passed this beautiful, white Husky Malamute, and made a mental note to try to claim him to walk.Unfortunately, he was away on a vet visit, and after scanning the list of dogs to walk, it didn't seem like there were any cute and fuzzy ones left (What? I'm entitled to like cute and fuzzy animals!).Then the gate banged open and out came this nice looking Collie mix, dragging behind her this poor older lady who was obviously having a bit of trouble controlling the dog. The co-ordinator looked at me and said, "You're pretty strong, right? Do you want to take Missey instead? I think (insert name here) will have a hard time with her, as she pulls a lot." We both looked at the lady who was being pulled and twirled all over the place as Missey the dog went this way and that way. I agreed, and went to take over.
Missey turned out to be such a sweetheart, much like my beloved Ruby (the first dog I walked). She did pull a lot on her leash, and I had to pull her back a few times. Most of the pulling was probably pent up energy from being in her kennel all the time; once we did a few walks around the trail, she calmed down and didn't pull as much. She also LOVED to play fetch! The SPCA has fenced in areas to let the dogs off their leash so they can run around freely. Once Missey was in there, she immediately picked up a ball and brought it to me so I could throw it for her. She was really picky with what kind of toy she wanted to fetch; the ball she initially got, she decided it wasn't good enough and dumped it onto the ground , then went sniffing all over the place until she found a toy she liked better. After that, I spent the next ten minutes or so throwing it for her, and she would grab it in her mouth and bring it back. Instead of bringing right to me though, she would go and drop it into a corner near me, which meant I would have to walk over there to get it so I could throw it for her again. But towards the end of our time together, she actually started bringing it right back to me and tried dropping it into my hands (the toy kept bouncing off my hands and onto the ground, so on a few occassions it seemed like Missey was giving me these exasperated looks because I couldn't catch it properly. Whoops!)At one time, while I stood chatting with another volunteer, Missey simply lay down and waited for me to finish. As soon as I was done, she jumped up with the ball in her mouth, and ran over to give it to me so we could keep playing. Such a good girl!
The only thing I thought was a little strange was she didn't seem to like those Milkbone treats that they have to give the dogs. The first few times I tempted her with them, she followed through on my command, but when presented the treat, she merely licked it and turned her head away. Further attempts to have her eat it went ignored, so I just put it back into the container (yes, even though she licked it already. It's still good!) Perhaps it was because we had just started our walk, and she wanted to run around instead of have treats. She ate some later, but she didn't gobble it down like the other dogs. If anything, it was more of a placatory gesture, like "Ok, you keep trying to give me these treats, so to appease you I'll eat some...but I don't like it." I guess it's not really so strange that she didn't like them, if she was picky while choosing her toy she'll probably be picky elsewhere too.
I left today a whole lot happier than last time. I also left with a curtain of dog hair all over my clothes; maybe someone will be good enough to give Missey a nice brushing.
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