Put your phone away, then walk your dog and play
One downside of being a professional dog walker is looking distracted while working
“Not keeping your eyes on your dog and what’s around is bad because various things could happen,” Dr. Katherine A. Houpt, a professor emerita of behavioral medicine at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, told Huffington Post.
I instantly shivered when I read this article about why dog owners should put their phones away while they’re walking their dogs. Last week, I was glued to my phone and happened to notice that my Hound mix abruptly stopped walking. Thinking she was about to urinate, I wasn’t alarmed at first until I saw a live rat out of the corner of my eye. Junee (my Hound mix) was an inch away from sniffing this rat, and the rat was too distracted while hunting something else in the grass to notice. I gasped, yanked the leash and walked backward so Junee would do the same.
The North Side of Chicago already has a problem with rats. It’s like the Windy City wants a new name and a remix to Tyga’s “Rack City.” Rat city, ra-ra-rat, rat city. Once upon a time, I used to be scared of mice and rats. But I see rats in the alley and by dumpsters so much that I now look at them like pigeons — except for when one decides to pop up out of garden areas near Metra train stations. I’m never prepared for the garden rats.
Recommended Read: “Chicago ranks number one for rats but feral cats have the last say ~ Humane Society releases 1K feral cats to get rid of Windy City rats”
That one incident (Junee and the rat sniffing) made me finally put my phone away. I can fully agree with animal experts equating smartphone scrolling to distracted driving, specifically if you have a hunting dog (or your dog is not trained to behave on busy streets).
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However, this no-phone rule gets a little tricky if you’re a Wag! walker. Unlike the Rover app (and other platforms) that doesn’t ask for real-time updates, I’ve gotten into the habit of holding the phone in one hand to press the pee and poop buttons as I walk dogs. The Wag! app is monitoring the entire walk from start to finish and has a countdown clock so professional dog walkers know when they’re cutting it close to the end walk time and should head back. (Luckily, I no longer book walks with owners who have a mandatory mileage for their dogs — even when they know their dogs may walk faster or slower than the distance time.)
So what are professional dog walkers supposed to do when the goal is to keep the Wag! app active and keep track of dog walking activity — even if it could look like the dog walker is “ignoring the dog” and playing on their smartphones?