

If you’re comfortable with your ability to control your dog through alpha-style leadership, try it. Most days, I choose to unclip the invisible leash because that’s the way my dog and I walked together.
INVISIBLE DOG LEASH NEAR ME HOW TO
Refer to the essay, How to Move On, But Only Just A Little Bit.
INVISIBLE DOG LEASH NEAR ME FREE
Keep yourself in check by referring to the following leash-holding guidelines:Ī) If you are imagining yourself holding the leash: you are Fragile but Functioning.ī) If you are actually pretending to hold the leash, fingers curled around air: you are Fragile and Teetering.Ĭ) Purchasing a leash to hold or, worse, digging your dead dog’s leash out of the box of his things that you kept and having it dangle there, free and unattached by your side: you are Reaching Breaking Point. Just be aware that how you hold your invisible dog’s invisible leash in public spaces is a good indicator of your mental state.

Or is your leash something basic, something cheap, something that matches his collar? Is it blue? Black? Red? Retractable? A rope?Ĭhoose the image of whatever leash you like, whether it be the leash you clipped onto your friend all those thousands of times or something new. Or notice the way your white and yellow polka-dotted leash, once nautical and refined, faded into a weathered souvenir: dirty beige dot, light dirty beige dot, everything speckled with mud. Picture how your thumb casts that dark, damp-looking imprint when you press down on the leather. Let’s say that the leash is hand-sewn leather with a sterling silver clip. But I encourage you to vividly imagine that leash-really define its characteristics in your mind.

It seems obvious enough an invisible dog requires an invisible leash. There’s even something akin to umami, that difficult-to-describe layer that deals more in depth than in identifiable characteristics you can feel him understanding you, reading you, and that amount of intimacy creates a rich roundness to your relationship, an underlying current of love.īut in order to deny reality, we must craft a new one. Sweet, salty, bitter, sour-his movements, expressions, sounds, repetitive behaviors: you sense it all. Like the sense of taste, your dog’s presence is multi-layered. You know that dog so well-the lovely curve of his back, the drippy chin after a visit to his water bowl. But here’s the truth: you are not a child and therefore your invisible dog is more funereal. Fourth grade, I walked an enormous husky. From the ages of six to twelve, I walked to school with the dog that my parents were forever refusing me. Children can walk whatever invisible dog they want, because this activity is likely either a fun way to pass the time or a sad but endearing reaction to Parents Who Won’t Allow Their Children Pets.

Invisible dog walking is for the broken.Ĭhildren are the only exception to this rule. If you were fine and experiencing no difficulty getting out of bed or finding the energy to shower, then you wouldn’t need this. Be loyal to your weird, little, arthritic Yorkie terrier, or Labradoresque mutt, or white German shepherd rescue, or whatever it was that you had to put to sleep on the day after Thanksgiving, because he loves you and you need him and you’ll fall apart if you mistakenly think that by imagining another dog, you’re moving on somehow. You can’t walk some prototype of a Pomeranian one morning and then what looks to be a pit bull the next. The reasons for walking around with an invisible dog will vary from person to person, but the thing that must not vary is your dog. Be sure to think of the weather do you need a coat? A hat? An umbrella? Also, what about money for a taxi in the event that you walk too far and your feet blister? You’ll need to get yourself back somehow-what about the subway? Does your city’s public transportation system even allow dogs? If not, pretend that they do, and then refer to the essay, How to Travel with an Invisible Dog. A good walking shoe is best, but if you must be fashionable, wear flats.
