Crabwalkin'

Barley, a dog, is facing ahead, but is trying her hardest to walk sideways toward a nearby tree, stretching her leash taut.

Barley often has strong opinions about the direction she would like to go while on walks, and these preferences often must be disregarded. For example, I’m generally going to keep my distance from busy streets, because Barley invariable gets it in her head that such streets must be crossed with great urgency. When our objectives are at 90 degrees from one another, Barley will often sustain this sort of “scrabblin’ crab walk” for a few dozen feet, making nominal progress in my intended direction, but facing and pulling the direction she wants to go. Normally, I’m happy to give her the impression of sled-doggin’ by pulling my along with the back clip on her harness, but at moments like these, I’m reminded that the harness also has a front clip. Would that I could switch where I was clipped at will to help turn her when it matters most.