Muscle memory.

[angledge]

Wow, weirdest dog walk ever.

I just took Shadeaux out for her final trip outside tonight. She was wearing her harness & a leash, but I took her off-leash near the end of the trip so we could do some quick obedience work on sit-down-stay-come. She was in a down-stay, when suddenly she bolted past me.

She had spotted one of the Indian residents in our community, one of the guys who are just terrified of dogs. So I lunged at Shadeaux as she was accelerating past me, & I just managed to grab the strap of her harness that runs over her back. But she had so much momentum that she pulled me off my feet. When I felt myself falling, I leapt toward her, gaining enough energy that I rocketed over her. Maintaining my grip on her harness, I went into a near-perfect aikido roll. I rolled down my right arm, over my right shoulder, my back, my left shoulder, & slapped the lawn with my left arm. Unfortunately, this meant my right arm (still hanging onto Shadeaux's harness) had a ton of speed. Shadeaux whipped over me & flew right out of her harness. She flew a good ten feet & bounced another six before coming to a halt, looking astonished.

I clambered to my knees & said, "Shadeaux, COME." She tottered to her feet & came right to me. I put her harness back on her with shaking hands. I remembered the cause of the whole fracas & turned back around. No sign of Indian Neighbor Guy. Reviewing the whole situation from his point of view, it must have looked like I threw my dog at him. No wonder he ran....

I haven't been on an aikido mat since 1998, when I broke up with Daaaaave. I am frankly amazed that I remember how to do a forward roll. It was pure muscle memory.

Edit:: Here's a YouTube video showing a forward roll. Just put a dog in the sensei's right hand & you'll have a good idea of what happened on last night's walk.

Comments

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

I am probably a bad person for laughing at this image. Sorry Shadeaux.

"Look, a guy who's scared of dogs! Let's throw DOGS at him!"
"As long as they're not the dogs with bees in their mouth so when they bark bees shoot out."

[angledge.livejournal.com]

No, I totally figured you would comment on this. I can't tell if I described the forward roll correctly, but since you do lots of martial arts, I'm guessing YOU can picture how bizarre this must have looked.

"Have a dog, Scared Neighbor! She can fly*!"

*short distances only

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

I understood exactly what you mean with the forward roll, and I'm totally picturing doing a roll with a dog in hand and launching it at unprepared opponents. "Flying Dog Stance! Canine Explosion Punch! Wind of the Flying Wolf!"

Notice how I'm taking the high road and not imitating Monkey Style, Crane Style, or Tiger Style kung fu by calling this Doggie Style.

Note to self: Invent 'Doggie Style' martial arts. Market in Hollywood. Think of the revenue from David Duchovny and Tiger Woods combined!

[love2loveher.livejournal.com]

I just love that afterward, she was too stunned to keep running after the neighbor.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

I think she was amazed that Mom was fast enough to catch her. Take that, ya little canine whippersnapper!