dog walker essay

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I Walk My Dog Because It Makes Me Happy: A Qualitative Study to Understand Why Dogs Motivate Walking and Improved Health

Carri westgarth.

1 Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZX, UK; ku.ca.looprevil@cbor

2 Institute of Veterinary Science, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZX, UK

Robert M. Christley

Garry marvin.

3 Department of Life Sciences, University of Roehampton, London SW15 5PJ, UK; [email protected]

Elizabeth Perkins

4 Department of Health Services Research, Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZX, UK; [email protected]

Dog walking is a popular everyday physical activity. Dog owners are generally more active than non-owners, but some rarely walk with their dog. The strength of the dog–owner relationship is known to be correlated with dog walking, and this qualitative study investigates why. Twenty-six interviews were combined with autoethnography of dog walking experiences. Dog walking was constructed as “for the dog”, however, owners represented their dog’s needs in a way which aligned with their own. Central to the construction of need was perceptions of dog personality and behaviour. Owners reported deriving positive outcomes from dog walking, most notably, feelings of “happiness”, but these were “contingent” on the perception that their dogs were enjoying the experience. Owner physical activity and social interaction were secondary bonuses but rarely motivating. Perceptions and beliefs of owners about dog walking were continually negotiated, depending on how the needs of the owner and dog were constructed at that time. Complex social interactions with the “significant other” of a pet can strongly motivate human health behaviour. Potential interventions to promote dog walking need to account for this complexity and the effect of the dog-owner relationship on owner mental wellbeing.

1. Introduction

Low levels of physical activity are associated with health issues such as obesity, chronic diseases [ 1 ] and poor mental health [ 2 ]. Social systems are also important for human health and wellbeing [ 3 ]. Walking with a dog is the most common reason for visits to natural environments in England [ 4 ] and dog walking is a recognised potential mechanism for increasing physical activity [ 5 , 6 ], social interaction [ 7 , 8 ] and social capital [ 9 ]. Lack of exercise is also associated with obesity in dogs [ 10 ], providing dual benefits of dog walking for human and animal welfare. At the population level, dog owners are more physically active than people without dogs [ 11 ]. Dogs are a unique motivator for sustained physical activity despite psychological and practical barriers such as bad weather [ 12 , 13 ]. However, the distinctive nature of walking with a dog is poorly understood [ 14 ].

An owner briskly walking their dog for at least 30 min each day easily exceeds the 150 min recommended as minimum duration of moderate physical activity per week [ 1 ]. If all dog owners did this it would dramatically boost population levels of physical activity. For promotion of dog walking to be an effective intervention to improve owner health it is essential to understand what motivates dog owners to do it, as not everyone walks with their dog regularly [ 11 ]. This knowledge may also enlighten other successful ways to promote exercise.

Animals are becoming recognised as legitimate subjects of sociological enquiry [ 15 ]. Questionnaire survey data suggests that the strength of the dog-owner relationship has both a strong association with dog walking behaviour and a large effect size [ 16 ], and has been attributed to concepts such as: attachment [ 17 , 18 ]; social support [ 19 ]; motivation [ 19 ]; obligation [ 20 , 21 ]; encouragement [ 21 , 22 ]; and “knowing dog enjoys going for a walk” [ 19 ]. These constructs have been shown to be primary factors associated with dog walking behaviour, but it remains unclear how these factors operate.

Motivation for dog walking has been framed almost exclusively in terms of the needs of the dog [ 23 ]. Elderly people participating in a loaned dog walking programme reported that the dogs “need us to walk them” [ 24 ] and most dog owners report that exercising their dog regularly is good for the animal’s health [ 25 ]. Pilot intervention studies targeting the canine need for exercise, rather than the human’s, have had some success in increasing owner activity [ 26 ]. However, a recent study suggests that intrinsic motivators (e.g., finding an activity pleasurable) seem to be more important with regard to dog walking than extrinsic motivators (for the purpose of a reward outside the activity itself, such as reducing feelings of guilt) [ 14 ]. The perceived energy level of the dog [ 14 ], size [ 14 , 22 ], and breed [ 27 ] are also considerations.

The way in which interactions between humans and dogs affect motivation to walk are complex and hitherto little researched or understood [ 14 ]. Qualitative research methods designed to understand social phenomena, and how people make sense of their social world [ 28 ], are ideal for studying this complexity. This study was designed to explore the perceptions, interpretations and experiences of different dog owners regarding owning and walking their dog(s), using interviews and observations. In particular, we wanted to understand how people conceptualise dog walking, what motivates and de-motivates them, and how these beliefs and perceptions influence dog walking behaviour. The findings elucidate how social relationships, including non-human, can influence human health behaviour.

2. Materials and Methods

In-depth semi-structured interviews (see end of manuscript for interview schedule ( Appendix A )) were conducted with members of 12 dog owning households. Households were located mainly in the North-West UK and were recruited through advertisements on social media, in shops and community centres, and through word-of-mouth. Applicants were purposefully sampled in order to include regular and infrequent dog walkers, families with children, and a variety of dog types. Interviews (approx. 2 h) were conducted in the owner’s home. In addition, the researcher accompanied participants on a “typical” dog walk if the dog was walked.

In addition, 14 short interviews (10–20 min) were conducted: ten were of dog owners walking their dogs in one of two Liverpool parks; and four at a dog show with owners of large breeds associated with high levels of exercise (Foxhound and Old English Sheepdog) and low levels of exercise (Afghan Hound and Pyrenean Mountain Dog) [ 27 ].

In total 38 people were interviewed (excluding very young children, See Table 1 ). All interviews were conducted by the first author, except four short interviews of owners walking their dogs, which were conducted by the second author. Data were supplemented by autoethnography of the first author’s dog walking experiences which were recorded and reflected on over a two year period.

Participant information of dog owner interviews about dog walking.

M = Male, F = Female, E = Entire, N = Neutered. *: American Staffordshire Bull Terrier is a pseudonym for Pit Bull Terrier Type in this geographical area.

Participant interviews (including conversations that took place on the walks) were recorded and transcribed. A grounded theory approach was used, based on the idea that “knowledge” is constructed and embedded in human perception and social experience and that issues are individually experienced and rooted within agreed social norms or standards [ 29 ]. True to a grounded theory perspective, an inductive approach was used, drawing on wider theories as deemed appropriate for the themes that emerge from the data, rather than pre-defining a theoretical perspective. Data collection and analysis overlapped where practically possible. Primary line-by-line open coding of transcripts and diaries was conducted by Carri Westgarth assisted by Elizabeth Perkins, and axial and selective coding emerged collaboratively during discussions. Coding was managed in NVIVO software (QSR International, London, UK). As the data were coded, similarities and differences across the data were explored until theoretical saturation in emergent categories was reached. Regular discussions with the other authors assisted in critical analysis. The use of the primary author’s own dog walking experiences required a critical reflexive approach in which the emerging data provoked and challenged thoughts and feelings about dog walking and led to some of the most critical insights in the study. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol was approved by the University of Liverpool Veterinary Ethics Committee (Project code VREC121). Formal interview participants provided full informed written consent. Participants interviewed at the park and dog show provided audio recorded verbal consent after receiving an explanation about the purpose of the study. All interview participants were provided with a written information sheet with contact details should they wish to contact the researchers for any reason. Names of people and dogs have been changed to maximise anonymity [ 30 ].

Analysis suggests a complex inter-relationship between the dog’s and the owner’s needs (see Figure 1 ). Participants identified needs of their dog that they aimed to fulfil through walking their dog. They also reported positive outcomes that they believed the dog gained through being walked. However, the owners’ needs were threaded through the dog’s needs; such that meeting the dog’s needs produced positive outcomes for the dog owner, the primary focus of discussion. The interplay of beliefs and perceptions is dynamic and is constantly adjusted and renegotiated as circumstances and needs change. What is perceived to “fit” with that particular dog and its owners is uniquely constructed and may vary over time both on a daily and weekly basis as well as in the longer term. The complex interplay of beliefs and perceptions based on the needs of the dog-owner dyad resulted in a range of actions, with dog walking being just one component. Normative “rules” regarding what is responsible behaviour in relation to dog walking and the “right” way to own dogs, underpinned the owner’s accounts.

Model of dog walking negotiation. Schematic representation of interplay between the construction of dog and owner needs (which include internal and external influences; for example, enculturation), multiple possible actions taken by the owner, and perceived outcomes for dog and owner (internally and externally; for example, connectedness).

3.1. Construction of Dog Needs

3.1.1. a fundamental need for exercise.

Owners described walking as being principally done “ for the dog ”. Exercise was universally expressed as a fundamental need of the dog and walking a “ responsibility ” of dog ownership. This need was largely based anthropomorphically on the relationship between physical and mental health and exercise in human beings.

“The best way to put it is, see him as yourself and if you get fat you don’t like it and he won’t like it. Maybe he’ll go on a downer, I don’t know, but I’m trying to keep him fit and healthy and treat him like I am myself (…), I try and put myself in his shoes and if it’s something which clearly I don’t like, for instance trapped in four walls all day, that’s torture and I can’t see that being a nice thing.” —Adam

“Because they need to be fit, they can’t just be lumpy in fatness and they can’t laze around because it wouldn’t be good for them.” —Child

“Walking” was the primary form of exercise required but other activities were playing with a ball, running with a bike, agility or games.

