to over-do it. Imagine how you’d feel if you were out walking on a hot day in a heavy fur coat. Next time you’re in this situation, let your dog choose which part of the street to walk on. See if it doesn’t cross the street to be in the shady parts. It might also slow down in the shady parts – to enjoy the cool air – and speed up in the sunny spots – to get to the next shady spot faster.
5. “OK, we’ve arrived at our destination.” Chances are your dog knows its way home. Next time your dog out for a walk, don’t lead it into your home. Let your dog take the lead and see if it recognizes home when you get there. Or, if you’re headed for a destination, see if your dog recognizes it when you get there. Jamie loved to walk to our boat dock at Lake Arrowhead. She knew the route from the street to our boat dock, and she knew exactly which dock was ours. She even knew which storage box held her floating Frisbee – which was her favorite thing to retrieve. She also recognized The Wishing Well, a gift shop at Lake Arrowhead Village, that always has a doggie water dish and very large and tasty puppy treats. Jamie pulled us clear across the Lake Arrowhead Village parking lot to get to The Wishing Well.

Your dog needs to know that you are the alpha animal. But try letting it take the lead once in a while; you can still be the alpha figure. Your dog will grow in confidence and personality, and it might reveal talents and interests you didn’t know it had.

I’ve been meaning to write about Callie’s behavior around my car. When it’s parked in front of the house, or across the street, she sniffs all around it — the tires, the doors, everything. What’s that all about?

The theme of My Doggie Says… is trying to understand your dog’s behavior and what messages it might be sending. But this one has me baffled. I wouldn’t have thought my car smelled either that good or that bad. Actually, I wouldn’t have thought it smelled at all, except maybe for the rubber tires. But Callie’s sniffer is getting something that my sniffer doesn’t get.

Callie clearly recognizes my car. Some mornings when we’re short on time, Barbara walks with Callie and I go to the golf club for practice. When Barbara and Callie walk through the golf club parking lot, Callie sees my car, if it’s there, and makes a bee-line for it. And then she sniffs around it. What the heck does she smell?

So, anyway, I was going to write about Callie sniffing my car and then she gave me an even better excuse — a great big cement truck, with all the bells & whistles.

We’re having some concrete steps replaced outside our house, and the other day, the cement truck showed up. When I took Callie out for a walk, she just went crazy about the cement truck. She sniffed the fenders, the tires, the bumpers — everything she could reach. Here are some photos:

I don’t know who “NORMA” is, but she’s famous now. Callie even sniffed her sign on the truck’s bumper.

Does your dog sniff cars and trucks? If you think you know why, let me know! Callie sure seems to know something I don’t know.

I found a new aspect of the Puppy Uncertainty Principle (PUP) this morning. If you remember from my original post, the Puppy Uncertainty Principle (PUP) says that, when you try to photograph a dog, at the exact moment you press the shutter, the dog won’t be where you thought it was. Well there’s another wrinkle.

This morning on our jog, Callie saw a neighbor’s lawn sprinklers at work and decided to grab a quick drink of water. I knew where she was headed, so I pulled out my camera, took aim, and squoze the shutter — just as the sprinkler shut off. But of course. It’s part of the Puppy Uncertainty Principle. I just never knew that this phenomenon of puppiedom also extended to water sprinklers.

Fortunately, there was a sprinkler still going in another part of the yard, so I was able to get my photograph.

This image is an awful lot like one I took of Jamie a few years ago. When Jamie first started to head for the sprinklers, we thought she just wanted to play in the water. It took her a while to figure out how to drink from them — by wrapping her mouth around the nozzle. But she got there. And it took us a while to learn that she was probably thirsty, not just looking for a romp in the water. We also learned that when the sprinklers were working Jamie would almost always want to stop and get a drink.

Here, from My Doggie Says… is the photograph of Jamie drinking from a water sprinkler:

It’s not always easy to figure out what your doggie is trying to do, but it’s worth the effort. Your pet will appreciate it, and you’ll have more fun.

One aspect of having a strong relationship with your dog is trying to understand its behavior. Why did he/she do that? What’s the message? This is the point of “My Doggie Says… Messages from Jamie.”

When Callie brings me a toy, I try to figure out what she wants me to do with it. Am I supposed to take it? Am I supposed to give it back to her? Am I supposed to throw it and have her fetch it? It’s a puzzle. But I’d rather approach it this way than always forcing her to “fetch,” for example. I think she’s pretty smart, and I really want to understand what’s on her mind.

One thing I try not to do is to get into a game of “tug of war.” I did play “tug” with Jamie, before Callie arrived, but I was pretty careful not to get into an aggressive, growling contest. It was just a little back and forth and then on to something else. Some people have pretty strong views about not playing tug of war with your dog. (See the August 7, 2007 My Doggie Says… blog post.)

So Callie’s game has evolved into something that can best be described as “let’s both hold onto this toy for a little while.” Here’s how it went the other day. I was working in my office, and Callie was in the same room with several of her toys.

First, Callie walked over and presented me with “stinky,” her absolutely favorite security object (named after granddaughter Lauren’s “stinky” security blanket).

Callie’s “stinky” is the little brown doggie at the top of this photo. “Stinky” was one of Jamie’s toys, and it’s a total mystery that he/she has survived the jaws of two powerful Golden Retrievers. (See “The Doggie Toy Mystery,” posted on November 21, 2007)

Callie brought me her “stinky” and literally put it into my hands. As usual, I held one end of “stinky” and let Callie hold the other end. I didn’t tug. I just held it. Then I tugged a little, and Callie let go. OK, this isn’t a game of tug of war. Then I let go for a second, and Callie pawed at me, to get me to hold on again. The two of us just sat there for about 10 or 15 seconds, both holding onto “stinky.” That seemed to be what Callie wanted. Then she walked away.

A few minutes later, Callie walked over with her little stuffed chipmunk toy, and we went through exactly the same thing. She offered it to me. I took it and tested “tug” for a second. No tug in return. I let go for a second, and Callie pawed at me to get me to hold on again. Finally, we both just held the toy for a little while, and she went on her way again.

A few minutes later, Callie did the same thing with her blue stuffed monkey. Then a few minutes later, we went through the same process with her green ropey dopey looking toy.

So we played four rounds of “let’s both hold this toy for a while” in the course of about fifteen minutes.

Callie seemed totally satisfied with the game. It’s as if she just really wants to share one of her treasured toys with me for a few seconds — not to play tug, not to play fetch, and not to just give it to me. But to do something with me for a little while.

Try playing “let’s both hold this toy for a while” (LBHTTW) with your dog & see what happens. Who knows? It may turn into tug, or fetch, or something else. But you can’t play LBHTTW with your dog and not feel like you’re really in a relationship with it.