For a long time, I thought a good walk ended when Love came home tired. Today, I still enjoy watching her run. But I no longer believe that's the goal.

Love came out of the portal completely pumped.

And me too.

The sooner we got to the park, the better.

For a long time our walks were almost always the same.

We were arriving.

He took the ball out.

We played over and over again.

And we returned home with the feeling that we had made good use of the walk.

She had run.

He had played.

I was convinced that was exactly what I needed.

But there was something that never quite fit.

I would get home thinking about resting for a while.

Love, on the other hand, picked up a toy.

He walked down the corridor.

He looked at me again.

As if the walk wasn't over yet.

I remember asking myself the same question many times.

How can he still have so much energy?

For a long time I thought the answer was very simple.

I needed more.

And the more frantic she seemed, the more he tried to tire her out.

Today I believe that was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made.

 

The question that completely changed the way we walk

There was a day when I stopped looking for ways to make it run faster.

And I started asking myself a completely different question.

What if it wasn't lacking in movement?

I had never considered that a walk could also include moments of calm.

So we started little by little.

We were walking without much hurry.

We sat for a few minutes on a bench.

I stopped feeling like every minute had to be filled with activity.

And I started letting Love smell for as long as she needed.

We also incorporate small calming and training exercises.

Love remains exactly the same.

Curious.

Intense.

Full of energy.

And that's what I love about her.

But little by little he learned to stop.

To be observed.

And to relax much better than before.

The funny thing is that, while she was learning all that, I was changing too.

Without realizing it, I had stopped wondering how far I had run.

And I had begun to notice everything I was able to discover during the walk.

 

Then Chloe arrived

Just when I thought I was starting to understand the walks, Chloe arrived.

And it changed my perspective on many things again.

If Love had taught me that it wasn't all about running, Chloe ended up reminding me that not all dogs enjoy walks in the same way either.

She played too.

But there was something different about the way he discovered the world.

He could stay for a long time following the same scent.

Watching other dogs.

Or simply sitting and watching everything that was happening around her.

While Love often preferred to continue exploring on her own, Chloe greatly enjoyed spending time with other dogs.

No rush.

Without anything else needing to happen.

Looking at the two of them, I understood something very simple.

There is no such thing as a perfect walk.

Because no two dogs are alike.

And if they needed different things while living the same life, why should there be only one right way to walk?

 

One day I discovered that that way of walking had a name

Later I discovered that all of that had a name.

An enriching walk.

Although, if I'm honest, I still prefer to think of him in a different way.

For me, it's a walk that leaves room to be a dog.

A promenade where they can run whenever they want.

Follow a scent to the end.

Play.

Interacting with other dogs.

Notice.

Stop.

And, whenever possible, make small decisions along the way.

When I started reading about these types of walks, I also understood something that I had previously completely overlooked.

Dogs discover the world primarily through their sense of smell.

While we look at a tree or a bench, they receive a great deal of information about everything that has happened there.

Perhaps that's why stopping to smell was never a waste of time.

It was also a way to get to know the world.

 

What is an enriching walk?

If someone were to ask me today what an enriching walk is, I don't think I would start with a definition.

I would talk to him about Love.

From Chloe.

And of everything they have taught me during these years.

Because, for me, an enriching walk is not about walking more kilometers.

Not even going home with a completely exhausted dog.

It consists of offering him a walk that meets his needs that day.

There will be days when you'll want to run.

Others where a single smell will seem much more interesting than anything else.

And others where it will be enough to walk leisurely and observe.

Since I started seeing it this way, I stopped measuring a good walk by time or distance.

I started noticing something much more important.

In everything they had been able to discover, explore and enjoy during that time.

 

The question I try to ask myself before leaving home

I'm not going to say that all our walks have been perfect since then.

Because they are not.

There are days when I'm short on time.

There are days when I look at the clock again.

And there are days when they would probably like to stay a little longer.

But now I leave home in a very different way.

I no longer feel that all walks have to look alike.

Sometimes we come back with mud on our feet.

Others with a ball full of drool.

And others after having spent ten minutes sitting on the grass doing absolutely nothing.

They were watching.

I was watching them.

Ironically, those are the moments I remember most.

Because, in the end, a walk has never just been the path we travel.

It's also everything we share as we explore it.

Perhaps that, for me, is an enriching journey.

Not a perfect one.

Not one where we always do the same things.

But one that leaves room for Love and Chloe to experience the ride in their own way.

And that, without seeking it, it also changed mine.