Wylie and Riley got into a fender bender on Thursday evening. The good news is that the damage was superficial and didn’t involve any cars. And unlike the incident between Wylie and the parked car several years ago, this one didn’t involve any rabbits either.
We were out for our evening walk and as you’ve likely noticed if you’ve ever taken a dog for a walk, most dogs aren’t very good at watching for oncoming vehicles. Particularly cars that might be turning into the road you’re about to cross. (The dogs who are good at looking for oncoming cars tend to find employment as guide dogs.) Fortunately, I’m pretty good at looking out for such things and when I saw the SUV signaling to turn, I stopped and pulled the leashes up short so the kids wouldn’t go out in front of it.
My experience has been that, even when they pull, dogs tend to walk slightly to the side of the leash. As a result, pulling the leash causes the dog to turn, whether he was planning to or not (Using the dog’s own inertia to steer him in a direction he didn’t intend to go is one of the keys to the ancient art of Dogjitsu). When I pulled up short, Riley was out in the lead and was the first to turn sideways so that he was blocking the sidewalk.
Wylie was lagging a little behind and his leash is a little longer than Riley’s; or, it could be that Riley himself is a little longer than Wylie. Either way, Wylie didn’t receive the “stop” signal at the same time and instead of gong sideways across the sidewalk, Wylie bumped into Riley. As a result of the collision, Wylie ended up with his left ear flipped up on top of his head. Instead of shaking his head to put everything back where it belonged, Wylie walked for the next 3/4 mile with his left ear flipped up, looking for all the world like he’d been dented and prominently displaying one of the gaping holes in his head.
Not to be outdone, during Friday morning’s walk, Riley stopped to scratch and afterward flipped one of his own ears up. He didn’t carry it that way for nearly as long as Wylie did, but you do have to give him credit for the attempt.