Doing what’s “ best for the dog ” followed from having a strong relationship with the dog:

“If you’ve got a strong relationship with your dog you want to do what’s best for them.” —Mary

Walking, in particular off-leash, was a component of providing the dog with a “good life”, including in the contexts of the needs of a dog to be “free from cruelty and mistreatment”, and to “have fun”:

“He gets lots of exercise, a minimum of 2 hours a day. He gets nice food. Well, he’s never complained (laughter). Yeah he is treated well, he’s not mistreated, he’s NEVER been hit. (…) I think he has got a good life.” —Charles

The role of motivation for dog walking, as primarily described as a feature of “caring for the dog” in terms of providing exercise, socialisation and toilet breaks, identifies with previous research [ 23 ].

3.1.2. Normative Guidelines on Dog Walking

Daily exercise was identified as a suitable minimum general standard. However actual frequency and length of walks varied widely from three hours a day to never. Common beliefs emerged regarding the factors which influenced the amount of exercise each dog required. Old, ill or very young dogs required less. Variations in exercise requirement reflected the size and the breed of the dog; size variation explained through physical mechanics but could be overridden by beliefs about the nature of a breed:

“Well, the size of a dog, take your (BLINDED) (Pug X). The amount of steps that she’s got to take per metre have got to be far greater than what Ralph (Alaskan Malamute) does. So I wouldn’t expect her to need as much exercise as him”. —Charles

“I do accept different breeds need different things. I do know that because I know actually the really big breeds and even like the likes of Whippets don’t actually need that much, do they. Again, very small ones. I think your medium size and your working dogs are the worst for needing (…) it’s breed and temperament, isn’t it. I know I’ve got a dog that has high needs, I do know that and all the stuff on (breed) say that.” —Diane

3.1.3. Enculturation

Memories of dog ownership through childhood often formed the basis for explaining dog walking habits in adulthood. Equally, the participants in this study also recalled the reluctance of parents to get a dog being presented in terms of a dog’s requirement to be walked daily. Participants reported their dog walking activity as unremarkable in the context of friends and family members who also walked their dogs every day. Communities of dog walkers existed who discussed dog owning practices. Other information sources were their vet, dog trainer, breeder, groomer, rescue charity, pet shop, the internet, dog magazines and television. While a daily walk was generally considered a minimum requirement, there were occasions on which the dog owner justified not walking the dog:

“I felt guilty about not taking them for a walk, but then I’d kind of look at them and go, “They don’t seem bothered by it. They’re chilling out, they’re not barking, they’re not bugging us for attention, they’re not chewing.” —Nadine

In the absence of adverse consequences and behavioural issues resulting from personal experiences of not walking the dog it was retrospectively identified as acceptable.

3.1.4. Dog Behaviour as a Motivator

The owner’s interpretation of the behaviour of the dog was paramount in justifying going for a walk, or not going for a walk. “Subjective assessments of the dog’s ability to enjoy or cope” [ 23 ] has previously been highlighted as a justification for reducing the dog’s (and in turn the owner’s) physical activity, and we explore in more detail here the connections to perceptions of old age, ill health, and fear and nervousness. Owners interpreted their animal’s behaviour in relation to exercise and reflected perceived importance of the walk to the dog:

“Her tail’s up. Her ears are up. She looks like she’s having a great time. It makes you think that.” —Emily

“I would say if you want to do the right thing for your dog, make your dog happy, then take it for a walk, make it all nice and happy.” —Child

In contrast, other dogs were described as “lazy”. For many there was a perception that the dog did not like going out in bad weather:

“He lets me know. If it’s raining, we’ll walk half way down the main path there like that and he’ll just stop and look at me to say, “…this is stupid this. Let’s get back in the car and go.” (Laughter), but he’ll just turn round and he’ll just trot up to the car.” —Harold

Dog behaviour could also demotivate walking if it was perceived that it was not “best for the dog”, for example, in the case of fearful or nervous dogs:

“He was the main reason why we started to realise that dogs don’t always need to be walked every day. For him, it was too stressful, to go on a walk every day” —Nadine

Observation of changes in dog behaviour were instrumental in adjusting the length and frequency of dog walks. Older, visibly stiffer dogs were reported to require less exercise whilst “active” or “working” dogs that behaviourally demanded exercise by getting excited and pestering required more. One respondent, reflecting on her dog walking, recognised that it was difficult to disentangle the dog’s desire to be walked from the way in which she might have shaped the dog’s behaviour.

“It is partly led by him, it really is. I know he is not a lap dog, he’s a working dog. He demands it and you would have seen he’s demanding me to walk in a way that I never saw (Name’s) dog do. But at the end of the day what came first? It’s one of those. Does he demand because he expects and he gets, or do I give him it and he gets it because he’s demanding it?” —Diane

Given the deeply intertwined relationship between human and animal it is not surprising that Diane reflects the difficulties of separating the owner’s needs from the dog’s needs.

3.2. Dog Outcomes

Perceived dog benefits from exercise included: increased fitness; preventing overweight; extended life; reduced veterinary fees; mental stimulation; reduced frustration, destruction and aggression; and opportunities for socialisation with other people and dogs.

3.3. Owner Needs—the Issue of Capacity

Intention and desire to walk their dog also had to fit with an owner’s other commitments and abilities.

3.3.1. Health

Periods of injury or long-term illness were frequently cited as the most legitimate reason why a participant would not walk with their dog. That is not to say the dog was not walked—responsibility in some cases was devolved to someone else. Individuals varied in the extent to which similar injury or illness limited their ability to walk their dog and were also affected by the availability and suitability of substitute dog walkers and relative accessibility of dog walking locations.

3.3.2. Time

Time, or lack of it, was the most commonly reported constraint on dog walking. Managing young children and their routines, or other commitments of older children such as school and clubs, had to also be considered when negotiating time for dog walking. However, not all participants were convinced that lack of time was a valid reason for not walking a dog:

“Erm.....health, is the only excuse that I can give for people not walking their dogs. I think everything else is an excuse. Beyond that. People that say that they don’t have time to walk a dog, shouldn’t have a dog. Personal opinion. (…) My dog doesn’t need it. My dog doesn’t like going out in the wet. My dog’s lazy. No it’s not, you are.” —Alice

3.3.3. Routines and Co-Discipline

Some participants reported that dogs gave them the self-discipline to get up early, go out in the dark or the bad weather, and not be easily put off from walking. However, others such as Nina were unaffected and described herself as “lazy” and “selfish”. Some owners had strict routines and rituals, walking in the exact same time and place every day, taking the same route, with the same people. Others were more flexible but still structured around regular events, such as before or after work or school. Dogs were described as “knowing the time” and becoming excited in anticipation of going for a walk, thus perhaps self-discipline here is better described as co-discipline . Habit formation has been shown to be useful in promoting physical activity [ 31 ] and may have an important role in dog walking [ 32 ], as we confirm here.

3.4. Owner Outcomes

3.4.1. owner happiness.

Our data confirms the value of the effects of dog walking on owner psychological rather than physical health [ 33 ]. Dog walking was often described by our participants as relaxing and stress-relieving. These terms were used to describe both how they felt while they were out walking their dog as well as the motivation for walking:

“With my job being quite stressful at times it is relaxing. It might not seem it when I am getting them in and out the van but when I’m actually out there and I am by myself with just the dogs it is my chill time. I’ve got to do it every day for my sanity let alone theirs” —Samantha

Although walking in general is known to be stress-relieving, it was clear that walking for most dog owners was enhanced by the specific presence of dogs and desire for the “fun” they bring [ 34 ]:

“It just feels special when they’re there with you. It makes a good walk an excellent walk. It’s that little bit more when you’ve got an animal by the side of you.” —Mary

“It’s not just about the physical activity they give you, it’s the mental benefits. My friend who doesn’t have her own dog comes walking with us and says that it’s impossible to leave depressed after watching the dogs running around enjoying themselves.” —Excerpt from conversation recorded in ethnographic diary.

The positive emotions experienced by dog owners on a walk were rooted in the emotions that the dog was perceived to exhibit:

“I thoroughly enjoy it because I think he enjoys it and I love the thought of him being happy, so to know that he is out somewhere new and he is enjoying himself and that he’s allowed to sniff and he is bouncing around and you can tell that he is excited, I love that.” —Nina

This description of “vicarious pleasure” demonstrates how dog walking can produce a shared “happiness”; the owner deriving their pleasure from the pleasure they interpret from the animal’s behaviour. Our findings explain why intrinsic motivation for dog walking is connected to the dog [ 33 ]. There were a small number of situations where walking with their dog was not pleasurable, for example where dogs were felt to be challenging on a walk either due to health or behavioural reasons. These walks often presented difficulties for the owners, but most importantly, the perception that the dog was not finding the walk pleasurable contributed to a negative owner experience.

3.4.2. Owner Exercise

In contrast to dog exercise, owner exercise was reported to be a secondary bonus and not a primary motivator [ 33 ]:

“Mitch: Just to make sure that he’s healthy, his mind is... That he is doing dog things, I suppose, when he’s getting out. That’s about it. It’s nice for us to get out and exercise as well. Interviewer: Yes. Was that part of the consideration when you got Ozzie? Mitch: It wasn’t actually, no, but it’s just a benefit of having a dog, I suppose.”

A few owners suggested that they got a dog in order to increase their exercise. Dog walking was described as particularly valuable as a means of exercise because it “ doesn’t feel like exercise ”, as reported elsewhere [ 35 ]. Dogs also lent “legitimacy” to be out walking in green spaces; people walking alone without dogs were viewed as “odd”. Most owners felt that dog walking helped to keep them physically active and healthy, with some reporting increased physical activity, weight loss and improved management of health conditions since owning a dog. For some, dog walking was their only physical activity, whereas for others it was additional. However, dog walking had opportunity costs and was sometimes undertaken at the expense of other high intensity exercise, like going for a run or to the gym, because the dog was the priority.

