Tonight, I was trying to be a good mom and take her out for a run so she could get some exercise since she's been napping all day while I've been at work. Plus it rained yesterday, and should rain tomorrow too.. so today was just logical. I decided to go to Craig's house (while he's in Miami for work), and get the bike and go out with her that way. Perfect! It wouldn't be as hard on me, and she'd get even more exercise (because she runs faster than me anyway).
Now Craig warned me... and of course gave me all of these pointers:
"Make sure you use the rear brakes when going downhill.. otherwise you'll flip over the handlebars.."
... uhh, rear brakes?
"She's skiddish of the bike to begin with so she shouldn't run out in front of you, but just be careful.."
... "shouldn't" really didn't sit well with me and made me super nervous.
"She may stop suddenly to poop so don't let that throw you.."Really.. I swear she's my dog and I do know some stuff. But it's good to get pointers like this because I hadn't ridden a bike in 10+ years. Anyway, so we get to his house, and I get the bike and I grab a grocery bag just in case she decides she just has to go. And we're off.
... awesome.
..Sort of. Honestly, it took me like 15 minutes just to get on the bike, get my feet in the stupid alien pedals/overthought feet holders (I'm sure there was a logical reason for this.. like keeping your feet in place in the event you go faster than a turtle). Seriously.. this in itself was a feat. Trying to hold Jovi's leash, making sure she doesn't take off for some reason, get balanced, get situated in satan's feet traps.. and oh, did I mention that his driveway is uphill? I thought I was going to pull a muscle just trying to get going! So I finally get going up the hill steadily, and then a car pulls in the cul de sac. Of course. So being cautious in the event it freaks Jo out and she wants to go be friendly, I put my feet down and wait for the people to get out of the car and go inside before I start the whole "get going" process over again.
Finally, I get out of the cul de sac. And Jovi seems okay.. just kind of jogging/looking around. I think it was better that I didn't let her on the side of me where the grass was so she wasn't as tempted to smell every critter that may have passed over a specific blade of grass in the last month or so (and oh, she will). Anyway, we're on our way.. I speed up and slow down for her.. we kept a pretty good pace. I turn down one of the streets and I immediately remember there's this psycho dog that barks incessantly when we come by for our walks. So I'm trying to remember which house it is and of course, I'm on alert for the mean devil dog. I don't see the dog, so I begin to relax. Right about that time, Jovi perks up and takes off in the opposite direction after 2 or 3 squirrels! Rather than trying to hold on and potentially doing some sort of acrobatic move whenever Jovi finally decides to stop, I just let her go. She went on to do this 2 more times and I had no choice everytime but to just let her run. She didn't go far.. she'd just chase them up a tree and then I'd have to drag her away.
It's so crazy though.. she's semi-good when it comes to obedience otherwise, but when she sees something or someone she's interested in... there's just no getting through to her. Keep in mind that this is the same dog that took 3-4 months to house train and get to sleep through the night without taking her out at 2am. I came home everyday for lunch to clean out her crate/take her outside for those months. I didn't think it would ever end. Also the same dog that I came home to once, to find STANDING on my kitchen counter, eating chips. She seriously looked like a deer caught in headlights when I came through the door. I'll never forget that. But she's also the same sweet puppy that knows when I'm sick or not feeling well or just sad. And she snuggles up to me or curls up at my feet. It really is amazing how they can sense things.
And at the end of the day, I wouldn't have any other dog. She's my "jojo" and she's worth all of fuss in the world. :)
