Well this is awkward. Asa and I have done such a great job leash training Mom and Dad to walk to our standards, that they’ve forgotten how to walk with other humans! For years now we have worked really hard to train Mom and Dad to walk at a heel with us. This includes automatically walking at the correct pace, to keep up with mine and Asa’s gait on a loose leash. Not to pet myself on the back, but I taught them well. A bit too well though. Recently, we allowed Mom and Dad to go off-leash for a day trip without us, with awkward results.

The day began well enough. Mom and Dad remembered their polite greeting of strangers. However, they soon found themselves out of step with their fellow humans. Mom and Dad first noticed something was amiss when they stepped onto the busy sidewalk. Why was everyone moving so slow? Being accustomed to being away from people these past 16 months, they quickly crossed to a quieter side of the street. But it didn’t take long for them to overtake the couple walking in what initially seemed like a good distance in front of them. This led to a series of crisscrossing back and forth across the street as they headed towards their destination, while avoiding slower pedestrians and keeping up a steady heel with each other. Eventually though, they realized how silly they must look walking so fast and darted off down a side road to regroup. That’s when it occurred to Mom and Dad that they are walking at dog pace instead of the more socially acceptable human on a Sunday stroll pace.

Confident they could remember their slower previous leash training gait, once again they set off amongst their fellow humans. Yet they soon found themselves wanting to pull ahead of everyone to lead the way. They even tried to hold hands to replicate walking with a leash, to help pace each other. But again, they found themselves speeding up. After a few failed attempts at trying to learn from their fellow humans, not to mention a lot of weird looks, they just couldn’t forget our training. So instead they ended up looking more silly by saying our commands to each other the rest of their outing! Yes, I’m impressed they remembered their commands while out without us, including “sit” and “stay.” But Mom really should have known better than to call Dad my title of the “bestest, good boy.”