Family Walk/Run

This evening, Jerry and I went for our regularly scheduled "family walk." By "family" I mean: me + Jerry + our Fur Kid, aka Scooter. Scooter is kind of a pain in the ass to walk. For one thing, he's part Hound Dog, so he's his nose's bitch -- and it demands that he stop every 5 to 10 feet to smell whatever rock, stick, or blade of grass whose scent is intriguing. Thus, a 3 mile walk must be like an olfactory orgy to Scooter's nose; it's time consuming to pay heed to such doggie delights.

But secondly, he sucks to walk because he's not great on the leash. We kinda brushed over that too quickly when training him as a pup and have never found the time or inclination to return to training him on this point. So he walks like a kid on crank -- weaving back and forth without care or concern about who or what he walks in front of or behind. If he weren't on a leash, it would be whimsical, but because one of us is getting yanked back and forth across the sidewalk and around trees and bushes, it's rather annoying.

By the end of a family walk, Jerry is generally pissed off at Scooter and I am pissed off at Jerry for being pissed off at Scooter and Scooter is basically pretty damn pleased about getting out for such a nice, long walk. This evening, on our family walk, it started to rain about 3/4 of a mile from home, so we decided to jog back, and therefore, we stumbled upon the key to getting Scooter to be focused on the task at hand (and I stumbled upon the key to getting Jerry to run). Scooter seemed to think that the both of us jogging behind him was the best kind of chasing game he'd ever played, so he ran along in front of us and never once veered off to the side to sniff or fake pee (see at a certain point, he's just lifting his leg -- there's no pee left). Plus, Jerry was happy that Scooter wasn't being a pain in the ass -- Jerry was happy, Scooter was happy, Jess was happy.

So, the 3 of us alternated between walking and running in that last portion home, and it worked well. Scooter, in particular, was energized by the trot, and he spent a good 10 minutes once we were home just running back and forth inside the house (if only I could find a way to bottle this energy; certainly it would sell better than Red Bull). After Jerry and I were both showered up and in the car on the way to the bookstore (I didn't really need new books but Jerry did and so I still came home with two new reads to add to my stack), we decided that on the next family walk, we may decide to try and do a run/walk combo for the entire 3 miles.

Ha! That's right folks, just give me a few more weeks, or months, and I bet I'll have the hubby running a 5K! Of course, now that my trickery has been revealed here, he'll probably try to revolt against my ingeniously evil plot, but it's too late now. I have him and Scooter in my clutches!