The stance

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

My dog is a miniature dachshund, and the vets keep insisting ridiculous things about him. Things like, "he's getting a little old."

One of the ways he exhibits his advancing age is when we go for our "utility walks" — quick jaunts up and down the street we live on to do his daily constitutional — he still tries to assume "the stance" that male dogs stereotypically use when peeing, with one back leg up in the air. Only, his legs are very short, and his hips aren't what they used to be, so he hops off the curb into the street, and raises his little back leg, and because his legs are so short it fits perfectly back onto the sidewalk. So he's technically in the stance, but all four feet are on the ground, and he doesn't even have to tip over to do it. If you looked at him from directly overhead, you wouldn't know anything was different.

I don't know who taught him this or how he learned it, but it's the only way he pees now and I think it's magnificent.