3.4.3. Connectedness

Dog walking brought participants into connection with nature and their surroundings, other people, and also their own dog. Walking with a dog encouraged social contact with people, and dogs were recognised as a key “ice breaker”. Conversations were usually fleeting without revealing personal information [ 30 , 34 , 36 ], but occasionally acquaintances developed into firm friendships. However, the significance of these brief interactions, and the power of the dog as integral to the relationship, are not to be underestimated, for example, a participant who regularly met the primary author on dog walks was visibly upset by the death of the author’s dog, both at the time and again in later interviews.

Although enhanced social contact was reported as an outcome of dog walking, it was only perceived as a need in specific circumstances, for example an elderly gentleman living alone. Some owners were more interested in the solitary experience of being with their dog, and saw the interactions with other people and dogs as unwanted:

“We don’t get much time for us; it’s quite nice me time so, even though I’m out with the dog and we’re doing whatever, it’s nice to be alone with your thoughts, just to sort of relax and think more than anything else. So when someone else’s dog comes up and bursts your bubble, (Laughter) it literally goes pop and the whole world comes down; it’s like, “Oh for God’s sake.” —Jake

The human social interaction that is promoted through walking with a dog is well-documented [ 7 , 8 , 9 ], but it was previously not known if this is motivating [ 5 ]. This study clarifies that, social interaction with people is not a prime motivator except in specific circumstances. In fact, the interruption caused by social interaction may diminish the value of dog walking as a stress-relieving activity. Dog-owners also reported that the act of walking strengthened their relationship and connectedness with their dog, in turn motivating more walking. One participant described the relationship with his dog through walking as “ symbiotic ”:

“…one thing lives off another and it gets better” —Barry

However, others suggested that walking did not always have to be integral to their relationship with the dog:

“I feel like I can compensate and if you like I still maintain that relationship with him. I don’t feel like he loves me for the fact that I take him for a walk, although seeing him with mum I know that it’s a big influence and factor that he does. I think he just adores her and I love that, I love it, but my relationship with him I don’t think is based on walks (…) I think for me I just smother him in love physically and emotionally and that’s how we maintain our relationship.” —Nina

Our participants talked at length about their interactions with their dogs including; cuddles on the sofa, watching them “do funny things”, or feeling rewarded from seeing improvements in behaviour of a dog that they had “rescued” and rehabilitated. Like previous research, walking was identified as just one component of the emotional benefits of a human-animal relationship [ 37 ].

3.5. Negotiating Needs

Owner and dog needs arose in discourse as separate and distinct from each other, but in their presentation they appeared to match. When examining participant accounts it became clear that this congruence was often constructed. The nature of the exercise provided to the dog varied according to the needs and capacity of the owner but was presented in a way that justified the amount, when or where they walked their dog, in terms of the needs of the dog. For example, an illustration from the ethnographic diary demonstrates how owners use a human-dog need negotiation process in order to reach a point of constructed compromise:

“I was working from home and the day flew by, and it was early afternoon and I still hadn’t had time to take the dogs out. I found myself thinking about someone I had recently interviewed and how they justified giving the dogs a bit of play time instead of a walk, if they don’t have time to take them out. So I took (BLINDED) out in the garden and played fetch for a few minutes. (BLINDED) looked tired out so I let her sleep. I thought “she’s getting old now and will be ok without a walk today, I will give her a rest”. (…) As I was throwing the ball again for (BLINDED) in the garden I suddenly thought WHAT AM I DOING! It was like a wake-up moment....I really shouldn’t not walk them. This project makes me feel hugely guilty when I notice myself constructing justifications as to why I don’t need to walk them, because it fits with my own needs that day. So I put their leads on and took them out. Sod work. Although we only went around the block. Better than nothing but I was really running late!” —Ethnographic diary

In summary, the principle of exercising the dog daily provided an overarching framework within which owners adjusted the practice of the dog walk according to a host of human, dog and environmental variables. Understanding the complexity of whether, when, and for how long an owner exercises with their dog has important implications for any strategy which seeks to promote dog walking as a public health intervention. Our findings also contribute to understanding how perceived responsibilities towards “significant others” can influence human physical activity behaviour.

4. Discussion

This paper has provided a detailed understanding of why dog ownership can be such a strong motivator for sustained physical activity. The primary reported motivation for dog walking was the perception of the dog’s need for exercise. In contrast, however, the primary valued outcome was that of increasing owner’s mental wellbeing through providing a pleasurable and stress-relieving experience. Human physical activity, although beneficial, was a secondary outcome. Perceived responsibility to walk a dog depended primarily on the perceived needs of the individual dog at that time (what was “best for the dog”), but also the perceived needs of the owner and the owner’s ability to meet the dog’s needs within the compromise. Personal views of what a dog owner is expected to do with regards to walking their dog provide a framework in which decisions are made and which vary depending on the owner’s social circles and historical and personal contexts.

Social support from an important “other” can have positive effects on motivation for physical activity, for example family and friends [ 38 , 39 , 40 ]. This study elucidates how this can also happen with a pet dog, and why they are particularly motivating. The dog-owner relationship underpins our findings and elucidates why constructs relating to this have previously been found to be strongly associated with dog walking [ 16 ]. Similar to findings by Sanders, pet dogs were viewed as conscious beings and able to communicate intentions and emotions; owners routinely used their day-to-day experiences with their pet dogs in order to understand them as socially defined “persons” [ 41 ]. Our participants agree with the argument that animals can experience happiness [ 42 ] and that we, as humans in close relationships with companion animals, are able to perform an interpretation of animal behaviour in a similar manner to that we would do with other humans [ 43 ]. We find that motivation for dog walking is provided through the significant other who is not only sharing the pleasurable experience, but is fundamental to producing it. The dog in dog walking is central to making us happy; the benefits of dog walking are not just from being in nature or being a conduit to exercise.

Drawing on theoretical and practical evidence regarding other human relationships may be helpful in exploring how owners described a sense of responsibility towards their dogs. Rather than there being hard and fast rules about how we “ought” to behave in regard to obligations towards our kin, we use normative guidelines to engage in a process of actively working out what to do in that particular context [ 44 ]. Likewise, here we have discovered a number of considerations to be made when an owner negotiates their responsibility to walk their dog, but no clear rules as to what they must eventually do. These socially constructed guidelines appear to be well recognised (and also echoed in other studies e.g., [ 45 ]), however, each owner may come to a different conclusion as to what the final action should be, and this will vary across contexts and dogs. Thus, in practice, the frequency and intensity with which people exercise their dogs varies widely.

Interestingly we did not note gender differences as observed with obligations regarding human kin relationships [ 46 ]. This requires further exploration, however, we may tentatively hypothesise that gender differences in how care is given may be attenuated in this context, as dogs may be seen as a legitimate vehicles for males to show affectionate care-giving behaviour; it is still “manly” to walk and show affection to one’s dog. This is supported by a study that showed no differences in attachment, play behaviours or physical comfort given to dogs by male or female owners [ 47 ].

To most participants, walks were a general principle to be followed, however others used other forms of dog “exercise” legitimately. This has implications for motivating owner physical activity: (i) some will not be motivated by efforts to make them walk if they can justify other forms of exercise for the dog; and (ii) the human “exercise” motivated could be not just walks, but games for the human to play with their dog. This has been a missed opportunity so far in intervention strategies (although was promoted with children in [ 48 ]). Participants also suggested more education around dog needs was required if dog walking was to be promoted, however, nobody reported perceiving that dogs did not need walking; increased knowledge does not make people’s behaviour change [ 49 ].

Sharing key rituals with animals is interesting given the view of shared rituals as a source of social cohesion [ 41 ]. Strengthening of the dog-human bond through routines may explain why a dog is considered such a unique source of social support for walking. The role for routines and habit development in interventions to promote dog walking requires testing [ 5 ], in particular as our findings show how dog behaviour through “pestering” and excitement can be integral to motivation. Even if we accept that some dogs have personalities and energy levels more conducive to this effect (perhaps to be carefully targeted upon dog acquisition), there is also scope for modification of individual behaviour through simple training techniques using positive reinforcement.

This study also supports the notion that intrinsic motivation is paramount in dog walking [ 14 ]. Interventions could target the perception of dog happiness and wellbeing through dog walking, and thus owner happiness. In particular, these need to be directed towards older, smaller, or perceived “lazier” breeds of dogs, for which explicit motivation through the dog’s direct behaviour is likely to be minimal, and socially constructed barriers around perception of their need for walks require addressing.

Our study may explain why pilot dog walking interventions have not been particularly successful, for example using canine health messaging [ 26 ] or social networking [ 50 ]. Regarding the latter, social interaction is not an important motivator for dog walking. Owners are constantly negotiating and renegotiating their responsibilities towards walking their dogs based on complex constructed needs of both themselves and another (their dog) at that point in time, and interventions may not translate into behaviour change as readily as one might hope. Owners are torn between responsibilities not only to their dog but to their other family members, friends and work, among others. Despite a logical health benefit for both themselves and their dog, it may not make sense within their own lives to adopt a new strategy. Any proposed interventions to increase dog walking must be sympathetic to this and take a holistic approach, so that if one reason for not walking with the dog is addressed, it is not simply replaced with another. For this reason, multi-level interventions addressing a variety of factors conducive to dog walking are likely to be the most successful [ 5 ]. As suggested above, these could include: routine and habit development, including training dog behaviours which support this; promotion of mental health benefits and “shared happiness” for both owners and dogs; expanding other ways to “enjoy exercise” together, such as training tricks and playing games; addressing perceptions about exercise needs of smaller “less active” breeds; and overcoming perceived human health barriers both at an individual level and through the provision of improved local environments in terms of physical accessibility for dog walking.

