A Moment of Zen

I had a moment of zen today while walking Ruki. I realized that most of my frustration with her--trying to get her out the block--was because I was putting my needs *way* above hers: my need to make sure she pees and poos and gets tired and her need to wake up and be a bit of a puppy, sniff around, wander, etc.

I realized that we had to meet half-way. And it worked--at least for this morning. I fought with her to get her out of the courtyard, and fought her to get her past the trash alley. She chased after people, and pulled against me constantly.

(Though I have to admit I treated her down the stairs. But apparently that's not a bad thing b/c she's still a puppy. I talked to the dogwalker Mike and he recommended treating her all the way out of the block.)

But then I gave her slack and time to sniff around a bit. I thought, "This is going to take forever." But, really, it was like 2 minutes max. And then she was ready to go. We made it a few steps, and the same process--again. But she's a puppy. This is what she needs.

And after a little bit of give and take--she started walking with me. Then back to being cranky. And then back to being nice. Jekyll and Hyde.

But she's a puppy with no long-term memory, no attention span. One other trick I started using is that she gets distracted, and we need her to focus. So just get down and play with her and pet her, and her focus is back on you and not on whatever it was before.

And by the end of the walk, I really appreciated her.