Jake loves going to the park. Ok, Jake loves going anywhere but he really loves the park. We have a great park by our neighborhood with a big soccer field, a playground and a track. Lots of people walk their dogs there. Usually the other people are walking for exercise and they're just being nice and taking the dog with them. I just walk there to walk Jake. I have a treadmill under the AC and a TV mounted in front of it for my exercise. But, with Jake, a walk in the park is never just a walk in the park.
When I first started this blog, I introduced Jake as a Schneagle. A Schneagle is a schnauzer/beagle mix. Back in the old days (ie, up to about 5 years ago) Jake would have been known as a mutt. Now he's a "designer breed". Really. Just Google "schneagle" and you'll see. When I was reading all the puppy training books when we first got Jake, one of the books actually said not to call your dog a "mutt" in his presence. According to the author, the word "mutt" has a certain negative connotation and dogs will pick up on that. I would love to tell that author that I have a dog that barks at his own shadow so I really don't think he's bright enough to pick up on the negative connotation of a word. But desiring to be politically correct, I refer to Jake as a schneagle. But I digress. I really think Jake is more beagle than schnauzer. He loves to stick his big nose to the ground and follow it. Jeff or I take him to the park just about every morning and every evening. Once we get close to the park, his nose starts working. When we get to the park, his nose goes into overdrive. Sometimes, instead of just making him walk around the track, I give him a loose leash and follow him. I'm sure it looks funny to anyone watching us. A woman following a dog making a crazy, increasingly circular path that always, eventually, leads to a pile of dog (or deer, rabbit, possum, raccoon) poop. After a good sniffing, we can continue our walk.
The other thing Jake likes to do in the evening is play with his friend Trixie. Trixie is another mutt, uh, designer dog, that loves to run. Some evenings I take Jake there, let him loose in their backyard and then visit while he and Trixie run until he's about to collapse. Anyway, when I take Jake to the park, sometimes he decides he would rather play with Trixie than sniff around the park that evening. He communicates this the same way each time. He just stops walking. I'll be walking along, daydreaming, and suddenly there's a tug on the leash from behind me. I turn around and Jake is standing there staring at me. He always looks for a second and, I promise I'm not making this up, he tilts his head a bit in that cute way that says "pretty please, may I go see my friend Trixie?" then he turns his head and looks back to the neighborhood. If I say, "come on", he just pulls back on the leash more. (really, I'm not making this up!) Usually, I give in and let him lead the way. He always goes straight to Trixie's house. I've tried taking a picture of him when he flashes "the look" just to show everyone that I'm not crazy, but I never seem to get it. (Side note: As I sit here writing about how cute Jake is and how smart he is, a very unhappy Jeff just walked in and showed me his reading glasses that had been chewed on by the cute, smart dog. Yikes! Run, Jake!)
So, on the days that Jake decides he does want to walk in the park, we have to go see the bunny. We have bunnies that live around the park and I'm pretty sure they live there just to torment dogs with big noses. When we get to the back area by the trees, I tell Jake to "look for the bunny". There is one huge rabbit in particular that I've named Bruiser. Judging from the size of Bruiser, he must eat small dogs for breakfast....after toying with them a bit. So Bruiser comes out in the evenings and waits for us. Yes, I'm sure he's waiting just for us. Jake sees him, runs a little ways, stops, does kind of a weird crouching position and then runs full blast at Bruiser...dragging me behind him. Bruiser waits until Jake gets within a few feet before he easily bounces off into the woods leaving Jake very frustrated. We then have to spend the next 5 minutes sniffing the entire area and, once again, tracking down some rabbit poop. I'm sure if Jake could, as we walk away he would turn around, shake his fist and say "I'll get you tomorrow!" It's the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote all over again.
But the bunny hunt has changed this past week. Bruiser and his buddies are at the back of the park close to a huge utility pole with big lights on top for evening soccer games. There's nothing special about the lights, they're just big silvery lights. The other day Jake and I were walking and for some reason he looked up at the light. It totally freaked him out! He growled, he barked and then he ran behind me and hid. Thanks, Jake. No birds up there, no squirrels, Bruiser wasn't up there taunting him, just lights. It was daylight, they weren't even on! I kept pulling on him to get past the pole but he wasn't going to walk past those lights. He kept trying to run the other way so I just turned around and left with him. Jeff has walked him the past couple of mornings and he said he doesn't want go to the pole. He said he keeps trying to walk by them because Jake needs to face his fears. I asked him if Jake was smart enough to understand the concept of facing his fears and Jeff said, "No, but I just want to walk around the park and get exercise". (See the first paragraph. And yes, Jeff has access to our air conditioned treadmill but chooses to walk the park with the others. I just don't get it.)
Jake also likes to go to the Dog Park, which I'm pretty sure is his version of heaven. But that's a story for another time.
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