Walking with Max

Max is spending all day everyday indoors now and that's fine, good for him in the summer heat especially, but it means he hasn't been getting much exercise. Today Della and I took him on our walk.

I haven't walked Max in several years but I used to occasionally, especially with Sparky. Max is actually good on the trail. I haven't been taking him out because he's always gotten quite a bit of exercise being outdoors in the dog yard and the pasture. The linear nature of the trail suits his needs by giving him a simple, single thing to focus on and follow. I have always told people to keep their distance from Max because his behavior is rather unpredictable when he's worked up.

Max is probably our most senior dog now. We've had him for ten years or more and he was a couple years old when we got him. He's one of the best looking shepherds that we've had. His coat has a lot of gray in it now but he was a beautiful red and black shepherd when he was younger and he's still quite a handsome dude. He should have been a very easy dog to adopt and I tried for quite a while when I was with VGSR to find him a home, but Max is a special needs dog and those needs weren't easy to understand. He attracted a lot of interest because of his looks, and most people assumed that he would be trainable like a typical shepherd. I'm convinced that if Max was human he would be diagnosed as autistic, and fairly high on the spectrum at that. 

Max has always come in at night, but he had generally occupied the dog yard by himself during the days. He has been happy to spend the summer indoors this year and this will be the new norm for him from now on. He's older than I realized and I should have done it sooner but Max had a routine and Max thrives on routine. It was the fact that we were able to establish and stick to a routine that made Max manageable around here all these years. 

Max doesn't engage in a lot of "normal" dog behaviors, but he will occasionally bring a kong or other toy nearby and seem to suggest that he wants me to throw it. Rarely he will come up and make contact with his nose, that "checking in" and most shepherds do so often. Even more rarely, I've gotten a kiss from Max. It's hard to know what's going on in his head. I often refer to him as hearing voices that drown out things that most dogs respond to. But I think he's basically pretty happy. I hope so. We've tried to give him the best home that we can.

Anyway, today he went out for 2.5 miles with Della and I on our daily walk. It was a bit too far for him I think. I could hear his rear feet sort of drag a bit when we were on a hard surface, but for a 13 year old shepherd, it's amazing that his back end is still getting messages from the brain at all.