Dog Walk

 

The dog is the reason I have been out every day during lockdown as he needs walked. In fact it's one of only two reasons I go out at all nowadays. It's not entirely his fault but as good as it is to have that necessity to go out it is also more restrictive than when I used to venture out alone. He is basically a doggy agoraphobic. He is petrified of most things that stop him in his tracks, have him pulling to get back home or have him frothing at the mouth barking aggressively. Fight or flight or freeze. Ironic. So these walks now are now a battle to see who will chicken out first. For me it's distance from home. For him the aggression is towards other dogs, animals, people, cyclists and anything noisy like motor bikes, bin lorries and the like. The freezing I can relate to as it comes when he does not want to go any further and is not going to be pushed there against his will. The flight is s strange one. It seems to be reflective surfaces like bus shelters, office windows, glass doors and that sort of thing.

His reluctance has made my already receding world all the smaller. Its got me thinking that aside from the many small dog walks per day I might start going on one alone per day to start pushing my boundaries again. It took a long time previously to get to a point where I felt virtually free of agoraphobia and could walk anywhere that was physically possible. It took a short time to fall from the summit down to the foot. Its going to take a long time to get back there again with a lot of difficult times along the way. That journey I must do alone and I do plan to start doing that soon.