Yes, Dogs are a Creature Of Habit. Or the 5AM Dog Directed Walk.

Dogs just don't understand it when you are breaking your normal routines.  It's best said by don't drive crazy, your dog won't understand why you never came home.

In my case, the car nor any general crazy has anything to do with it.  It's home repair.

You see, we've de-camped across the street to a little duplex for "the duration".  My guess is we will be able to re-camp before Thanksgiving, but not before Halloween.

So Rack, the McNab SuperDog(TM) is a little confused.

He first decided that since he can't sit next to me, he really can he just hates being exposed, he

 would find a wee little wedge of space between the couch and the wall and has sat himself there.  All Day And Night.

I put a spare dog bed there, but really we should not tolerate that because the couch is white and every dog that goes out to explore on his walks eventually picks up "things" on their fur.  I just hope that the wall isn't stained, yet.

It is an enclosed yard.  A rather nice fence surrounds the property and a rather formidable yet stylish wooden gate slows entry to the property.  Then as you enter the property there are a few things to notice. 

First the front apartment is inhabited by a very barky dog and her owner.  Both are friendly but the dog will bark for hours when the owner goes about doing people things.  BarkBarkBarkPause... lather, rinse and repeat.  When the owner is there with her dog, Mrs Barkypants will bark at you.  Luckily I can reach over the fence, get the latch, and enter almost silently.  Sometimes I can even get past without Mrs Barkypants sounding the song of her people.  For the next fifteen minutes.

I just got back from a pass through the yard and to my house and she did finally stop barking when I told her "NO" from their window.

Then since this yard is shared, I can't just open the door and let Rack out.  The yard may be occupied and since our neighbor has free use of the yard as well, we look out of the door gently.  Both dogs are friendly but they have not really been able to greet each other yet.

So forward to 5AM.  I wake up, get the minimum done, including feeding Rack.  I then ask Rack to "Show me what you want".  Sometimes he wants to water the hedges, many times he just walks to the corner and hides until sunrise. 

So now I have to get his leash and walk him around a little bit because if the neighbor is up with her dog, it becomes complex that early.  

Cue the Looney Tunes "dinkadinkadinka" sound effect as I tiptoe through the front gate. 

Mr Dog though is a creature of habit.  My own preference is to walk to the corner, let him empty his self, and we go back in, but that gets overruled.  

Rack has decided that at 5AM, the right thing to do is to walk to the house and inspect both it, and the yard.  

Yes, Dogs are a Creature Of Habit.  

The first time I did this after settling here at the little duplex across the street, Rack had different plans.  I was led back to the house.  No, I was not being allowed any input here, Trust In Dog.  I started him toward the corner and he insisted in pulling me back to our house and the front door there. 

If you thought a 45 pound dog could out rule a 203 pound human, well, you would be right. 

There in the Florida predawn moonlight, I had all 45 pounds of Rack leaning over at a 45 degree angle, tugging at the leash and pulling me East.  I stopped fighting the inevitable and let him lead me back to the house.  When we got to my front door he sat down and twisted his head so he could look at me as if to say "Well, what are you waiting for, Moose, Open the door!"

And open the door I did.  We both stepped inside, and he waited for me to lock it.  However he also had decided that the next step would be to walk through the house ignoring all the work, the dust, the lack of tiles on the floor, the debris, and the general disarray, and insisted on going to the back door.

He wanted me to let him go out and inspect the yard.  Ok, he's back in his old routine.  I would normally just open the back door and let him do laps around the yard while I would make coffee, but without a working kitchen in the place, I would just follow him outside.

Where ever you live, do go outside before dawn from time to time.  It really is a quiet and peaceful time of day.

I walked circles around the yard.   He walked circles around the yard.  He got bored and came to get me and we went back in the house.  

Rack was done.  In fact he walked right to the front door, and repeated that over the shoulder look telling me "Let's get out of here". 

So the rest of the walk was back to the little duplex and inside.  I'd be able to make my coffee then.

Dogs are creatures of habit.  While they live in the moment, they also have routines that they like to keep.   I'm being kept to that schedule by being dragged across the street and walked around the pool.  He does not ask for much so I'll allow that.  I did ask him what he had in mind, of course, and it was his walk anyway.