The Dog Sitch

I wonder how many people that live here would even know what I mean by "sitch." I feel like I'm too old to be using it and I probably get made fun of using it in front of a vast majority of my friends. But on Friday I saw the movie The Brothers Solomon with Will Arnett (aka GOB from Arrested Development, #1 on my list of famous people to do) and Will Forte. It was hilarious (to my strange sense of humor, anyway), and I highly recommend it. Anyway, what I was getting at is that Gob's character refers to the elevator in his building as the 'elevates,' as in "ok, I'll hold the elevates for you!" and I loved it so so much. Enough about clipping.

Onto dogs.
So we have a dog. His name is Putty and he's a big...something. Lab mixed with maybe pit bull or some rottweiler, but not too much because he's really lanky. Our house in Tabernacle had one of those invisible fences (underground wire, the dog wears a collar that gives him a little shock when he crosses the fence). It probably sounds inhumane but I don't think it's too bad - he probably only went through it and got shocked once ever. And it was really nice to just be able to open the door and let him run around the backyard whenever he wanted. But here in L-towne we have a teeny tiny little square of a backyard with other people's backyards right next to it, no fences separating them. So it's not really feasible to just let him out. And according to the eight bazillion signs posted everywhere in the development, you're supposed to 'curb your dog' and your dog must be leashed at all times.

Since we kind of slacked off on the heel training thing because of our sweet backyard, Putty's not so good at the whole walking on a leash thing. As in, when he sees another dog or something he wants to chase, he starts to run after it, forgetting that he's attached to a person. He'll come back when you yank on him, but it's still pretty sucky. The worst part is that there are plenty of lake/pond type things and little parks with trails or open fields that would be great for him to swim in/ run around in - but they all have signs that say NO DOGS ALLOWED. How does that make any sense? The only places in the whole development that a dog would WANT to play in, and they're not allowed to go there. I'm not sure of the reasoning behind that - maybe dog-hating people don't want their walk "ruined" by a dog walking remotely near them? A little ridiculous, I think. Fortunately we found a path that leads to some non-L-towne property. It's probably trespassing, but at least there's a field and a path and a stream that Putty can run and play in not on a leash. I can understand the whole leashing thing, for the most part - I mean, there are a lot of old people here who would probably break a hip if Putty bumped into them running past or something.

Since I've seen a lot of people walking dogs, I was surprised that there was no designated dog area; then I realized that all of the people were walking small dogs. Really small dogs. Like shih tzu's and pomeranians. So they probably don't care as much about having a place for their dogs to run around and let off some energy. Some of them don't even want their dogs to walk at all, it seems - I saw a lady walking two little pomeranians, though I use the term "walking" loosely. She was walking but the dogs were rolling. Yup, she was pushing them in a little doggie stroller. Seriously? I was confused and amused at the same time. Mostly amused. If I had been walking by instead of driving by I probably would have stopped to ask her about it. Maybe another time.

That's about it for now, but I think I'm going to try out the gym tomorrow. I have to go with my dad, though, because since I'm not a resident I'm not allowed in there without him. They probably think I'll ruin all their equipment or something.