Actually getting to walk a dog! Part 2

 There I was, poised to harness an 80 pound dog when my dog-walking "mentor" gently asked the relevant question: "Do you have treats in your pocket and poop bags as well?"  

Well, gosh, no. I carried neither treats nor poop bags.  What a loser.  No wonder I have not yet been certified to walk a dog. What dog would want to be seen with me?  How alarming to be out, strolling the grounds, and pooping, and having your so-called certified dog-walker not be able to pick up that poop!  

So we begin again. We get poop bags. We get treats. We get a leash. We get a walkie-talkie. Then we try and get a dog.

There are a couple of dozen dogs at this local SPCA  so one would think getting a dog on a leash and taking it for a walk would be easy. Not so much.  As I previously reported, there are a lot of steps between "wanting to walk the dog" and actually "walking the dog."  And seriously, we don't really walk the dog so much as let the dog out of its very sad, tiny concrete room to go out and pee and perhaps poop and maybe get to run around in one of the yards. There isn't a lot of walking involved. There is, however, a lot of struggling and jumping and wrangling involved.

These dogs, most of them, have come from families. And now they are in small rooms, alone. They often have to pee and poop in those rooms, where they have a small bed and a food and water bowl. The dogs hate to be in the small 10 x 10 room so when they see a person sneaking into the room they go crazy. They jump, they wiggle, they jump more. Trying to put a harness (which is what they need to wear to exit the room) on a leaping, over-excited dog is like trying to harness a small tornado. It's very difficult.

After what seems like ten minutes, once the harness is on and you get to leave their prison cell, they are all energy. They just want to get outside, to be let go, to chase a stick or fetch a ball or simply zoom from one side of that yard to the other.  And then they want to be petted. Lots of pets. Lots of love. Then, maybe, they will let you walk them for five minutes before you must take them back to their cell. And leave them.

My training is complete. Next week I will get my shift assignment and will have two hours to walk whatever dogs need walking at that time. As happy as I will be for that allotment, the  dogs will be happier.  After all, I am not in a 100 square foot concrete cell. They are.  All I hope is that I make them feel better, 20 minutes at a time.