There is a woman boarding the plane with a stroller for her dog. Really?
Have you seen dog strollers? It’s a thing. Check out this search on Amazon. There are dog strollers with hundreds of 4 and 5 star ratings.
I see them at Lake Murray. There’s a path that’s like 3 miles around the lake and you see lots of people pushing little dogs in strollers.
Here’s the deal: Taking your dog for a walk means that you and the dog take a walk. It’s healthy for you and it’s healthy for them. Actually, the healthy part of it for the dog is more than just physical, it’s mental. Walking with you, sniffing other dogs butts, peeing on bushes, chasing squirrels, this is all normal and perfectly healthy behavior for your dog.
Putting it in a stroller and not letting it walk? That’s not good for the dog in any way!
If “taking the dog for a walk” means driving to a park to push your dog in a stroller– you need to know you are doing it wrong.
Exception: Every once in a while I see someone with an injured dog in a dog stroller. I’ll give you a pass for that.
Dog Flash Lights
You might think I’m kidding but I’m not. Kristen and I see people all the time with lights attached to their dogs. There are hundreds of collar lights on Amazon. This one has 600+ reviews!
I think the intention is to make the dog more visible at night to owners and other people who might not see your dog.
A dog on a leash walking with an owner doesn’t need a light and it isn’t helping the dog. In fact, while I’m not an canine ophthalmologist, I would guess that the light attached to Buster is actually making Buster see worse because his pupil’s can’t adjust to the low light conditions… meaning that light is putting your beloved dog in more danger than it’s helping them.
“Dogs have evolved to see well in both bright and dim light, whereas humans do best in bright light. No one is quite sure how much better a dog sees in dim light, but I would suspect that dogs are not quite as good as cats,” which can see in light that’s six times dimmer than our lower limit. Dogs, he says, “can probably see in light five times dimmer than a human can see in.”
Paul Miller of University of Wisconsin in Science Daily, 2007
We often go on our evening walk as the sun is going down. In the summer, because the concrete and asphalt is so hot from the sun, it’s a good idea to wait for it to cool off before walking your dog, and as it gets darker we see more and more people sporting flashlights, headlamps, and doggie flashlights in our urban neighborhood.
Look, your dog doesn’t need that to see, it’s probably hurting their eyesight. And if they are on a leash their visibility isn’t important. And, just keeping it real, you don’t need a flashlight to walk through an urban neighborhood either. We have street lights! (Not to mention humans can see OK at night, too, if you let your eyes adjust.)
Let Dogs Be Dogs
In so many ways, I get it. We love our pets. We adore them with gifts and treats and special trips. I do the exact same thing. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve driven 30 minutes to take Stoney to the beach or the hundreds, thousands probably, of dog walks.
But you have to let your dog be a dog. They don’t need to be pushed around like a baby. And they don’t need a flashlight to see at night.
The single best thing you can do for your dog, in my opinion, is let them be a dog.
Misplaced Care
What is this all about? In this instance, I’m talking about people who love their dogs so much that they are making it something it isn’t. Putting a dog in a stroller isn’t about the dog, it’s about the human.
We do this type of thing all the time. We allow something in our lives to become something it isn’t and in the process, we change it. We convince ourselves that our professional pursuit is about the pursuit when it’s about something more significant. We convince others that we’re working out because we want to accomplish a goal or raise some money for charity when it’s about something deeper. We convince ourselves that we have to parent our kids or they need to pursue education in a certain way for the betterment of that child… when it’s really about something much deeper.
We say it’s about love when, at it’s core, it’s about misplaced care. To truly love that child. To truly love that dog. To truly gain success at work. To truly be healthy– you need to get to the bottom of some of these underlying issues.
A dog in a stroller is misplaced care.
Deal with the stroller in your life.
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