Dogg the walk.

The pet dog is clever to fully utilize the opportunities presented. Pavlov used lab animals to condition their responses to a set of induced stimuli. Disagreeing with this biased approach, the pet dog decided to present the other side of the coin (Rouble?). It managed to prove the same results on human beings (owners and their children) – with great effects!

The proud owners of a pet dog like to impress the invited or unexpected visitors with the tricks their pet is capable of performing. Both the owners and the pet have really sweated it out – owners trying to teach the dog and the pet trying to condition them.

The conditioning exercise starts like this. The pet, sensing the importance, chooses such occasions to be defiant, eyeing the tray full of cookies and savouries.

Under the Canine pressure, the owner feeds the eatables expecting a better compliance – as a face saving measure in the presence of a visitor.

In this Satyagraha, the tenacity with which the dog had tried, and failed in many such attempts, to condition the reflex of its master or Mistress deserves kudos.

It does this easily with the children as they are easy subjects to condition.  Any way they don’t like what the parents give to them as snacks, most of the times. As far as the dog is concerned, that is a rich feasting ground.Net result – slowly and steadily the pet dog begins to put on weight.

This is self defeating as the original intent of the owners was to take the dog out for a stroll – to fight their own weighty issues. They needed the dog as an excuse.

But the dog, probably, not wanting to appear as the odd man out, has also succeeded in the competition by putting on extra weight. Now it is not shy to walk out either with the Master, with a solid pot belly, or with the Mistress saddled with avoidable fatty layers.

The duo or the trio (on rare occasions), walking down the lane, presents an eyeful – the man pushing the air waves away with his pot belly and the woman creating a sonic wave of huffs & puffs.

This scene becomes more comical – when the man and the woman, suffering spondylitis choose to wear the collar band and are accompanied by the pet with its own dog collar!

The pet dog enjoys unlimited affection and a rationed freedom, as a matter fact a prisoner in its own doghouse. A parole in the morning and possibly one in the evening is all what it gets, provided the owners are not out of station or it is not a rainy day. Like a lathi wielding policeman, they carry a stick to keep street dogs at bay.

The morning parole is spent in walking a few hundred meters, leading or trailing the Master – the Master to complete his exercise and the pet to attend to it's nature’s call.

The predicament of the Master at this time - standing guard, seeing and unseeing is a sight in itself or is he becoming self conscious to turn out in knickers, pushing sixties or seventies? A comedy of sorts for the onlooker.

The pet dog gets to walk a few meters during evening parole, leading or trailing the Mistress. It gets to hear plenty of neighbourhood gossip and little exercise.

One thing that is impressive about the pet dog is its name – Caesar, Tommy, Jimmy, Jackie, Tuffy, Lucy and the like.

Most often a pet dog, furious and all business, as a pup, grows into a timid creature, even afraid of its own shadow. Instead of being a protector more often it needs protection. How many of us had to pacify our pet during a rainy night filled with thunders and lightening?

The following might appear to be exaggerated a bit, but this is a true incident.

This happened during a morning walk. The master and the pet embarked on a walk, with a poor dead stick in the master’s hand.

The dog was leading for some time, then trotted alongside for some time and was trailing behind for some time, with the Master holding the reins.

This positioning depended on the presence of stray dogs in the street. May be it did not have such faith in its Master’s ability to shoo away the stray dogs, which always show an unusual interest in their procession.

A push cart loaded with vegetables was parked on one side of the road. Just about a meter from it, an overgrown bandicoot decided to scoot up to the middle of the road and planned to take a rest from the exertion.

With its canine sense, the pet smelt the presence and started taking evasive measures. Slowly it reduced pace, moved near the persona of the Master deciding to avoid a close encounter, with the stalled bandicoot. Finally it trailed behind its master.

Finally, it dug in its paws and applied the break. The Master did not even sense the tension on the dog’s chain or the resting bandicoot on the road.

The bandicoot held its further moves close to its rasping chest. That was enough of a morning walk and the pet decided to take matters in its own hand. It simply squat its bulk on the road forcing the Master to stop.

The Master then saw the object of his pet’s mortal fear. He looked around to see if anybody else will try to do something about the traffic jam. Vainly he tapped the stick on the road a few times.

The bandicoot cared a hoot and continued its squatting. Loosing patience and looking at his watch, the Master decided it was enough and getting late for the office.

He gave the signal for a U turn and the pet dog happily led him back home, all the way, sniping at a kitten and feigning at a scurrying squirrel. The Master, in his anxiety to get home for the ritual cup of coffee, failed to notice the lightning speed with which the dog obeyed his command with out whimpering.

This makes us wonder ‘Who got the best of whom’.