Parking The Dogs

I must have mentioned at some time or other that I have three dogs.

Have I?

Yeah, I'm sure I have ... once or twice.

Anyway, I do. I have three in fact: Sox, Sym and Clover.

We have, or should I say 'they' have routines which they very much like to adhere to.

One of them ... and by far the noisiest one ... is when they consider it time to go to the park.

They can, without ever having being taught, tell the time and at 4.30pm every day (when I happen to be home) they go into what I like to call their 'parking' routine.  Each dog has developed their own way of telling me that it is time.

Sym, the brains behind the whole song and dance, kicks it all off with his wide-eyed staring and mournful "harrouwowow" after which he slaps me with his paw.

Sox, low on intelligence but high in years, looks at Sym then at me, issues a plaintive whine and feigns a mad dash to the front door.  In actual fact, she just runs behind the sofa then comes back and performs her routine all over again. 

Clover, not the brightest dog in the world and lacking in confidence, looks at me with eyes that seem ready to pop as her tail begins to rotate and she begins a rather comical 'running-on-the-spot' dance.

I've typed this in an orderly manner, one after the other, but in reality these little performances are happening concurrently making it very apparent that I have to move my arse.

Once they start I can't hold out for more than a few minutes as their performances increase in intensity and volume.

The next stage is preparation ... poo bags, cheese, leads and keys.

As I cut the cheese into little cubes, they are milling excitedly around my feet and making their need for more haste perfectly clear with a variety of "grrrr's" and "wuh's" (Sym does not "wuff") and through three differnt forms of tap dance on the laminate flooring.

As the poo bags are pull from the drawer, the scampering (poor Clover just can't keep her footing on laminate) begins and they make dash to be first out of the front the front.

This is generally when all the excitement becomes too much for Sox and she begins to bark, shake and run around in circles.

It can take a few minutes for her to calm down enough for me to open the front door.

Eventually, leads draped around my neck I open the door, issue a curt "Stay!" to the dogs and step outside.
When all is clear and the dogs have sat down I say "Find the car!" and they all rush to wait by my car's back door.

Sox goes in the back and won't tolerate company.  Clover and Sym share the back seat.

And away we go.

They have me well trained!