A very sad puppy dog

Hello Everyone,

Life on the road can be hard on Arthur. Even now that we've been in one place for a little while, it's still not home to him. Getting out on the trails every day is his real joy. But like any middle-aged athlete, sometimes he gets injured. After a big day recently, I noticed he was walking gingerly in the evening, then in morning, he was full on limping.

If I were living at home, it would be bad enough. He'd get excited seeing me getting my bike stuff together, only to be let down when I left him in the apartment. But now, he sees me getting my bike stuff together, and he gets brought to the trailhead, only to be left in the truck while I go out and have fun. It's sometimes hard to tell what a dog is thinking, but not in this case. On Tuesday, I had to leave him in the truck and I'm sure he was saying to me: "Dude, WFT? You left me in the truck." What it actually sounded like was just really loud barking though.

He was quiet by the time I got back, but after two day of having to fend off his championship-level sad puppy dog eyes, I had to make a tough decision. He was mostly healed and the weather was getting warm and sunny. Do I risk leaving him in the truck and break his heart again, or do I take him with me and try not to run him too hard, and risk aggravating the injury?

I know what he would say if I could ask him. He'd want to go. He'd say "What injury? I'm totally fine." But I know that I have a responsibility to look after his needs, even when he disagrees with my decisions.

In the end, I took him with me. We rode a trail that was more technical than flowy, meaning it would be slower and he wouldn't have to run as fast. He had a great time, and didn't seem to have been any worse by the end.

Grampa used to say that you get to be like the people you live with. He meant that people and their dogs soon start to share a lot of personality traits. If the situation was reversed and I was the one with the injury, what would I want to do? Without hesitation, I'd say the same thing as Arthur: play through the injury.

wes