The walk to change perspective – they say owners are like their dogs.

We set off today, Link and I, but I knew the day would be different for we had a companion, Max, I was dog sitting for a friend.

Although out on a walk together they were ok, Link wouldn’t settle with him so I decided to walk them separately the next morning.

For Link and I it was a normal walk, we took the road and then came through the top through the fields into the wood and out again.

We’ve walked this way so many times before, we went through the woods, I still get angry when I see litter strewn across the path, and I don’t mean one wrapper, no I mean deliberately dumped there. How can people be so cruel to nature, some people would say thoughtless but it takes thought to dump rubbish, but without nature they can not exist, however today I also saw the autumn leaves fallen to the ground covering the waste, nature would be doing its best to compost what it can. Nature takes so much abuse from man, yet it never stops being itself, it keeps on, despite how much disrespect it’s shown, nature has a purpose and it never strays from its purpose.

Before we even enter the field a hare is startled and dashes off into the distance. I notice a couple of dog walkers, they hadn’t scared the hare, maybe the hare can sense Link, and his freedom of the chase. We ventured back home, we had wandered, watched and sniffed.

Now for Max, he’s only a little dog but blimey he likes to be the boss, he’s not used to the country. But off he led his ears pinned back – he’d got this. If you could capture male alpha energy in one picture, that was it.

The first “obstacle” the level crossing whereas Link and I just walk over, Max needed to watch his footing, and tread carefully.

We then came to a point where Max hadn’t seen, he was in unknown territory, so he stopped, he did not want to move on, he would have liked to turn round, but, I’d decided we were walking, so with a tug of the lead, we eventually got moving, once he realised we were going that way, he settled back into a stride and was back leading the way, no sniffing on this walk.

A car was coming I went to “pull in” but Max was unaware, of course on his walks there are pavement’s to stop for every car would mean he’d never get a walk in, so for him there was no danger, who was right, link or max, the danger was only a perception of what was normal for them, both right, both wrong. With a long road ahead, max was back in charge, ears pinned back and he was marching on, he’d not noticed a thing around him so far. He’s a “city” dog, the noises around him, the sights the smells, yet out here we go slower, Max wasn’t at that speed.

How much do people not notice with all the stimulus around them, how much have we lost, our ability to notice, to see, to learn and with knowledge adapt to change, how much have we lost due to the speed we live our lives. When was the last time you paused? It was then time to head into the field, the change in direction, the change in the ground under foot, and that was it, Max decided we weren’t going any further. Coaxing him along encouraging him that this was ok, he tentatively walked on, he wasn’t confident but he was going, then after some time as he was getting use to the new terrain he was back to leading , I was surprised when we came to a ditch, Link jumps it in his stride I thought I’d be carrying Max across but, no with a goat like jump cleared it in one. Just as I thought I’d got the measure of how max was behaving there we had a leap from nowhere, I sssumed after an hour of walking with him, I knew him, but i was still surprised.

The terrain changed again, and max once more halted, but this time he looked towards me, looked for a reassurance that this was ok, so we walked together, he still wanting to lead, but also kept checking it was safe to do so.

We worked together through the wood. The brambles that Link and I step effortlessly over, for Max was an obstacle that could potentially hurt him, but together we made it work.

By the end of the walk Max wasn’t stopping and refusing to go forward every time a new experience appeared, instead he was trusting me, we were a team, I had learnt that things I see every day, will not always be the same for everyone else, and he had learnt to put his trust in me.

Everyone needs companions, we just need to choose them wisely, the more other people’s perspective we understand the more we learn. And then we trust.