From the Dog’s Perspective: The Value of Fur-filling Walks

This week I am commandeering my mom’s blog post to talk about one of my favorite things in the world: walks!

There is nothing like a sunny day with the wind in my fur and my mom and my brother by my side as we embark out into a world of fascinating sights and smells. I hear her grab her shoes and start talking about walking. While I don’t understand all the noise coming out of human mouths, I can definitely read her body language and her excited tone. She loves walks as much as me sometimes. She ties her shoes (strange contraptions you humans wear outside…), grabs my leash, grabs my brother’s leash, and we are off!

The first thing you should know, dear human reader, is that while you experience the world through your expressive eyes, I experience it primarily through my cold, wet, black nose. As soon as we step outside, my nose starts taking in information. I always like to take a moment when we step out onto the sidewalk to wiggle my nose round and take a good deep breath. Nose up, ears up, tail wagging, chest forward, I love this; there are so many things to discover, and I could never get sick of it. My mom is impatient to walk though, something about “getting cardio”, whatever that means, so she pulls me away before I am fully satisfied; honestly, I could stand there and sniff the wind that delivers treasures to my senses for forever.

My next stop is usually the front lawn. After a good few sniffs, I find the perfect spot of grass, the good stuff, and flop on my back to roll. This is delightful to my mom based on the sounds coming out of her mouth: they sound kind of like barking but apparently humans call it laughing. What do I know, or care, rolling in that grass, to be completely engulfed in the delicious odors, and to conceal my own scent with wonderful grassy-ness is one of my absolute favorite things in the world to do. After a few good rolls, and a lot of what my mom calls “snuffles,” we start our trek.

Ever walk with your pup and get frustrated when they stop to sniff some seemingly random spot with intense dedication? Humans think that we can just do the drive-by sniff and be satisfied because they can’t “see” what we smell. That spot we may have fixated on is usually saturated with days, months, maybe even years of smells and we can smell all of them. Other animals have left their scent there and the complexity of each individual signature is more complicated than reading a full biography. Have you ever started reading something and been pulled away before you could finish it? Being on a walk with an impatient leader can be frustrating because we don’t get the chance to “read” the entire message left behind.

We make our way up and around the neighborhood, and all along the way, I am taking in information. The dogs behind the fence that I can smell and hear but cannot see make me anxious. I may pull away into the street to try to put as much distance between me and the unidentified smells and sounds. Those random metal grates and panels in your sidewalks and roads feel strange and uncomfortable on my paws, so I avoid those inherently; if I jump over a bit of sidewalk or pull away, that is most likely why. What can I say? I’m a sensitive soul.

Walking down the sidewalk, I may catch a sniff of a dog I don’t know approaching, so I look up with interest. My ears perk up, my tail wags hesitantly, and I raise my nose to catch as much of the scent as I can. Sometimes we get to greet each other and enjoy a social encounter. While most of the time I am happy to meet new dogs, sometimes those little barky dogs make me anxious, so I may stay behind my mom or dad and lower my head and tail to show my concern. So much angst from such small adorable pups…

After a fulfilling walk, I am content. My brother, Ajax, and I will walk with tongues lolling and tails sashaying as we make our way back home. Sometimes I roll in the front lawn once more for good measure, and my mom gives me a good belly rub for being a good girl. After a good walk though, I think my mom is the true good girl 🙂

We know you have places and destinations to get to, but do me a favor, on behalf of your doggo, and let us sniff to our heart’s content every now and then on your walks. Let us roll around, decide which way to go, what to discover, when to move on…Who knows? You may even discover something amazing along the way.

Happy Walks!

Love, Kibeth

Where do you like to walk your dog? Tell us in the comments!

Brianna Turner

Hailing from sunny Southern California, Brianna is a Registered Nurse, former dog foster mom, and Marine Corps spouse. She enjoys beach trips, hikes, and any other various adventures with her two rescue pups, Kibeth and Ajax, as well as writing or reading about anything canine.

Dogs give us the purest physical example of unconditional love and pure unadulterated joy in the world.

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