I saw something today that I really had not noticed before. I was walking both Tilly and Cooper on a Wye for about a 4.5 mile walk in Forest Park. (Because Cooper is in heat, I did not want to let them off lead, and it is technically illegal in Forest Park though it is often ignored.) After about 1 mile we split off into a loop that brought us back to that same point after about 2.5 miles. All the way out, both dogs were stopping to smell everything they could. When we hit the split off point on the way home, they just put head down and went back with out almost without a pause. I don't know if it was because they knew they were on the home stretch, or because they had smelled everything there was to smell. I don't really like to walk them on a wye, especially out in the woods, because it is a lot harder to control two dogs than one. I haven't noticed this behavior when they were off lead, but then they get to range a lot further. Anybody want to hazard a guess why they didn't pause to smell the roses on the way home. FWIW, Forest Park is the largest Urban park in the US it is over 5000 acres and has more than 80 miles of trails. The 30 mile Wildwood Trail runs from one end to the other. We only saw 5 other people during our 4.5 mile walk. I have never seen so many Trillium in bloom. Everything is green and it has been raining pretty steady for a couple of days.
That sounds like a lovely park, you are lucky to live near it. On the sniffing, no, as a matter of fact, I've noticed the opposite. Oban sniffs just as much on the way back as on the way out. Sometimes I think he is sniffing his own pee spots he left when we started. Maybe there are new posts on his peemail. Just this morning there was a new truck parked and somebody, probably with a dog, had started walking after us. So there could have been new peemail.
It's very typical for Charlie not to be as interested in 'old ground' ie ground he has once walked over, as new ground, and it's also typical that the longer the walk lasts the more he'll engage with me than with a sniff fest. I think he gets a bit sniffed out....
My two always go into "bimble" mode when we're heading for home - staying really close (within 5m), attention almost entirely on me, very little sniffing etc. This is the same whether we're walking back along the same path or we're taking a different one. It doesn't seem to make much difference as to how long the walk is; it could be halfway through a 45 minute walk, or through a 4 hour walk, it's just heading towards home means focus on me. I assume I must have trained this inadvertently
Charlie's emotional state changes when we start to head home. From "a walk! a walk! must pee on the world!" to "oh, ok, hope it's time for tea".
Juno is a keen sniffer at anytime on a walk. As far as she's concerned there's no way she managed to capture every enticing scent on the way out she'll do her best on the way home, and you never know what might have crossed your path when you weren't looking
I notice a difference in the homeward walk. Although Lilly isn't a big puller she usually has a taught lead on the way out but more likely loose on return. Sniffing is a factor here. So too is pooping. Lead always loses tension after performance on a walk.
