No, Rack, Walk ON the Grass. Cutting Corners Is Not Allowed.

I am convinced that this is being done for my entertainment.

That or my dog's entertainment.

Mind you, I know that Lettie, my departed dog used to do similar things.  She'd sit down or sniff the grass very slowly in front of one house in particular that had barky dogs in it.  The dogs would go insane and when I told her that it was time to go, she merely looked up at me, smiled, and went back to her sniff.

Trust In Dog.

Rack is a much more interactive dog than Lettie was.  He is all about the play, and while he will do things for you, he will expect to have a bit of fun while he does it.

This car thing, for example.  

You see, Rack has terrible aim.

He is one of a very few Yellow Footed Collies that I have heard about.  Yellow Footed as when he goes to lift his leg on that rock at the foot of the driveway, he misses.  More often than not, he will spray all over the place.

Like on his feet.

Now you would expect a misfire from time to time, but this is the rule and not the exception for my boy.  

I got tired of this game very quickly after we got Rack.  I solved it by putting a hose and a spray gun on the porch.  The water is turned on all of the time and I would simply spray his feet heavily to wash the misfire off his legs.

"Come on, time to wash your feet" I would say while bent double behind the fence on the patio.

Great, but now we have 45 pounds of dog with wet feet that have not completely drained off.  My solution was to have him walk through the grass and around the car before letting him inside.

As time went on, I realized that I could simply tell him to "Walk in the Grass" and he would do the lap around the car without my tromping the lawn down into a path.  He would continue around the car and up the grass on the other side until he got back to me.   It was our little routine, a trick.

Then he realized that he could cut corners.  

He must prefer to walk on hot black asphalt because he would come closer to the car while he is walking instead of letting the grass clean between the toes.

Mind you, if the car was not on the driveway, he would estimate the car's length and walk a loop around it.  Sometimes he would actually walk it in the grass.

So my passive-aggressive smiling dog would be tracing paths around the yard, smiling, and ignoring the grass.

"No, Rack, ON the grass!" I would instruct as he would cut corners.

They do have their own minds, even if you can't figure out where that mind was.  

We would repeat it until I tired of the game or he did. 

Repeat and repeat and repeat.

Standing at the front of the car but out of sight of little low to the ground furballs, I would make my preferences known and send him around the car again in another orbit.

When he got it right, he would get his release from this dizzying routine and go inside.

I just think he thinks he's getting away with something by walking on asphalt while scurrying around the yard three times a day.

And I am a bit too stubborn to allow all that to happen so there I am bending over to one side of the car, then to the other to watch his progress.

Who knows?  On a day he's not feeling quite so playful, we might actually get it done right first time out.  Another and he is smiling and sneaking around the bumper cutting corners.