What do dogs think walks are for?

[Lolypoly14]

I have been pondering this this morning. .

Doggo loves water, any kind will do - sea, rivers, muddy puddles, etc. She can’t help herself and is straight in, so for the last week or so where it’s been freezing, I haven’t taken her anywhere watery.

Took her out for a big walk yesterday. Lovely long loop, where she can be off lead with a little bit of river on the way back to the carpark so she could have a little bit of a swim before getting back into the car with loads of dry towels (and heated seats) to snuggle into.

She loves walks, especially walks that involve getting in the car as that usually means somewhere good, and she get ridiculously excited when she sees me getting poo bags out of the drawer and my car keys (just poo bags means the park or round the block) and she recognises landmarks on the way (for example, driving past the big Tesco means her favourite beach and she starts getting super excited), but I always wonder what’s going through her head.

Does she realise I’m just taking her somewhere nice for fun? Does she think she’s taking me somewhere nice? Does she think we’re going on patrol or something?

I couldn’t sleep last night (insomnia) so I’ve been thinking about this for a while 😂

Mine will often ask to go out, but only wants me to take her around the village so she can check who's been about. Five minutes to the end of the village and back and then she's happy to sit down and monitor the window situation until it's time to do it again.

I think she thinks big walks or going out in the car is my equivalent of checking who's been around and she comes to keep me company.

I think mine just believe they go out to be fussed by strangers, dig holes in the beach and get covered in mud.

That being said they 100% recognise their absolute favourite place in the world, in Norfolk. They all bolt out the car every time I get them to Holkham Beach - they don't do it anywhere else, but that beach? Every. Damn. Time.

I think dogs definitely have 'favourite' places to go and I make it my mission to go to those places as often as I can - but I'm a bit soppy about making my dogs happy!

Ha yes! Years ago, my DP’s dog found a whole takeaway pizza abandoned in a bush and wolfed down the whole thing before he could get anywhere near her. Ever since that day she had to investigate the bush in case it grew any more pizzas. The dog has long since passed away but the bush is still called The Pizza Bush.

Mine does the old sniffing...I like the ides of "weemails!" and seeing it as checking Facebook etc. She loves loves loves the park, and her job is to find as many sticks as she can to show everyone else.

Although she loves beaches, she's not at all interested in swimming. She loves digging holes jn the sand.

She's not mad on getting in the car but she's actually very good once she's in. She likes buses and trains better. She went all the way from London to Penzance once and was good as gold. At the time we were coming out of lockdown so the train companies were practicing social distancing by keeping the aisle seat free, so there was a bit more room. I was worried about her needing to go to the toilet but she didn't.

To relieve themselves! And to socialise.
We have snuffle walks where he’s free to investigate, and business walks on a short lead and fast pace. If there’s more than one walker he wants to be parallel with the leader of the pack without actually knowing the destination. Self-important little tyke…

Our old dog was jealous of anybody taking the car for work or the school run. She was sure we were going on a fun trip without her and we’d have a fight, her scrabbling on one end and us tugging her back end out of the car!

Mines a terrier. It absolutely doesn’t see the point in walks, doesn’t like them and will only go if I go.

hides if we get the car keys.

his job is to keep our house and garden free from mice and any other rodents. That’s what he’ll do all day given the chance. He has learned to bark at the door and alert if anyone comes too close, but it’s all about the mice for him.

I think mine see’s his walks with me as ‘work’ and takes them very seriously - hunting and retrieving. He is ultra focussed on finding that ball or dummy as if the fate of the world depends on him alone! When DH and the DC are there he definitely sees them as fun as they play crazy games and race around with him more.

To be honest though wherever we go and whatever we do he acts like it’s the BEST thing ever which is just the loveliest feeling to be able to make someone so happy with the simplest things. We took him in the car to the tip yesterday and his tail didn’t stop wagging 😂

Part of my older dogs daily chores is to tell me when it is time for me to stop work. I dont know how she knows, but she is pretty much spot on time wise every day. And will talk to me until I put down the laptop and get my shoes on. She also has a mental map of everywhere in town that she has ever been given a treat, and will try to go into those shops when we are out.

The younger, rescue, did not seem to know about walks when we got her. Now walks are for her to say hello to everyone coming past, run around like a maniac, and check I have not wandered off the path and into danger (she checks on me regularly).

A bit like @Ohnonotmeagain, mine thinks she's doing me a favour.
Especially in the rain

You know how some people love playing first person adventure games? Dogs are going on one of those quests.

Sometimes you get a lovely side quest where there's a prize of a half eaten cheese sandwich in a bush, sometimes an adorable couple of eight year olds to say hello to you, sometimes a challenging one where you have to avoid chasing the squirrel to get a power up snack and sometimes you're protecting the neighbourhood from three waves of monsters that would come and attack the home base if it weren't for a whiff of wee deposited as high up a lamp post as possible around the area.

And sometimes you get to stop at a merchant offering things for you or your human if they have enough Coin.

