Wogs & Wuddles

Depending on the day, the dogs and I go for either a "wuddle" or a "wog."  Wuddles are like walks but with constant cuddles.  Margo was the one who created this type of walk.  She does this thing where she throws her body against my legs.  Eventually I figured out that she gets so happy and excited on walks that she can't help but try to share all that excitement with me.  Thankfully she never throws herself hard enough to knock me over.  I'll give her some love, and then she'll continue on her way.  Cuddle, walk, cuddle, walk.  We must look like we're stuck together with Velcro.  

When Margo wants a different direction than where we are going she smacks my hand with her mouth and tries to herd me in the direction she wants.  This is NOT a wuddle, and I usually give her just as much sass as she gives me.  Josie will sometimes ask for cuddles on walks, but she's slightly lower to the ground, and just out of reach.  I have to lean over to give her any kind of love, and it gets a little wonky.  

Wogs are when we go for a combination of a jog and walk.  The girls have done an exceptional job learning that jogging is not a time for pooping or other stops.  They make small movements or slow a little to let me know if they need to do their business.  This is where the walk comes into play.  I usually walk the length of five houses.  This is about the perfect amount of time for the dogs to go potty.  After they go potty, we continue walking until we find a trash can, and then we start the process over again.  

I have succeeded at a lot of things in life - my most recent accomplishment was learning how to use an electric toothbrush in such a way that I don't have to change several times for work.

But for all of my accomplishments, I have never been able to jog with poop.  My peaceful, mindless jog is suddenly spiked with frantic thoughts of bursting bags of poo as the poo swings and thumps, swings and thumps.  Maybe the solution for this is a doggy saddle bag that looks like a dumpster.  As much as I dislike the swinging bag of poo, the dogs are absolutely appalled by it.  They will eat poopy popsicles of all varieties, but if it's their poop swinging against them as we jog, they try to outrun it while throwing me looks of horror and disgust.  You terrible human!  How dare you smack me around with my own poop!

So, as you can see, the dogs and I like to go for walks and jogs for different reasons.  The dogs like to poop and pee as many times as possible, and I like to turn off the internal noise and exert myself as much as possible (this helps turn down future internal noise).  Obviously we have different goals.  So we've settled on the wog for most days and wuddles for days when we are exhausted from outrunning flying poop.

Hikes are usually their own thing.  When we go for hikes, we don't do much wogging or wuddling.  But the other day, while out on a hike, Margo decided to do extended wuddles with me along the trails.  I felt very loved.  It was also challenging sometimes as we wuddled our way over rocks and roots, around mud puddles (me) or through them (Margo).  I don't know if this was just a one-time wuddle hike, or if this is what it looks like as the girls ease their way into middle-age, but we soaked it all up.