Dog About Town: An Experiment.

It’s easy to think we know what’s best for our pets and I dare say that for the most part we do, but who’s to say which walks our furry friends prefer? Having spent the first 5 years of his life in Lincoln, I’m fairly positive that Barney had a favourite walk there but by comparison, Romsey is still fairly new to us and we’re still exploring new walks. This weekend I decided to let Barney decide where we would go, with Archie and I just coming along for the ride.

The majority of the time when we leave our house, we head towards Fishlake Meadows but Barney wanted to go towards town. Left to his own devices, on a loose lead and with me walking behind him, Barney led us first to the chip shop where he did some sniffing and peered hopefully through the open door, licking his lips at the hot salty air. When we walked on again he more or less dragged me to Market Square and spent a good five minutes sniffing where the fish mongers stall had been set up at the market earlier.

Once satisfied that there was definitely no left over fish to be had, Barney took us past the shops and around to Crosfield Hall, which struck me as rather odd as he has never been there before but Mr A and I had been at the craft fair held there that morning. Could Barney smell where we had been?

It seemed that Barney was deliberately heading towards specific spots in town and once he reached them, spent a long time with his head down, sniffing. On our usual walks, we walk fairly quickly to our destination and then the boys can be off the lead to roam and sniff to their hearts content. Although they are free to sniff all the lamp posts and litter bins we pass en route, we don’t spend too long on any one spot, otherwise it would take us an hour to reach the actual walk itself! This time however, I let the boys sniff as much as they wanted to and only moved on when they were ready. As a result, the majority of this walk was spent moving very slowly with their noses down to the ground.

Barney eventually led us back past the shops, over the bridge and down the footpath along the river before cutting through Memorial Park and past the Abbey for home, coming to a stop outside our front door. What struck me as odd though was that at no point did he try to take me somewhere that he could be let off the lead for a run around. Barney is a very energetic dog and the kind that sits next to his lead, looking at me, then to his lead and back to me again. I have always assumed that he is not satisfied with on-lead walks but this weekend has made me question that belief. He has been known to run around the house as fast as he can on returning home from an hour of running around the woods or chasing balls with Archie in the park and I was expecting him to do the same after spending an hour on the lead, but no. After a drink and a few mouthfuls of his tea (he’s not a big eater) Barney settled down on the sofa and spent the evening snoozing away as if he had been running around in the Forest.

Perhaps I have been wrong about on-lead walks. Perhaps, when they consist of where your dog wants to go, they can be equally stimulating. When you consider how much information dogs gain from their noses, having the freedom to follow the scents left behind by all the different people and other dogs during the day must be the doggy equivalent of Facebook (exhausting in its own right!)

All that sniffing must be harder than it looks!