Mine can sniff out discarded balls in bushes on the other side of the park! He will suddenly disappear into a random bush and emerge with a ball in his mouth!

For hunting and rolling in fox 🦊 shit.

I’ve loved reading about everyone’s dogs.

Mine definitely has favourite walks.

Beach is a big fave. We’re lucky to live near lots of very lovely beaches and she loves them all for different reasons. One beach is particularly good for digging. Another one we go to a lot to go paddle boarding and is also her favourite for swimming (she has her own life jacket). One is very wide with plenty of space for chasing sea gulls. She likes the stony beach as we skim stones for her to chase. Another one she found a dead, rotting sea gull once and had the time of her life rolling in it before I could get to her.

The big walk we did yesterday has a cafe half way round so she gets a bit of my bacon sandwich. There’s also one with a pub half way round, plus there’s cows that she likes to say hello to.

The woods are good for finding many different types of animal shit to roll in. And there’s a fabulously dirty pond to jump in just before we get back to the car.

She’s not much of a sniffer unless we’re on our nightly trip round the block, I guess she’s getting all the local gossip, whereas big walks seem to be for running and swimming and exploring and rolling in things she shouldn’t

She has the best time and I love seeing her so happy so I take her on her favourite walks (rather than the boring park or field behind our house) as much as I can.

We went to the woods today - rolled in fox shit, jumped in the muddy pond and managed to get out of her towelling car bag and cover the back my car in mud on the way home.

For a dog that likes water so much, she hates baths (unless she’s getting into someone else’s).

Hunting, and training/play (I suspect that the line between the two is very blurry as far as they are concerned).

But left to their own devices, they'll sniff around and if they smell anything interesting, they lock on. I know when there are muntjac in the brambles, from the way that they behave. I've sometimes spotted a wild animal because one of them has gone rigid.

So they love anywhere that smells of deer/hare/pheasants/partridge/rabbits. They also like new places and can't wait to race off and investigate. They have very reliable recall, so they get a lot of off-lead time.

But obviously the chance to roll in disgusting things is not to be missed...

Mine love walks and often direct us to where they want to go. Sometimes it's a quick walk around the village Sometimes 2 to 3 hour walks. They understand "bus" so when dh asks them if they want to go on a bus they'll walk to the bus stop and wait. Luckily dh is now retired so can spend hours walking them if needed.
Dog tax

This is lovely. Our dog sees it's as sometimes a mission to get round a particular route, a fast trot required, others its a slow sniffathon, just constant excited and thorough sniffing, with lots of marking. These both feel job-like. Sometimes it is I am taking you to the rabbit holes to investigate, which is more like an adventure. Most walks have a a bit of all thrown in, but sometimes there is a clear focus. I like the idea of it being like their social media feed.

Pretty sure the dogs dont over think walks.

They just have fun and do what makes them feel good . Sniffing, running, watching, chasing, scavenging all of it makes them feel fabs so they do it.

Our dog once found a bagel inside a rabbit hole on the common where we only go about once every 3 months or so. Since then she always checks that rabbit hole out when we go there 🤣 I'm amazed she remembers it!

They do make me laugh - they never forget.

When we had our old boy, I dropped a Wotsit on the kitchen floor and it ended up under the fridge. He spent ages getting that Wotsit out and would regularly go back and check to see if there were any more

I forgot about dog tax, sorry

My dogs know if we're going to help out at the kennels due to what I'm wearing. Minute I out put my boots on, it's a fight to the door and the car boot. It's an uproar and sad faces when I can't take them.

Mine uses her morning walk to do lots of sniffing ‘catching up on the morning news’ but is much more energised on her afternoon one. If it snows she spends most of the walk shovelling the snow up with her nose 🙄
She’s always on the lookout for what other dogs are around, is very sociable, and expects a sausage if we stop off at the village cafe.

I saw a thing that said the only time dogs leave the house is to go for a walk, so when we leave the house to go work or shopping or whatever the dog thinks we're going for a walk without them. And that makes me sadder than it should!

Oh, that does make me sad.

Although she does come most places with us. Goes to work with DH, visits my mum and dad with us, she’s welcome at lots of our friends houses, we live in a very dog friendly area so she comes to the pub and stuff like that.

If I leave the house without her is usually to do boring stuff like going to the supermarket.

She doesn't know that though! 😀

My little mini schnauzer is the fun police, he's also old and mardy! My mum has a boxer and a 2 year old black lab - the pair of them love playing boisterously! Mine doesn't approve of this and so yaps continuously in a vain attempt to curb their tomfoolery! So, I just go there without him. When I return however he sniffs me and doesn't 'speak' to me for ages due to my cheating on him.

Ours will sometimes refuse to get out of the car if the walk isn’t going to meet her standards or expectations. Basically if there’s no water she’s not interested.

my in laws have been known to drive her to 2 or 3 places till she deign to get out of the car.

not interested in walks round the block unless everyone goes…