TuesDog

I love my dogs

Today has been a long one. A good day, don’t get me wrong! But looong. I am knackered. It was great to see my parents and have them hang out with my boy, their grandson! It is tough living so far apart and I am sure they wish they could see more of him.

The puppies came out on a walk with us this afternoon. Man I love my fluffy babies! 🤗 Cute aggression is real people! The dogs weren’t too happy about the insane heat, but they did love the adventure of going up the dirt road sniffing all the plants and eating all the long grass they could get into.

I worry about Penny mostly when walking. When she was a little puppy she injured her leg and the vet thought it might be hip displaysia. This was brutal news, and every time we played or walked together she would have a slight limp that evening or the next day. It is heartbreaking seeing a little puppy want to play even though they are in pain. We got her on painkillers until she was able to rest and heal up. Then we took her to another vet that does holistic treatment for dogs. This vet was wonderful! I felt like a total nob taking my little baby puppy to get acupuncture and cold laser therapy, but it made a huge difference to Penny’s health and her legs/hips. Pairing that with a diet aimed at improving joints, and some omega 3 rich vitamin treats, she was on the mend and recovered very well!

The issue I find is that she never wants to come walking with me unless there are other dogs (our other puppy, Maple, doesn’t count apparently) or other people she trusts. I think there were just too many incidents with large trucks zooming by, and the fact that she was a covid puppy and never left my partners side has made her reluctant to walk anywhere without more support around. This makes it so she will go from not walking at all for weeks to suddenly walking the long track that Maple and I go up almost daily. She ends up lagging behind on the way home and will be sleeping for the rest of the day. The poor thing! I just worry that it is going to be too much strain on her poor legs/hips, and I don’t want to see her hurt.

I have tried a lot of things to try and get her walking more regularly, like:

• Taking her in the car to the end of the trail and walking home.
• Going in the car to walk on a new, quiet trail.
• Attempting to have her walk with me and Maple just to the top of our road instead of down the track.

None of the above have worked with much success. When I became a dog owner I started to realize that dogs are waaaaay smarter than people give them credit for. Dogs also have big personalities and they don’t all like doing “dog” things. They have little choice over when they get to play, get pets, and get to walk. This is something that I need to look out for more often. It is a lot more pleasant to walk Maple when she is rearing to go! Instead of trying to get her to walk when only I am ready to go… Maybe I should do some lone walks every now and then. It’s been forever! I used to walk everywhere growing up, but living in a bigger country that is spread out everywhere, it is almost impossible to walk anywhere…

Oh well, that’s all I have time for this evening. My poor furry babies! I always worry about them about as much as I do my real human baby! Is this how all parents are doomed to feel? Constant worry and concern for their little babies? It’s freaking tough! Just want them to be safe and happy!

Speak soon internet! I’m off to do something else when I should be sleeping. Classic! 😅