On a walk this morning we came across this gate. Would your lab walk under the HUGE space, daintily trot around the little human path, or "whatevva!"
Oban is the only dog I've ever seen who will jump over when under or around are equally easy. But I will guess that's about 3 feet high? And I think he'd go under, around, under again as all three posts would need to be checked and pee'd on.
There seems to be a lot of things going on there. Notices about parking have appeared recently. I guess they're getting ready for tourist season.
Mine would pee on it... he's a nightmare for marking everything unusual. Then would go round because he won't walk through puddles or mud!! Maybe that's hard to imagine for lab owners!
Thor goes around. Unless he's on lead which means he goes under so I have the awkward juggle trying to get his lead through.
Ha ha....has it got you wondering? Nothing that interesting. We walk here every couple of months or so maybe. When she was younger she probably went under the gate but now she is older she always goes around the path. She is almost always in front of us so it's not like she is following. I wouldn't say Lilly bimbles. She is always sniffing around off tracks. Unusual if she actually walks along a path with us. She does a lot of checking in with me. As in she looks back to see I am following her and when I raise my head to look in her direction she will continue. Doesn't wait for what I would call eye contact though....just a look in her direction. I guess that's good enough for her, my head movement is what she registers. Doesn't stop her hooning off after a bobbing tail though. So why will a dog by preference take a human path when there are other more obvious (to me) route options? And it is not confined to this gate/scenario. It's more generalised.
I voted for "off in the woods" because that would be most likely for Pongo . But given the choice I think he would definitely go round rather than through. He follows his nose, not his eyes (even when he is not obviously "sniffing"), and there are going to be more interesting scents going round - grass, posts and of course human scents from the path. Not much will have been happening under the gate, more will have been going on in the grass and on the path. So he would definitely follow that route if he was just trotting along enjoying his walk. If he was focused on getting to the other side (if he'd seen somebody, for example) he would take the straightest route under the gate.
