Takin' Rocco For a Walk-o

Being a pal of  Rocco the Wonder Dog has many benefits, as I have commented on in this blog countless times. As in all healthy relationships, however, there are some issues I'm afraid he and I will never come to terms with. Don't worry, dear reader, this won't be a post about his ability to generate the funkiest-smelling "SBD'S" at the most inappropriate moment when you have company over. Rather, the biggest issue I have with Rocco is his  concept of "going for a walk".

Most dogs I have lived with in the past seemed to understand the purpose of a walk was to do your "Business". If you happened to see a squirrel or encounter another dog and got to sniff his rear end in a neighborly fashion, all the better.

Rocco seems to believe that the purpose of a walk is to stay outside in the freezing cold and sniff every inch of the land he can as long as he can. He often gets "on the trail" of something and gets all worked up, sniffing and whining as he pursues his "prey", and all thoughts of going to the bathroom are tossed to the forewinds. This is probably a wonderful jaunt for him, not so much for the human being getting their arm wrenched off as he tries to pull on his leash to places he shouldn't go. If he actually had a purpose to his "tracking", I might be more understanding, but, since whenever he actually encounters some creature (and his success rate is embarrassingly low), he has no idea how to proceed. "Do I attack it?", he wonders, "Sniff their rear end?". He is clueless. I have seen him stand 2 feet from a bunny, transfixed, with no idea what to do next, while the bunny in question looked at him with a curious stare, as if  to say, "Are you gonna chase me or something? Otherwise, I'm just gonna keep eating grass". This is embarrassing  to me, Rocco and the bunny.

Don't get me wrong. Rocco is a wonderful dog, and if we can ever get together on the whole concept of what a "walk" entails, he will be a perfect dog.

I wouldn't hold my breath.