The ‘W’ Word and the Evolution of Walks for Rosa and Mac
Welcome to the Wednesday Dogs of Dogster! Every Wednesday, we share a story from one of our Dogsters. This week is about Nicole and her two rescue dogs, Mac and Rosa.
Living with dogs means learning their language, but more importantly, it means realizing they’ve learned ours. I’ve heard people say that dogs don’t understand English but I’m confident those people have never owned a dog. In our home, like many homes with dogs, there is one word we dare not speak unless we are fully prepared to follow through: walk. Even a whisper if the dogs are in the room, or spoken softly when they are in another room, can trigger immediate, full-scale canine chaos. Tails wagging, paws dancing, excited whining, talking, barking, and even running back and forth from the door and back to the hoomans multiple times—there’s no turning back once the ‘W’ word has been spoken.
We changed our tactic for a while and started spelling W-A-L-K. It lasted a couple of months, but Mac soon caught onto it, so we can add ‘knows how to spell important words’ to his resume. While Rosa can’t spell, she is sharp as a tack at understanding Mac’s excitement and all he has to do is stand up fast for her to join him.
Whether I spell ‘walk’ or not doesn’t really matter anymore. Now, just the simple act of putting on my activewear gets the dogs into a frenzy. It’s quite overwhelming, actually, especially if I’m putting on activewear just for comfort or for yoga practice. It doesn’t feel great to have to let them down.
The Evolution of Walks in Our Home