This study has a number of strengths compared to previous research, which often used focus groups [ 45 , 51 , 52 ], small sample sizes [ 23 , 33 , 37 , 52 ], convenience samples [ 30 , 33 ], predominantly female subjects [ 30 , 33 , 37 , 45 , 51 , 52 , 53 ], only one individual from each study household [ 23 , 33 , 37 , 45 , 51 ], and only people who already walked their dog regularly [ 30 , 33 , 36 , 51 , 52 , 54 , 55 ]. Data was also obtained during a dog walk with the participants, as opposed to just talking about these walks [ 33 ]. Thus, we feel that it is the most in-depth study of dog owner’s beliefs and perceptions relating to dog walking to date, and this is reflected in the complexity and novelty of our findings. In line with best practice in qualitative research, the robustness of the study findings were maximised by the critical reflexive approach used, collaborative discussions, a rigorous process of coding and collecting the data in line with the constant comparative method, and triangulation of sources (interview, observation and autoethnographical diaries). Further, the use of purposeful sampling techniques and the reaching of data saturation lend further credibility to our findings.

The study has a small number of limitations. As with all studies, the sample comprised people who were willing to participate and in this case involved people who were willing to talk about their dog walking activities. Although some of the participants reported rarely walking them, it is possible that a larger sample would reveal an even greater variation in dog walking than that elicited in this study. However, even participants who walked their dog regularly could describe instances where they chose not to. Notwithstanding the small sample size, participants in this study identified complex and hugely varying patterns in their attitudes to and practice of dog walking. Data collection was carried out primarily in the North-West UK with mainly white ethnicities. It would be valuable to conduct studies with greater ethnic and cultural diversity in different geographical contexts. However, the agreement with research from other countries leads us to believe that it is a representation of at least the lives of some typical pet dog owners. In addition, future studies might also explore the role of exercise in dogs kept for a more utilitarian purpose such as dog racing, shepherding, guarding, and so on. The cultural and domestic context within which this study took place may also limit the transferability of these findings to dog owners in other countries, in particular, in countries where pet owners have access to large back yards such as in parts of the US and Australia.

5. Conclusions

In conclusion, social relationships, even with non-human others, can impact physical activity behaviour, through engendering a sense of responsibility to another and shared pleasure. Dog walking is used to meet the emotional needs of the owner as well as the physical needs of the dog. Possible key points for future intervention to increase dog walking are to promote how it may increase the dog’s, and thus the owner’s, happiness, or targeted habit formation. However, behaviour change is unlikely without addressing the needs and perceptions of the owner about both themselves and the dogs, on an individual and ongoing basis.

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by a Medical Research Council Population Health Scientist Fellowship (Grant ref: G1002402) held by Carri Westgarth. The study sponsors had no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication.

Interview Schedule

Introductory question:

Tell me about your dog(s)....

• Where did you get it?
• Why did you get it?
• Personality—what are your dog’s favourite things?
• What do you feed your dog?—main diet, treats

Key topics to cover:

• ○ What do you like about owning a dog?
• ○ Does owning a dog ever cause problems or difficulties?
• ○ What are the most/least enjoyable parts of owning a dog?
• ○ How would you describe your relationship with your dog?
• ○ Does your dog live outside or inside?
• ○ Who owns the dog?
• ○ Who is responsible for dog duties such as feeding, grooming, exercise?
• ○ Would you consider your dog to be part of the family?
• ▪ Who does it?
• ▪ When, how often?
• ▪ Where?
• ▪ What happens?—activity types
• ▪ Do you walk your dog on or off lead?
• ▪ How does your dog typically behave?
• ▪ How do you feel when you are walking your dog?
• ▪ What do you think about whilst walking your dog?
• ▪ How suitable are they for dog walking?
• ▪ Which walking areas do you use (distance over suitability?). What do you look for when choosing a place to walk your dog?
• ▪ In the past where you have lived how close were you to dog walking areas compared to now? Do you think this had an effect on your dog walking when you moved house?
• ▪ Can you tell me some more about the kinds of conversations you have with other people when you out walking with your dog? (Do they involve anything more than just a “Hi”?)
• ▪ Do you ever meet up with other people to go for a walk?
• ○ What do you look forward to about walking your dog?
• ○ What things don’t you look forward to about walking your dog?
• ○ Do you ever have any problems or issues when out for a walk with your dog(s)?
• ○ Can you describe any solutions to these problems that you use? Management strategies?
• ○ What sorts of things stop you from going for a walk with your dog/s?
• ○ Tell me about a time you were unable to take your dog for a walk—what happened, why did it happen?
• ○ Do you do other physical activities? How do you decide whether to walk the dogs or do other activities?
• ○ Can you describe things that you feel are motivators to walking your dog?
• ○ Can you describe any barriers to walking with your dog?
• ○ Is it much different going for a walk with a dog compared to a friend?
• ○ What sorts of benefits, if any, do you see to walking WITH your dog? As opposed to walking on your own.
• ○ You have explained a lot about your relationship with your dog, and about walking your dog—could you reflect on whether you think these two things are linked?
• ○ What do you think might prevent or make it difficult for other dog owners to walk their dogs.
• ○ If you had a friend and you wanted to encourage them to start walking their dogs, or walking with you and your dog, what would you tell them?
• ▪ Where do you think this opinion comes from? Why do you believe that?
• ○ Breed of dog—how much exercise does this breed need? Does that influence how you walk your dog?
• ○ Are you think kind of person who finds it difficult or easy to get things done? How disciplined are you?
• ○ Who would you seek advice from about dogs? Whose opinion do you value when it comes to dogs?
• ○ Do any of your friends have dogs? Family?

In Summary: What would you recommend the NHS (National Health Service) as an organisation, to do if it wanted to encourage dog owners to do more walking with their dogs?

Summarise by coming up with a list of ways to encourage people to walk more WITH their dogs (Scribe onto paper). Sum up and review the attitudes and feelings shared. Validate perceptions and attitudes that have emerged.

Author Contributions

Carri Westgarth conceived the study, designed the data collection, collected the data, analysed the data and drafted the manuscript. Elizabeth Perkins contributed to study design, data analysis, and revised the manuscript. Robert M. Christley contributed to study design and analysis, collected the data and revised the manuscript. Garry Marvin advised on data collection, data analysis, and commented on the manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

11 Short Essays About Walking My Dog During COVID-19

:: FALL 2020 TRAVEL WRITING PRIZE WINNER ::

Fat bunnies, spike proteins, welted voices, persistent scheffleras, breakfast cupcakes, filthy inertia, perpetual fear, throwaway friendliness, phobic dogs, Division Street & an abundance of caution.

T oday I woke up at 12:46 p.m. My head was clogged and my throat was raw. My throat was raw, so I took my temperature—97.0°F—and toddled into the living room. I toddled into the living room and collapsed on my roommate’s couch and pulled some more stuffing out of the gingham comforter from my childhood, a time when my bed had a headboard and it was brass and my walls were plastered with illustrations of fat bunnies prancing around a field of sunflowers, a time when I believed the whole world was big and bright and full of promise and all I’d have to do is say yes.

The dim sunlight is struggling against the dirty blinds. I should write something brilliant about that, or at least I should clean the windows. I should clean the stove, the toilet, my face, anything. I should give the dog a bath, I should respond to text messages, I should read a book for class. I should take the trash out; it’s starting to smell. “Kill the oceans, you will choke to death,” says Margaret Atwood on a Hulu documentary that is apparently playing on my TV. My roommate has been using our bathtub to wash her paintbrushes with their oils—a hazardous material, Google tells me, and Google probably knows. The tub hasn’t drained for weeks, but the landlord won’t return my calls, so we take showers ankle-deep in our own runoff.

I’m afraid she’s going to dissolve and scatter into the wind, but she does not seem to notice her old body and she does not address me at all.

It’s getting harder to take a shower. It’s getting harder to move a toothbrush around in my mouth, place a cup of day-old coffee in the microwave, push the correct combination of buttons. The seconds tick by and become hours, and the hours might as well be years. Soon we will be out of tissues, and then we will be out of toilet paper. They won’t let you bring your reusable bags into the grocery stores anymore, “out of an abundance of caution,” the signs explain. Yesterday I went to three different places in search of couscous. There were no greens except loose spinach, caked in dirt, and there was a lone bag of smushed-up hotdog buns in the bread aisle. “LIMIT 1,” warned some urgent handwriting in ballpoint pen on loose-leaf paper, highlighted sloppily with a mostly dried-up highlighter, attached with Scotch tape to the empty shelves.

In the kitchen, I hold an apple under the tap, then place it on the butcher’s block. It rolls off the butcher’s block and lands on the dirty floor, then rolls under the fridge like it’s trying to get back inside of it. I’m furious when I retrieve it and rub it against the sweatpants I’ve been wearing for a week. I know I should wash it again, I know washing it again would take a maximum of seven seconds, but it seems deeply unjust that I should have to. I skip the wash and toss it into the trash. I can’t remember the last time I ate, but I know I’d be able to taste the bruise even before it began to form. I know it’d be grainy, mealy, like sweet oatmeal with skin.

I feel furious often lately, but I feel scared all the time. I feel scared all the time—of what, I couldn’t say. I wake up and it’s there. I go to sleep and it’s there. It’s huddled in the corner, watching me like a creature, and ignoring something doesn’t make it go away.

