angledge | Muscle memory.

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.