Walkies have slowed down again

One of our regular walks is 2.25 miles and if we don't get too distracted takes around 1 hour to complete.

One evening it took us nearly 3 hours!

This had nothing to do with Holly's fitness levels, but it did have everything to do with Holly and her wheels.

Most of the time when you walk a dog you are invisible to just about everyone except other dog walkers. Put the dog in a wheeled cart and suddenly you are highly visible and everyone wants to talk to you and make a fuss of Holly.

As I have said before Holly is not the most social dog around and is perfectly happy if strangers leave her alone. Her meet and greet skills were slowly improving with the wobbles but with the move to wheels they had to rapidly become perfect. Lots of treats and praise helped as did staying by her side and making sure she could make physical contact with me if she needed reassurance, especially when small children came running over to fling their arms round and hug the dog on wheels. Fortunately most children we meet have parents with them who would make them ask permission and greet Holly properly.

Holly has developed her own unique method of dealing with excess attention. She accepts pets and treats and the runs over their toes with her wheels. I am convinced its a conscious decision and action on her part because she never does it to the elderly, infirm or very small children.

I soon developed a short talk with variations depending on the age and dog awareness of who I am talking to. And after a few weeks the friends we walk with also knew the answers to most of the questions and would often surprise people at the end of the conversion when they told them that Holly wasn't their dog.

I find it very difficult to refuse to talk to people about Holly, if I can educate and increase awareness then its good. So if I need to quickly go to the shops then Holly has to stay at home. People who always say hello and stop for a chat when I have Holly with me don't even recognise me when I am alone.