The governor has extended the stay-at-home order through April 30. The only time I leave the apartment is to buy groceries or walk my dog. I take him around the block and nothing stirs but my boots in the mud, squelch, squelch, and some children digging up their yard with plastic shovels. The trash still lines the sidewalks. The iron gates still clang open and shut in the wind. The sky is a thunderstorm waiting to happen, but there is a zero percent chance of rain.

M      y dog has an appointment with the local vet to get his yearly shots. My dog is afraid of shots because my dog is afraid of everything: the classics, like thunderstorms and fireworks and big garbage trucks and the high-pitched squeal of a bus braking and definitely the vet in general, the way it smells of rubbing alcohol and fear, but also pleasant or neutral phenomena like hands clapping or a plastic bag floating in the wind and, now, jangling keys, because once I accidentally dropped mine on him.

The local vet is located over half a mile away, down Division, which is full of big garbage trucks and buses that brake in a high-pitched squeal and plastic bags floating around aggressively like pigeons. The local vet is located over half a mile away and I don’t have a car and my dog stalls when he gets scared, just plants his feet and refuses to budge and there’s nothing I can do about it; he won’t even be bribed with treats unless he’s situated somewhere cozy and evidence-based safe, such as nestled between the pillows on my bed. He won’t be bribed with treats, so there’s nothing I can do when he plants his feet and refuses to budge except pick him up and carry him until my spaghetti arms start to scream.

The tub hasn’t drained for weeks, but the landlord won’t return my calls, so we take showers ankle-deep in our own runoff.

My spaghetti arms start to scream in front of the Wendy’s, so I put him down. I put him down in front of the Wendy’s and he starts to spin. He starts to spin and I grope in my pockets for a poop bag and my pockets are empty. “Fuck,” I mutter. There are people passing by on the sidewalk on their way to the L, shaking their heads at me, and there are people passing by in their cars on their way to work, honking, and there are people inside the Wendy’s, chewing slowly, watching me remove my backpack and make a big show of digging through it, even though I know it will be as devoid of poop bags as my pockets. I put my backpack back on and concentrate very hard on the ground, telling it, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” with my eyes, while my dog watches me miserably, while the people keep staring, honking, shaking their heads.

It’s Friday, March 13. In a few hours, I’ll receive an email from my school announcing that classes are suspended until April. My roommate and I will rent Contagion on Hulu, laughing it off. By Monday, the vet will be closed, and the Wendy’s too, and Division will be eerily silent, and it will stay that way while my roommate retreats into her bedroom and pretty much stays there and the weekdays leak into weekends and the months lose their outlines, hovering somewhere between grey and gone.

I walk away from the little pile of shit, willing it to disappear, but there is only so much we can do. Sometimes it’s laughably little. Sometimes it’s nothing. My dog stalls again at the corner and I give him a hard look that fails to register. The look says, “Why?” The look says, “Please, please.” My dog blinks and shakes, not moving. The buses shriek and sigh and moan as I carry him across the intersection.

T he old woman hobbles toward me on the sidewalk, cooing. She bends down to pet my dog, who jumps on her as if she’s a much sturdier thing—a trash bin full of trash, perhaps; the trunk of an ancient oak tree.

The old woman sways; she is not, in fact, a much sturdier thing. In fact, she is not even wearing a mask. I’m afraid she’s going to dissolve and scatter into the wind, but she does not seem to notice her old body and she does not address me at all. She speaks directly to my dog, whose stubby tail does not so much wag as vibrate. “He’s a pitter-patter man,” the old woman repeats, over and over, all her teeth showing from her precarious crouch, her mouth not so much smiling as moving around on her face. “Just a pitter-patter, pitter-patter, tiny little man!”

I can’t remember the last time I ate, but I know I’d be able to taste the bruise even before it began to form. I know it’d be grainy, mealy, like sweet oatmeal with skin.

We’ve collided, arbitrarily, at the end of a block. They are tearing up every street corner in my neighborhood. Where there used to be grass, sidewalk, curb, now just the dirt, so dark and wet it looks black. The quarantine has been extended through May 30. Today I spent sixty dollars on groceries, by which I mean: dog treats and champagne. When I got home, I tossed it all onto my unmade bed, then put my schefflera plant in a bigger pot. It has been dying for a year, shedding its leaves and stems, roots poking out of the soil like fingers that are up to no good. I can’t believe it’s still alive. “Plants are so resilient,” everyone always tells me, solemnly, as if this is a fact that stands for something greater than itself, and I bristle. Resilience seems like something that should be earned. Plants pretty much just sit there.

I tug my little man, who is not a man at all but a dog, away. We cross the street, neither of us looking back at the old woman to see if she made it back up from her crouch. My dog sniffs a pile of shit some other dog’s left behind. A car doesn’t stop at the stop sign, just rolls right through, lazy like a Friday afternoon.

W      hen we reach the bakery, I tie my dog to the fence. No dogs allowed inside, and only one person at a time. I watch him anxiously through the window, in case a bus passes by and he wriggles out of his harness, then runs away. I place my credit card on a table near the display case, then back up against the opposite wall while the cashier runs it through and starts to wrap up my cinnamon roll in a disposable cardboard box. I brought a plastic Tupperware of my own, but she shook her head when I held it up, said something about “an abundance of caution.”

“Breakfast cake, I like to call it,” she’s joking now, through her floral-print mask, about my order. “It’s essentially the same recipe. And then if you Google the recipe for scones and biscotti, it’s basically just cookies, with more flour to make it drier.”

I forget to laugh because I’m squinting at the cupcake menu, trying to imagine it being recited in the voice of someone who loves me—anyone will do. I used to write at the bakery a few times a week, but I haven’t been here in months. I haven’t been here in months and I haven’t been feeding myself properly and I haven’t been touched since February; I don’t even mean sexually, just basic human contact: a handshake, an arm around the shoulder, a hug.

By Monday, the vet will be closed, and the Wendy’s too, and Division will be eerily silent, and it will stay that way while my roommate retreats into her bedroom and pretty much stays there and the weekdays leak into weekends and the months lose their outlines, hovering somewhere between grey and gone.

Summer’s just begun. Now that the stay-at-home order has been lifted, small businesses like the bakery are starting to open up again. The cashier is actually the owner, I realize, remembering her face from the before time. It’s a peripheral face because she used to have employees, college kids with rumpled T-shirts and hangover eyes, who’d wrap up my six-dollar “breakfast cake” while she filled out paperwork and took wedding orders in the back. She’s had a lot of order cancellations lately, she’s chirping, but her iced cookies blew up on Instagram, round frosted faces wearing little white masks. She’s chirping so many words I suspect she’d be chirping them whether I was standing here or not, standing here still staring at the cupcake menu—red velvet, salted caramel, lemon strawberry. “Oh,” I say finally, nodding dumbly, feeling like an asshole.

The only “someone who loves me” who comes to mind is my dog last night after I gave him a Whimzee treat—the kind shaped like a crocodile. I imagine a cozy room somewhere, with a family inside, molding the crocodile shapes lovingly, a candle burning in the corner and chili cooking in a crockpot. But of course they must be cut out by machines.

A dry leaf scuttles across the concrete, making a violent scraping sound all out of proportion to its size and weight. There’s clover all around me and little dandelions, mostly brown and broken. There’s a pigeon poking around the garden, so fat I mistake it for a bunny. A plane passes overhead, so small and far away I mistake it for a bird. Some wildflowers wave in the corner of my eye and I mistake them for a person, coming to demand what I think I’m doing here; some tall grass brushes against my elbow and I mistake it for a spider or another wispy kind of thing, a thing with many legs and a body like eyelashes.

I can’t hear the cicadas. The sky in the west is a pale cotton-candy pink, and the sun is glowing salmon from behind a haze of clouds. It feels too cold for mosquitos, but they’re floating all around me lazily, as if they don’t even want to suck my blood. I wonder how many times per minute a moth flaps its wings. It looks exhausting, keeping yourself in the air like that. I wonder what it would be like to have a garden; it seems like one of those things I’d be uniquely good at fucking up. Cars are passing in a constant stream just beyond the trees. Someone is hammering something in the distance, sporadically and without much conviction. Summer’s almost over and the sun’s outline is getting clearer now, more orange, like the end of a lit cigarette. I thought my dog would want to explore the garden, but instead he lies down on the pavement and eyes me suspiciously. I thought it would be therapeutic to sit in nature, but instead I feel like the whole world’s rejecting me, conspiring to make me feel unwanted.

I squint as the old man gets smaller, then smaller, until eventually he could be anything: a dying tree, a stop sign, another person altogether.

“Alright, bro—later,” says a dude getting out of a car. An old woman walks by with a child attached to either arm, each child attached to a scooter, all of them wearing homemade masks. “Let me in,” I whisper to no one. Impossible to imagine when it’s not currently happening: a warm meal like a fireplace in your stomach, an arm around your shoulder, a hand clasped in your hand that isn’t your own.

A young woman leans against a brick wall somewhere on Division, pleading with her child. The girl is small and she sits on the ground, stockinged legs splayed out straight from either side of her quilted skirt, hair hanging limp over a silent scowl. She stares at the concrete, not crying, not screaming, hands dropped into her lap like empty gloves.

“Do you want me to pick you up, bud?” the young woman is asking, in a voice that is raised and red but also tender, like a welt. “Is that what you want? Do you want me to hold you?”

It’s dead middle of summer, but you wouldn’t guess it from the bite of the wind. The girl is, apparently, uncertain whether being held would change anything at all. Her guardian grows increasingly frantic, her voice teetering on the edge of a void I’d rather not know about—“Come on, bud, please? Please? I don’t know what you want from me, I don’t know”—as I hurry by with my dog, studying the cracks in the sidewalk as if I will be asked to describe them to a jury later: How wide? How deep? How straight, how dark, how packed with tar and dirt?

