No Lessons Learned Yesterday

Hmm - for a human she's not very smart. You would think she would have learned from yesterday but oh no - she gets home today - lets me out of the kitchen - then says we are going on a walk. Good grief - she's got to be kidding! Then - to make it even worse - she put me in my Christmas coat - what if I run into another Shih Tzu out there - I'll be the laughing stock of the breed. On went the collar and leash and we headed out the door. This time I decided not to wait until we got to the trail to let my opinion be known - as soon as we got out on the sidewalk I sat down. Oooh - that wasn't good - it kinda made her crabby - she tugged on the leash and told me to behave and walk. I'll show her who's boss - I sat down again and this time I pulled back with my head. Didn't work - well at least not for the walking part - it did get her to take off my coat. I was happy about that so I walked with her for awhile to show her how happy I was - she told me "Good Puppet", "Good Walk", "You're Being So Good" - dang it, now she thinks I'm enjoying this. I sat down again and looked around - oh good, here comes another Shih Tzu with it's human - maybe I can get some breed support here and Mom will take me back home. Oh great - this one is following it's human all trotting along, tongue hanging out the side of it's mouth, generally behaving like a follower and not a leader. This is not going to help my cause - at least I wasn't wearing my coat! Yup - Mom just said - "Look at that nice puppy following along, walking where it's owner wants to go - being a really good puppy. Why can't you walk like that. I think this is the part where I'm supposed to say - if other dogs were jumping off a bridge would you want me to do that too! We got to the trail head and I was getting ready to sit down again when she stopped and let me smell around the grass for a bit - there are so many interesting smells out there - I like to bury my nose in the grass or a bush and just sniff, sniff, sniff. Time to walk again - OK she let me sniff around so I will be nice and walk with her for a bit. This give and take continued for the rest of the walk. I think maybe on this walk I finally got my human trained a little - she has learned that if she lets me stop and smell the roses - or grass, weeds, dog poop - I will be happy to walk with her. Now if I can just train her to bring cookies on these walks maybe they won't be so bad. I have my first meet-up with other Shih Tzus and their humans on Saturday - I will have to talk to them and see if they have any suggestions!

Oh - Human just got up and started turning out lights - must be time for bed - I better follow her down the hall so we can go to sleep.

Muppet