Sami doesn't care about the weather. Spring, winter, rain, whatever. The walk is the walk. But I've noticed something about our spring walks that I can't un-notice.
When I'm stressed - when my head is somewhere else, when I'm walking fast because I want to get back to the thing I was doing - Sami is a nightmare on the leash. Pulling. Darting. Nose in every direction. We're fighting each other the whole way.
When I slow down - actually slow down, not just tell myself to slow down - he settles. Not immediately. But within a few minutes he's trotting next to me, nose working at a reasonable pace, checking in with me every so often like a normal dog.
Same dog. Same forest. Same leash. The only variable is me.
I didn't want this to be true, by the way. I wanted his bad leash days to be about squirrels, or wind, or some mystery dog who'd walked the path before us. External factors. Things I could blame.
But it's me. He's walking how I feel. He's a 8 kg mood ring with fur and opinions.
The forest near our house is two minutes away. Eucalyptus, thorns, the occasional rabbit that Sami pretends he'd catch if only I'd let him off the leash. (I won't. We tried that. Twice. Both times ended with us sprinting through trees shouting his name while he explored freely and without concern for our panic.)
This morning I had a lot on my mind. Walked out the door already in my head. And within thirty seconds, the leash was tight. He was pulling left, I was pulling forward, and we were two creatures completely failing to occupy the same walk.
So I stopped. Stood still. Let him sniff whatever he needed to sniff. And then we walked again, slower. And there he was - right next to me. Calm. Present. Checking in.
I don't think he's trying to teach me anything. He's not a guru. He's a terrier. But the feedback loop is honest in a way that nothing else in my life is. No one at work tells me I'm moving too fast. No app tracks my internal state. Sami does. He reflects it back in real time, on a leash, in a eucalyptus forest, at 7am.
Some mornings I don't want a mirror. I want a walk.
But I keep getting both.
Bobby (and Sami)