A pparently, it’s Tuesday. Apparently, it’s still May. I stand outside in the pouring rain for forty-five minutes, holding my umbrella over my dog, who stands there confused and shivering, refusing to pee. I know he has to pee because he hasn’t peed in fourteen hours, but he’s afraid of rain because he’s afraid of everything—the classics, like thunderstorms and fireworks and big garbage trucks and the high-pitched squeal of a bus braking, but also pleasant or neutral phenomena like children singing and a microwave beeping and water no matter where it’s coming from, a gentle sprinkler on a hot day or a few drops from my hands after I wash them in the sink or the sound of the shower on the other side of the curtain. We walk three blocks down and he still won’t pee, we walk all the way back to our corner and he still won’t pee, he raises his leg next to a juniper bush but then he gets distracted and puts it right back down again, and by this point we’re both soaked through and I’m screaming “GO PEE” and “YOU’RE SUCH A STUPID ASSHOLE” even though I know that actually I’m the asshole and he’s just too scared to notice his body, too scared to pay attention to the right thing. He’s too scared to pay attention and I know I’m gonna have to give him a bath regardless of whether he actually pees, so we just keep walking around, the soles of my boots sinking into the oversaturated ground, squelch, my dog wading through puddles up to his stomach because there’s one sewer on our entire block and all this water has nowhere to go, squelch, and if he doesn’t pee soon he will get another UTI, he will get another UTI and he will remember his body and his body will be suffering and the vet is still closed until further notice, “out of an abundance of caution,” the emails keep explaining.

I forget to laugh because I’m squinting at the cupcake menu, trying to imagine it being recited in the voice of someone who loves me—anyone will do.

It is easy to mistake vulnerability for doom. So much lies just beyond the reach of our control. “You just have to figure out whether he’s treat- or praise-motivated,” everyone tells me, earnestly, but later I will discover a different solution to this problem of getting my dog to pee when it’s raining: stand with him under the train tracks and crouch down when the train’s about to pass, shielding his view with my body and covering his ears with my palms, whispering “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, you’re so brave, you’re so resilient.” In this way we harness his fear: once the train is gone, he’s so terrified he pees immediately, he doesn’t even bother lifting his leg, just drops his hips into the grass and lets go.

T he old man informs my dog that the road sign he’s sniffing is broken and, therefore, not worthy of his time. “No need to investigate further,” he advises, cheerfully. My dog watches skeptically as the man shuffles away, chuckling to himself underneath his disposable mask, what’s left of his white hair glued like string down the back of his fleshy pink head.

The sign has fallen over and now lies upside-down in the grass so that I can’t see what it used to tell people to do. My dog lifts his leg and I yank on his leash. “Storm’s gonna pass us by,” the old man calls from somewhere down the sidewalk. I watch skeptically as the clouds loom low and fixed like a ceiling, and sweat trickles down my arm, then splashes onto my knee. The edges of the concrete are lined with sticky smears, the corpses of cicadas and whatever’s started feasting on them. Somewhere a child shrieks.

I thought it would be therapeutic to sit in nature, but instead I feel like the whole world’s rejecting me, conspiring to make me feel unwanted.

“For a minute there, I lost myself,” whines Thom Yorke through my headphones, which are held together with painter’s tape. It’s been nearly twenty-five years since Radiohead released OK Computer and a few months over thirty since I refused to be born, since they had to drag me out of my mother’s womb three weeks past my due date. I can never hear this song without picturing the music video: in it, Yorke is the same age I am now, Google says, but I can hardly believe it because he looks so much younger, so small and sickly inside that creepy red car with the red-leather interior, perched in the back seat like he’s haunting it. He’s staring into the camera as if he knows so much more than we do about buzzing like appliances and crashing parties and giving all you can; he’s peering out at us disappointed, us who are alive twenty-five years into his future, us who’ve sleepwalked ourselves into a reckoning with all the ways the world is insisting on falling apart, because by the time the car bursts into flames at 4:04, he’s somehow managed to get himself gone.

Summer’s officially over. My dog looks up at me, not moving. The child shrieks again, out of fear or glee or maybe both. I squint as the old man gets smaller, then smaller, until eventually he could be anything: a dying tree, a stop sign, another person altogether. But it turns out he was right; it does not, in fact, end up raining that night, at least not before I fall asleep. My dog paces around the apartment for an hour anyway, whining and shedding his fur in clumps, probably something about the barometric pressure. He’s panting so hard the stink of his breath fills the room—kibble with a trace of fish and bile, plus whatever everyday bacteria festers on the inside of a mouth that never gets cleaned. “It seems like dogs should have evolved to the point where they understand this incredibly common weather phenomenon isn’t going to kill them,” I say to no one, irritated and sick to my stomach, my dinner growing cold on the counter. But I also know: I have plenty of fears that don’t make any sense at all.

The next morning, there are puddles in the gutters. My dog’s little paws leave fresh tracks in the mud. The sky is clear but the air smells like my spider plant when I remember to water it—somehow dirty and clean at the same time. We’re rounding the corner as some workmen come to take the fallen sign away. They flip it over as they’re hauling it into the truck and I can finally make out what it wanted us to do: yield.

I have stopped wearing my glasses when I take my dog out. I should wear my glasses all the time—I can’t see anything without them—but everything seems more bearable, lately, when it’s a little blurry, when objects have fuzzy outlines that glow like halos and every sharp edge softens into the background. My little dog looks bigger; he takes up more space. I protect myself from details like the craters on the moon, wiry hairs struggling their way out of moles on necks, the calamity on a stranger’s face. I can forget a tree is made up of individual branches with individual leaves, a building made up of individual bricks, that cars are not just cars but also the people inside them.

It is 37 degrees and cloudy and it feels like 37, too, promises my Weather app. “No active alerts,” it declares, above the hourly forecast. “Inside Tornado: Watch Car Be Tossed Like Toy.” It’s been winter forever, longer than half a year. The early April sky’s a slab of concrete and all the trees are dead, so I look down instead, at the laces of my boots.

I imagine a cozy room somewhere, with a family inside, molding the crocodile shapes lovingly, a candle burning in the corner and chili cooking in a crockpot. But of course they must be cut out by machines.

I woke up a little earlier today: 11:57 a.m. My roommate was dragging a hamper of dirty clothes across the living room floor. The garbage truck was parked outside again, lights flashing, white-noise roar like a highway. Last night it snowed like December—thick, fat flakes that turned the trash cans white—and the stuffing kept escaping the gingham comforter I’ve had since my childhood, a time when my bed had a headboard and it was brass and my walls were plastered with illustrations of fat bunnies prancing around a field of sunflowers. I’m pretty sure this is the second time in a week I’ve evoked that exact image—the mark of a lazy writer. I’ve been trying to trick myself into coming up with something unexpectedly brilliant, some stunning insight or metaphor, but nothing comes. Mostly I’ve been working on a 1,000-piece puzzle about sailboats and filling my Instagram story with other people’s poems: “Numbed hunger is like hunger / but numbed.” “Saltwater is like / water but demands more thirst.” “Paint is like perfume but demands / more violence.”

A man rides by on his bike and honks some kind of goofy horn and I don’t look up from my boots. A child is speaking loudly in her yard, somewhere, but I can neither see her nor make out what she is saying. Every now and then my dog stops and looks up at me worshipfully, as if I’m the sun. When we get home, I will take my temperature—96.3°F—and my roommate will be taking out the trash and this will feel like a miracle. I’ll stare at my reflection in the kitchen windowpane while I cut up an apple, grinning and grateful, thinking, “Anything is possible!”

There is a certain linear lie behind phrases like “It gets better.” Surviving is less about the steady passage of time and more about what you notice. Dogs see with their noses, not their eyes. I don’t watch the car get tossed like a toy. I watch the laces of my boots and let my dog’s nose lead me home.

W      hen we reach the door of the local vet where I have brought my dog to get his yearly shots, he takes one whiff of the air inside and scuttles backwards so violently he escapes his coat and his harness. “Clooooo,” I call, almost singsong, as he trots away naked back in the direction from where we came. “Cloo, where ya goin’, bud?” I break into a jog at the same moment he turns around and looks back at me, stops and does a play bow, wagging his stubby tail tentatively like a slow-tempo metronome. I pick him up and carry him back, use the toe of my boot to nudge the coat and harness with us through the door of the vet’s. “I’ve got Cloo here for his shots?” I ask the receptionist, who nods a pitying nod.

In the tiny exam room, my dog paces around, shedding his fur in clumps and panting hard: kibble, fish, bile, fear. “Maybe time for a teeth cleaning,” the vet suggests when she walks in, wrinkling her nose. The tech tries to hold him and he growls, then screams like he’s not a dog at all but a baby dinosaur. They offer him a greasy line of Cheez-Whiz on a flat wooden tongue depressor and he jerks his head away as if it’s poison or, worse, celery. They take him to the back room so they can get more people involved and they’re back three minutes later. “He didn’t even notice,” the vet tells me, cheerfully. “Not one growl.” Fear, apparently, has everything to do with context—possibly, even, with love. I look down at my dog and he smiles with his eyes. I smile with my mouth. The receptionist smiles with her voice—“That’ll be $289”—and I laugh a laugh that is more like a bark.

Surviving is less about the steady passage of time and more about what you notice.

On the way home, Cloo shits in the middle of the sidewalk. Not even off to the side, just right in the middle. I stare up at the sky while he stares up at me, like, “Thoughts?” Google tells me dogs are not capable of spite, but how would Google know? I dump the heartworm meds and doggie Advil out of the paper bag from the vet and try to scoop the shit into it, but the shit just scoots along the sidewalk like it’s trying to get away from me. I use my right pointer finger as a barrier, flicking the shit onto the inner corner of the paper bag, where it leaves a jaundiced yellow stain after flopping, finally, onto the bottom.

