THEIR Walk, THEIR Way

Sometimes we hear the phrase ‘stop and smell the roses’. This raises the idea of looking past our predominant sense (sight) and taking a moment to appreciate the world around us through our other senses. In the busyness of today it a luxury to be able to ‘stop and smell the roses,’ and often (without realising) we project this idea onto our dogs…

“Leave it Pebbles, let’s move on.”

“Hurry up Tootsie, we don’t have all day.”

However, this is simply unfair. Dogs see the world through their noses, for them, it is more than ‘stopping to smell the roses,’ (hahaha that rhymes). Smelling their surroundings is not a luxury but a necessity. Asking a dog to not stop and sniff deprives them of what they need to do to be stimulated and simply be a dog.

Imagine if ‘stop and smell the roses’ changed to something along the lines of ‘stop and check the time.’ It seems silly to impose the same attitude onto checking the time – because we do it so often in our everyday lives. It helps us complete the things we simply must do in a day.

For a dog, a life without sniff-a-thons is equal to that of a human life without a sense of time. Soon your mental state will deteriorate as you cannot keep tabs on what is going on, your behaviour may change becoming frantic or depressed, and soon everything that seemed peachy is now a bit of a mess.

I guess what I am trying to get across is that when we take our dog on a walk, it’s THEIR time to do as THEY please. If they politely stop to sniff something we should allow it as it is their way of seeing the world. I understand that this is not possible in all situations such as:

“Leave it Pebbles, let’s move on.”

“Hurry up Tootsie, we don’t have all day.”

In these times we must acknowledge and reward them for giving up one of their basic needs to please us.

Ultimately our dog’s walk is simply that. It’s THEIR walk. I believe we should let them enjoy it THEIR way.

*Pictured: Tootsie during a sniff-a-thon at the local green space.