It took me a while to figure it out.  My dog, a ten year old golden retriever, has become stubborn of late.  At first I couldn’t understand what was going on.  She has always loved to go for walks.  Lately, she refuses to be walked on a leash.  She stops, digs in and stares at me.  It becomes a contest of wills.

For years she would walk on her lead as far as ten kilometers without so much as a fuss.  When she began refusing, I worried.  Was she sick?  In pain?  Why wouldn’t she walk anymore?  When I would take her to our favourite spot in Toronto where I can take her off her leash and not worry about cars or busy-body types who make a big deal about seeing a dog not on a lead she would run and play like a new pup.  Put the collar back on her neck and try to get home afterward and it became an ordeal.  She wasn’t going anywhere with a leash around her neck it seemed.

Today it dawned on me.  My dog is a libertarian, maybe even an anarchist.  She loves her freedom.  The lead is most certainly not what she wants.  My liberty-loving-dog wants no part of being controlled by me, the central government of sorts; the nanny state for certain.  I might feed, bathe, care for and command her on occasion but she wants no part of it once we leave the house and head out for a walk.  She insists on her own freedom and we don’t even have a household charter of rights for her to reference.

My dog is pretty smart, I think.  Too bad she can’t run for political office in this country.  Talk about the tail wagging the dog, she may have taught me a thing or two.