I smear the shit that’s on my finger onto my jeans. I look around for a trash can and there isn’t one so I just hold the paper bag tightly in my hand. There is only so much we can do. Sometimes it’s laughably little, not even close to adequate. Sometimes it’s enough.

T he man passing us on the sidewalk is burly like a Harley guy. He’s wearing tinted sunglasses and a black mask over his ratty beard and he walks as if his muscles are in their own way. I don’t notice this in the moment of his passing; it’s only later, scanning my short-term memory trying to figure out what he said, that I’m able to conjure the image. I watched him coming toward us, but I was looking through him, not seeing. I was not seeing, so I was only vaguely aware that he opened his mouth and spoke to me; it sounded like background noise. It sounded like background noise because I was distracted, trying to think of something to say to my ex, trying to come up with some collection of words that would feel like a suture or at least a flat palm against their sternum, the way I used to respond when they were upset.

“______ is dying,” they texted me this morning. These types of texts are getting more and more frequent, from my exes, from all the people who used to love me, and still there is nothing to say. “I’m so sorry.” “Is there anything I can do?” “Whatta fucking year.” Summer’s just begun. My stomach growls like my dog when anyone other than me tries to hug him; I haven’t been feeding myself properly. Around the time we first got together, my ex had a bad day—not a 2020 bad day, just a run-of-the-mill variety—and I made them a playlist called “wallow,” full of every song that’d ever made me cry. I never stopped adding to it and there are nearly four hundred tracks on it now, five-plus years later. I don’t remember when exactly it became more mine than theirs, but I guess the lines of ownership start to blur under the weight of bottomless feelings, feelings that have no reliable structure: grief, dread, fear.

It is easy to mistake vulnerability for doom. So much lies just beyond the reach of our control.

Once the man has passed us, I rewind my memory and see it all clearly: his kind face, the nervous bulk of him turned sideways, the unsuccessful effort to take up less space. I see it all clearly and I hear the way he arranged his voice like a greeting when he hooted, “Jack Russell terrier! Yeeeeah!” He’s already halfway down the block, far out of reach of my delayed reaction, when I finally manage a chuckle and a weak “That’s right.” He’s far out of reach and I don’t look behind me and probably he doesn’t hear, but it feels necessary to acknowledge this throwaway friendliness, this proof that I exist.

Difficult, but not impossible, to remember: there are all kinds of ways to be held. My stomach roars again. I consider asking Google “What does it mean if I keep waking up hungry?” but the answer will almost definitely be insultingly obvious: you’re not eating enough. Tomorrow I will go to the bakery—it’s opened up again, the first time in months—and I will buy a cinnamon roll. I’ll bring it home and eat it slowly. I’ll lick the icing from my fingers.

Jax Connelly   (they/she), a non-binary writer whose creative nonfiction explores the intersections of queer identity, unstable bodies, and mental illness, was a finalist for Fourth Genre’s 2021 Steinberg Memorial Essay Prize and is the recipient of honors including a Notable in The Best American Essays 2019 , first place in the 2019 Prairie Schooner Creative Nonfiction Essay Contest and the 2018 Pinch Literary Award for Creative Nonfiction. Their work has also appeared or is forthcoming in [PANK], The Rumpus, Ruminate , Pleiades , Fugue and more.

Lead image: Michael Kucharski

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Weekly Accessible Learning Activities: Dog Walker, Inner Critic, Immigration History

Each week we spotlight five student activities created for a broad range of learners based on reporting in The New York Times.

By The Learning Network

Each Wednesday we shine a spotlight on five student activities that support a broad range of learners. In this week’s roundup of accessible activities, we invite students to learn about careers in their community, reflect on their relationship with their inner critic, watch a film about the history of immigration between Mexico and the United States, read a winning essay from our STEM Writing Contest and react to the racist massacre in Buffalo.

Note: To learn more about this new weekly feature, read our introductory post . Please share your thoughts in the comments section or by emailing us at [email protected].

1. Learn about life as a dog walker.

In this Lesson of the Day students will learn about the daily routine and responsibilities of a dog walker in Brooklyn, New York. They will reflect on their own experiences with work and then interview a community member about their job.

2. Share how they deal with their inner critic.

This Student Opinion prompt asks students to think about that little voice in their head that creates self-doubt or criticism. They will read an illustrated story about the inner critic and share if, and how, they relate to it. Students can discuss their answers in a class discussion, write a short essay or share their reflections in the comments section .

3. Watch a film about the history of immigration to the U.S. from Mexico.

In this Film Club students watch a film that traces the history of the U.S.-Mexico border from 1848 to today. Students will learn how the border between the two countries became so political and divisive and share what they can learn from this history.

4. Read an entry from our STEM Student Writing Contest.

Our 3rd Annual STEM Writing Contest features writing from students around the world who — in 500 words or less — explain an issue or question in science, technology, engineering, math or health. Invite students to read one of the winning essays and then react to it: What did they learn? What does the essay make them want to research or study?

5. React to the racist massacre in Buffalo, N.Y.

This Student Opinion offers a space for students to share their thoughts and feelings about what happened in Buffalo on May 14 when a white teenage gunman opened fire at a supermarket, methodically shooting and killing 10 people and injuring three more, almost all of them Black. Before responding, they should read — individually or as a class — the featured article that details what is known about the shooting.

Cardiff University student, 20, killed in Birmingham crash while walking dog

Lucy Atkins and family dog Simba died after a collision in Quinton on Monday. Her parents and brother said she "brought joy and fun".

Wales reporter @TomosGruffydd

Friday 28 June 2024 15:00, UK

A 20-year-old student has died in a crash in Birmingham while walking her dog.

Lucy Atkins died after being hit by a car on West Boulevard, Quinton, on Monday.

Simba, the family's Lakeland Terrier, was also killed in the collision.

Ms Atkins's parents and brother said she "brought joy and fun into the lives of all she met".

"She was a force of nature, who lived life to the full," they said.

She had just finished her first year at Cardiff University and was "looking forward to sharing a house with her friends for her second year", her family added.

'Her smile was constant'

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Dean and head of Cardiff Business School, Professor Rachel Ashworth said staff and students were "feeling devastated".

"Lucy was an energetic, engaged and talented student, who had such a passion for learning," added Professor Ashworth. "She was always surrounded by friends and her smile was constant.

"We are heartbroken but incredibly thankful that Lucy chose Cardiff and brought such positivity, kindness and light to our business school.

"Our thoughts are with Lucy's family, her classmates and her friends at this most challenging of times."

Family thanks

The family have thanked passers-by and the emergency services who helped Ms Atkins.

"We want to thank all those people who tried to save them, both passers-by and members of the emergency services, and all those who have left tributes at the scene and sent messages of condolence," her family added.

They have asked for privacy and time to grieve.

The collision happened just before 8.45am on 24 June.

Read more from Sky News: Major disruption at Gatwick Airport as runway closes Police call for volunteers to help search for Jay Slater

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Ms Atkins was on foot and sustained "serious injuries" in the incident and died a short time later, West Midlands Police said.

The force added that the driver remained at the scene and is helping with its inquiries.

Officers have asked anyone who was travelling in the area between Barnes Hill and Quinton Road West at the time of the incident, and has dash cam footage, to get in touch.

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Xi Jinping’s Russian Lessons

What the chinese leader’s father taught him about dealing with moscow, by joseph torigian.

On February 4, 2022, just before invading Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Beijing, where he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping signed a document that hailed a “no limits” partnership. In the two-plus years since, China has refused to condemn the invasion and helped Russia acquire materiel, from machine tools to engines to drones, crucial for the war effort. The flourishing partnership between Xi and Putin has raised serious questions in Western capitals. Is the alliance that linked Moscow and Beijing in the early Cold War back? The Russians and the Chinese have repeatedly dismissed such talk, but they have also asserted that their current partnership is more resilient than the days when they led the communist world together.

Xi would know. His father, Xi Zhongxun, was a high-level Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official whose own career was a microcosm of relations between Beijing and Moscow during the twentieth century, from the early days of the revolution in the 1920s and 1930s to the on-and-off help during the 1940s and the wholesale copying of the Soviet model in the 1950s, and from the open split of the 1960s and 1970s to the rapprochement in the late 1980s. The elder Xi’s dealings with Moscow showed the dangers of intimacy and enmity, how growing too close created unmanageable tensions that produced a costly feud. Understanding that history, the younger Xi by all appearances believes that the current relationship between Moscow and Beijing is indeed stronger than it was in the 1950s, and that he can avoid the strains that led to the earlier split.

During the Cold War , communist ideology ultimately pushed the two countries apart, while now they are united by a more general set of conservative, anti-Western, and statist attitudes. In the old days, poor relations between individual leaders damaged the relationship, while today, Xi and Putin have made their personal connection a feature of the strategic partnership. Then, the exigencies of the Cold War alliance, which required each side to sacrifice its own interests for the other’s, contained the seeds of its own demise, whereas the current axis of convenience allows more flexibility. China and Russia will never again march in lockstep as they did in the first years after the Chinese Revolution, but they won’t walk away from each other any time soon.

DANGEROUS LIAISONS

Xi Jinping was born in 1953, at the height of China’s feverish copying of the Soviet Union. The most popular slogan in China that year: “The Soviet Union of today is the China of tomorrow.” Xi Zhongxun had just moved to Beijing from China’s northwest, where he had spent most of the first four decades of his life fighting in a revolution inspired by the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Like so many of his generation, Xi was devoted to the cause despite numerous setbacks and personal sacrifices—a devotion that survived his persecution and incarceration by fellow members of the CCP in 1935 for not adhering closely enough to communist orthodoxy.

