Who's Teaching Whom? A Dog Tale

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Joey and I are regulars at the Hudson Dog Park. We are there every morning, often returning in the afternoon.

Sometimes, if there are no other dogs at the park when we arrive, Joey and I will walk around the perimeter together. I didn't realize how much Joey enjoyed that until today.

This morning, Otis and Daisy were at the park, but Joey showed no interest in playing with them. Instead, he just stood by my side while I chatted with the other dogs' humans. Thinking Joey was bored and wanted to go home and have breakfast, I asked him, "Shall we go home?" As soon as I said that, he walked several yards away, turned around, and looked at me. After a little human conversation about how many words a dog can understand (for the average dog, it's about 165), Joey returned to my side but walked away again when I asked him a few minutes later, "Do you want to go home?" 

It was then--finally--that it occurred to me that Joey wanted me to follow him, to walk with him around the dog park. And so we did, walking the perimeter and crisscrossing the park. Sometimes Joey led the way, with me following as if tethered behind him, sometimes I led the way, but we always stayed only about a leash-length apart. Such a good dog!
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