I'm a planner and an organizer. My closet is organized by color hue and everything faces the same way. Workout clothes in one dresser drawer; work slacks in another. I have an Excel spreadsheet for our dinners for the week. Part of this is necessity; working four 10 hour days (but seriously, more like 12 hour days with the commute) means I have to be on top of my game. I don't have time to scramble at the last second.
Part of that is just me. It just is. I like The Plan.
When we got Rosie, I made 2 (!) Excel spreadsheets, formulated a daily schedule for our 8 week old ball of fluff and read multiple training books. Then I got my job, went to a week long training out of town and got married and all of my plans went out the window. That was hard to swallow.
I digress.
Shoes and I took Rose up to Spring Lake Reservoir for the first time last weekend. It was a gloriously sunny, crisp fall day. Rose bounded out of the car and took to the trail like nobody's business. (Well. She took to the trail after she took a potty break to poop out my foam ear plugs she had eaten the night before).
And this is where planning gets tricky. I have all of these ideas of how to do things in a step-wise fashion. Steady as she goes. One thing at a time.
Most of my steps are completely unnecessary.
Rose has never been outside of the yard or neighborhood with us before. She just got all of her big girl shots, though, and one of the reasons we got such an active dog was to ... well, be active with her.
This was me:
"I don't know, hon, let's keep her on the leash. She might just bolt off. She doesn't know what she's doing. Let's just she how she does today and maybe next time we can be a little more lax with her."
This was Shoes:
"Wife, she'll be fine. Calm down."
So we left the leash on her.
And then let go.
That was a scary first 15 minutes for me.
And you know what?
She was an absolute champ.
She walked behind me on the trail, but in front of Shoes, stopping every so often to look back to make sure he was keeping up. She leaped over fallen logs like it was no big deal, sniffed appropriately at bushes, did not terrorize the ducks and she came when she was called. (Good night. She never comes when she's called at home!).
She was fine.
And it was just another example of how all of my best planning just sometimes doesn't make things go any more smoothly.
I gave her a few extra puppy snuggles that night.
She deserved them.
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Oh how I can identify with the need to plan life like this! It is true though, planning does not always equal smooth sailing (it just seems to alleviate anxiety about the unknown, which is a big deal to some of us, most (all?) of the time). I am a big fan of The Plan. ;)
Loving those long gangly puppy legs - they grow so fast! Hope you have a nice long fall out there to enjoy many more Rosie adventures!
@Andea - she looks like a big, giant jackrabbit to me. And oh my. Can she jump ...!