We take the dogs on walks every day, especially since Corgigate 2013 happened.
Roxy needs these walks to release energy and we even switched the order of procession on these walks to make her walk behind Crazy Dog so she doesn’t think she is the leader. I think it marginally helps her.
Pretty much once a week, on these walks, we will come across another dog. And all hell breaks loose. I think, if you were a bystander, you would think the humans involved in the ruckus I am about to describe were being pretty calm, considering. The dogs? Not so much.
Now, before you read any further, play one or both of these videos as the soundtrack to this story so you can get the full effect:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0PGxUjsIPU#t=18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x73ETbDDsgU
Those videos most accurately represent the sound that comes out of Roxy’s mouth when she sees another dog. That dog could be the slowest moving, most boring, old dog ever, and she would still hit level ten in excitement/anger within a few seconds. Just the mere presence of another dog is enough to send her over the edge. If Crazy Dog is with us on this walk, the small growl he lets out when he sees this same dog somehow lights the firecracker within Roxy, shooting her to that level ten in a few seconds.
To be clear, she will always react when she sees another dog, but if Crazy Dog is not with us on the walk, she probably only reaches about level seven, which is noticeably less dramatic, and entirely more manageable.
I have often contemplated why this is. Tonight, as I was grappling with a squirming, screaming corgi and trying to pin her to the sidewalk (all while making my own growling noises at her), it hit me. I have a theory.
She has decided that we have made a mistake by letting Crazy Dog make any decisions. Here is what must be happening in her brain:
These humans are letting this totally unstable dog lead this pack walk so I must therefore take charge of any situation that arises.
<walks along, glaring out into the street and at anything she passes, lest it do anything she hasn't previously approved.>
Crazy Dog is growling?! I can’t trust him to handle this situation!
SCREAMING CORGI COMMENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
<turns into frothing, kicking, screeching ball of fur with low center of gravity, making it hard for human to flip corgi onto back>
It’s like she thinks we took a vote at some point to let Crazy Dog in front on the walks and she thinks it’s utter bullshit that we did so.
My partner and I often ponder why it is that when she sees a dog, she has to react in such a way, ESPECIALLY because whoever is walking her kicks her furry ass over it (Me. Always.).
You would think she’d learn. Crazy Dog has gotten the message. He hasn’t let out an embarrassing screech since probably 2008.
I have a theory about this too.
I think the corgi has only one channel in her brain open at a time, whereas Crazy Dog has several. It’s how he can be so successfully manipulative. He can get mad at a dog, but then reason that he will get in trouble, and then choose not to get mad at the dog.
Roxy, on the other hand, has one channel open at a time, which means when the “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! DDOOOOOOOOOOGGGGGG!!!!!!!” channel is open, nothing else can slip through her thoughts. She doesn’t have the bandwidth in her brain to process more information than SCREAM.
And she looks like this:
(^pretend that's a corgi)
It’s like she’s dial-up and Crazy Dog is cable.
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