Leashes

Lord, I hope this goes quickly. Force A: urgency to record or interpret recent thoughts and events by writing them down now. Force B: compulsion to accomplish a lot today. A prevails but B keeps asking for her turn. Leashes have undoubtedly inspired more than their share of literature; leash, lash, whatever. That I do not pause to verify the assertion indicates the answer is immaterial. Yes, I'll clean this up later. What gets posted initially is fairly stream of consciousness. I rarely reorder things, but I cut lot. I tighten it up. No indispensable sentences still in the MS. Stop, that's another essay, or wherever this literary form falls.

Edward and I just returned from an early walk in the cool, motionless fog. I should at least visit the northwest again. Hate endless gray overhead of Midwest. If you have clouds at least they should do something. We had a very good walk. Edward is the first dog I have been involved with since weaning. To say that Edward and I are close requires exploring definitions of close. Edward and I talk, well, I do most of the talking but Edward is not shy communicating back. I walk Edward, 30 pounds of getting-shaggy Shih Tzu, on a ten foot hunk of 1/4 inch single braid with a big knob of triple stopper knot).

I have noticed the "leash effect" frequently as Edward interacts with other dogs. The effect says that dogs have no difficulty dealing with one another off the leash. If one dog makes an aggressive move, perhaps the other runs off and circles back for the next round. Etc. Leashed, dogs' freedom of movement is restricted so they behave more aggressively.

Some days are better than others, but on a good day. . . . Edward understands plain language commands. He was trained pretty idiosyncratically. Which means by me, not really knowing what I was supposed to be doing. He knows "be cool," "be a good dog," "watch the house while we are gone." Edward received only the whisk of conventional dog training. I've never asked him to "heel." I'm more likely to say "wait here a minute," than issue a WAIT command. Edward pulls at the leash and I've only tried to break him of the worst consequences. I feel Edward's intention and power through the leash. Occasionally Edward requires slight dragging when he is being really intransigent.

So, the leash dance. As your dogs approach each other, most owners will let you know by the time they give their dog to interact if they're into letting the dogs mingle. We have strict leash laws and tend to always think of liability if our dog bites someone. I didn't mention Edward has been a crafty snapper? I'm really working on breaking him of that. So I tend to let Edward off the leash in pretty safe looking situations.

Well, forks and knives, I'm running low on energy. I promise or threaten, depending on your point of view, to pick this up again. It feels like there's a lot of interesting metaphors here in addition to lengthy direct observation.