Wednesday 20 August 2008

parlance's ten rules for crossing the road with a dog

When Penny and I cross the road she always has to sit at the kerb and then we hurry straight across. Today I saw a woman standing on the centre line of a busy road with her dog beside her. I think that's dangerous. To a dog, the hurly-burly of vehicles racing past in front and behind must be quite scary.

In my opinion, when crossing road with a dog you need to allow for the worst-case scenario.
Be prepared for the possibility that the driver of every car passing by:

1. had a spider drop into their lap;
2. was told by their GPS to make a 180ยบ turn;
3.will sneeze a mighty sneeze as they pass you and your dog;
4. hates dogs;
5. hates dog owners;
6. got their licence two minutes ago;
7. is putting on makeup and talking on the phone, whilst reaching for a drink from the glovebox;
8. has suddenly gone blind;
9. is drunk or under the influence of an illicit substance;
10. all of the above.

8 comments:

Noah the Airedale said...

Totally agree with you. Noah is pretty good and when I ask him to sit he will but not unless I ask him to.

Denise

Slavenka said...

My motto is be always ready for anything.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe people stop in hte middle of the road with their dogs. I never get to look at interesting stuff in the middle of the road because we have to hurry across!

Penny! Come on over and join my Squirrel Patros!

Mark Lawrence said...

Those are exactly the same rules I use when crossing the road with my children. They will come in handy in teaching my Grade 2 son to cross the road more intelligently.

Though I'm unsure about the dog- and dog owner-hating bits. Even in his hairier moments it's a bit of a long bow to mistake my boy for a dog...

parlance said...

Denise, Noah seems pretty relaxed, so maybe he could sit quietly in the middle of four lanes of traffic. But I'll bet you wouldn't ask him to! I was amazed when I saw the woman doing that.

parlance said...

Slavenka, I reckon that's a good philosophy. I've read something like, 'Be prepared for the worst but hope for the best.' Or maybe the other way round?

parlance said...

Hey, Rusty, you wouldn't like the stuff in the middle of the road anyway. Just gas fumes and tar smells that would hurt your sensitive little nose!

parlance said...

Mark, good luck with teaching him to cross the road. I think it is probably THE important task in early childhood. In thirty years and more of primary teaching I hammered the message that the cars won't necessarily stop just because you're on a school crossing or at a set of lights..