So let me explain about my dog... I really wanted to put up a picture of my new dog, Sparky. So, in one of those notorious attempts at being funny, I tried to make him look like the picture of Paul Peterson's dog, Gil (who could probably eat Sparky for breakfast). Paul changed his picture recently, and now I think it's a penguin making spaghetti or something like that...I don't know. However, I'll just take the 5th as to how the underwear ended up on the poor dog's head. I WILL say, dear reader, that this picture is definitely on the outer limits of exactly how far I am willing to go to amuse you, so please do not expect anything else in this particular vein of craziness. I kind of hoped Paul would get a kick out of it, too, but you must remember that the poor man runs about 100 miles a day (or something like that) and cannot be expected to read the blog of every pee-on who emulates his dog's headwear.
And speaking of peeing-on, I took Sparky on a run for the first time today. He is not used to the leash yet, and suffers from acute I-Must-Stop-and-Sniff-Every-Bush Syndrome. So half of the run he was dragging me to the nearest bush, and the other half I was trying to drag him away from the last bush we passed. Well, I guess it must have been less than half, because a large portion of this run Sparky was zig-zagging wildly in front of me in an apparent attempt to get me to trip on him. Once or twice he stopped right in front of me without warning--I had to hop over him. I suppose if he were taller he would be a perfect training tool for a hurdler. But being a dachshund (wiener-dog), he is really more of a speed bump than hurdle. If ever my neighbors thought I was comical to watch before, they probably were on the floor today. I laughed out loud myself more than once. I had the leash wrapped around my right wrist, so of course Sparky figured out that if he went behind me and then sprinted past me on the left side, he could almost knock me down, despite his puniness. What a great run. I have high hopes that Sparky will become a great little training partner with more practice. I ran 1.4 with Sparky, then another 1.3 or so alone. With Sparky my ave. pace was 11:47, without him it was a more typical 10:07. | 