The Bolshevik victory influenced early Chinese radicals, and Moscow led and bankrolled the CCP in its early years. But the growing independence of the Chinese Communists went hand in hand with the rise of Mao Zedong —and tied Xi Zhongxun’s fate to Mao’s. In Mao’s narrative, Soviet-trained radicals had almost buried the revolution in China because they had failed to understand the country’s special conditions. These dogmatists, Mao claimed, had persecuted Xi in 1935 just as they had mistreated Mao himself earlier that decade, when Mao was sidelined by Soviet-aligned leaders in the CCP.

Xi and Putin have made their personal connection a feature of the strategic partnership.

Nonetheless, Mao was not advocating a break from Moscow. Xi Zhongxun met very few foreigners for most of his early life, but that changed in the late 1940s, as the Communists swept across China during the country’s civil war. He started having sustained interactions with Soviets as the head of the enormous Northwest Bureau, the party organization that oversaw the Xinjiang region. The Soviet Union helped the CCP project military power there, and in December 1949, after the Communists had won the war and consolidated control over mainland China, Xi successfully proposed to the party’s leaders that Xinjiang and the Soviet Union cooperate to develop resources in the province. A year later, Xi became head of the Northwest Chinese-Soviet Friendship Association.

Right around the time of Xi Jinping’s birth, the CCP undertook its first great purge—an incident closely linked to both the Soviet Union and the Xi family. Gao Gang, a high-level official who was seen as a potential successor to Mao, went too far in his criticisms of other leaders during private conversations. Mao turned on his protégé, and Gao eventually committed suicide. Gao had close ties to Moscow, and although they were not the reason for his purge at the time, Mao came to worry about such connections and concluded that they amounted to treachery. The danger of close relations with a foreign power, even an ally, could not have been lost on Xi Zhongxun, who had served alongside Gao in the northwest and had been persecuted along with him in 1935. Xi nearly fell along with him.

Although Xi Zhongxun’s career was hurt by Gao’s misfortune, he was later put in charge of managing the tens of thousands of Soviet experts sent to help China rebuild after years of war. That was no easy task. As Xi recounted in a 1956 speech, these experts had a hard time acclimating to China, and some of them had “died, been poisoned, been injured, gotten sick, and robbed”—even suicide was a problem. When Mao decided that same year that the Chinese political structure was too “Soviet” and concentrated too much authority in Beijing, Xi was also tasked by the leadership to devise a government-restructuring plan.

SPLITTING UP

In August and September 1959, Xi, then a powerful vice premier, led a delegation to the Soviet Union. The timing was inopportune. In June, the Soviets had reneged on a promise to support China’s nuclear weapons program. Xi was supposed to visit the Soviet Union earlier in the summer of that year, but a CCP plenum in Lushan—where Minister of Defense Peng Dehuai was purged—shattered those plans. Peng had written a letter to Mao criticizing the Great Leap Forward, and Mao not only interpreted Peng’s act as a personal affront but also suspected, incorrectly, that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had put him up to it. Peng and Xi were linked by career ties forged on the battlefield for northwest China. The CCP’s second great purge, just like the first, was both proximate to the Xi family and tied to Mao’s suspicions of Soviet intentions. And once again, Xi only narrowly survived.

Since 1956, Sino-Soviet tensions had been growing gradually behind the scenes, but they broke out publicly during Xi’s trip. On August 25, the same day the Soviet embassy in Beijing invited Xi on his visit, Chinese soldiers killed one Indian soldier and wounded another on the Chinese-Indian border. Although the Chinese concluded that the deaths were accidental, the Soviets were incensed, because they believed that the violence would push the Indians away from the communist bloc and frustrate Khrushchev’s attempts to achieve détente with the West during an upcoming trip to Washington.

Arriving in Moscow two days after the violence on the border, Xi did his best to affirm the alliance. In a private meeting with a Soviet vice premier, he tried to put a positive spin on Mao’s Great Leap Forward, then one year in. He visited the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy, a showcase for Soviet technological triumphs, and placed a wreath at the mausoleum of the Soviet Union’s first two leaders, Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. After spending a few days in Soviet Ukraine and Czechoslovakia, Xi returned to Moscow, where his delegation toured Lenin’s old office and apartment in the Grand Kremlin Palace. He apparently told his son about the moment: in 2010, when Xi Jinping visited Moscow as vice president, he asked Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to take him to the same room. According to a well-connected Russia expert, Xi lingered there, telling Medvedev that this was the cradle of Bolshevism. His father, Xi claimed, had said that Russia and China should always be friends.

Yet in 1959, Xi Zhongxun was in the middle of a crisis in the relationship. On September 9, back in Beijing, Soviet diplomats informed the Chinese about plans to publish a statement in TASS, the state-owned news agency, that took a neutral position on the Chinese-Indian border skirmish. The Chinese were furious and asked the Soviets to change or delay the bulletin. The Soviets not only refused their request but published the statement that evening. Xi left for Beijing the very next day—even though he was supposed to continue leading the delegation until September 18. When Mao and Khrushchev met the following month, Mao complained about the incident, saying, “The TASS announcement made all imperialists happy.”

The dispute was merely the first public crack in the alliance. In the summer of 1960, Khrushchev removed all Soviet experts from China, and Xi was placed in charge of managing their departure. The lesson his son drew from the episode was that the Chinese needed to rely on themselves. At a November 2022 meeting in Bali, according to a former senior U.S. diplomat, Xi Jinping told U.S. President Joe Biden that American technological restrictions would fail, pointing out that the Soviets’ cessation of technological cooperation had not prevented China from developing its own nuclear weapons.

HOT AND COLD

In 1962, Xi Zhongxun’s luck ran out, and he was expelled from power in the CCP’s third great purge. Just like Gao and Peng, he was accused of spying for the Soviet Union, although that was not the primary reason for his punishment. Mao had decided that China, like the Soviet Union before it, was losing its fixation on class struggle, and Xi was caught up in destruction that Mao wrought in reaction. In 1965, while Mao was planning a costly reorganization of Chinese society to fight a possible war against the Soviet Union or the United States, Xi was exiled from Beijing to a mining machinery factory hundreds of miles away in the city of Luoyang. Ironically, that factory had been completed with the help of Soviet experts and had even been described in a local newspaper as a “crystallization” of the “glorious Sino-Soviet friendship.”

All told, Xi Zhongxun spent 16 years in the political wilderness. He had to wait until 1978, two years after Mao’s death, to be rehabilitated. As party boss of the province of Guangdong, Xi warned Americans that they needed to be strong to ward off Soviet aggression. On a trip to the United States in 1980, he impressed his U.S. counterparts with his anti-Soviet views and even made a trip to the headquarters of the North American Air Defense Command, or NORAD, in Colorado, where he took copious notes. As the Politburo member charged with managing relations with foreign parties that were revolutionary, leftist, or communist in nature, Xi helped lead Beijing’s competition for influence with Moscow throughout the world. He also managed Tibetan affairs, and in the first half of the 1980s, he worried about Soviet influence over the Dalai Lama. But by 1986, as ties thawed, Xi was praising the reforms of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and expressing hope for improved relations.

What did Xi Jinping make of this history? In 2013, on his first overseas trip after becoming top leader, he went to Russia, where he spoke warmly to a group of Sinologists about his father’s 1959 visit. The pictures from that journey had been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, he said, but his mother kept the gifts from it. Xi explained that although many observers believed that his generation was oriented toward the West, he was raised reading two literatures, Chinese and Russian. After Xi was exiled to the countryside as a “sent-down youth” during the Cultural Revolution, he spent his days reading Russian revolutionary novels, with a favorite being What Is to Be Done? by Nikolay Chernyshevsky. Xi later claimed to like the character Rakhmetov, the revolutionary fanatic who slept on nails to forge his will. Claiming inspiration, Xi said he wandered through rainstorms and blizzards during his time in the countryside.

But in his 2013 talk with the Russian Sinologists, he did not mention the dismal state of Sino-Soviet relations at the time of his Russian reading. In 1969, the year he was sent to the countryside, China and the Soviet Union were fighting an undeclared border war, and there were even fears of a Soviet nuclear attack. Nor did he tell them about his first job after graduating university, working as a secretary to Geng Biao, secretary-general of the Central Military Commission. Geng viewed Moscow warily. In 1980, at a meeting in Beijing, U.S. Secretary of Defense Harold Brown told Geng that when it came to the two sides’ views on the Soviet Union, “it seems to me, our respective staffs must have written our talking papers together.”

THE IDEOLOGICAL IRRITANT

Given the state of relations among Russia , China, and the United States today, it is hard to imagine that Xi Jinping spent part of his teenage years digging an air-raid shelter in preparation for a possible Soviet attack—or for that matter, that his father had been invited to see NORAD. The fluidity of the Washington-Beijing-Moscow triangle over the last 75 years has led some to hope that Xi might somehow be convinced to rein in his support for Russia. But those wishing for a redux of the Sino-Soviet split are likely to be disappointed.

For one thing, the irritant of ideology is now mostly absent from the relationship. It is true that a common communist ideology served as an extraordinary glue for China and Russia in the years immediately after 1949. But as time went on, ideology actually made it harder for the two countries to manage their differences. Mao had a habit of interpreting tactical differences as deeper ideological disputes. The Soviets, Mao increasingly came to believe, did not support China’s combative position toward the West because they had gone “revisionist.” And among communists, charges of theoretical heresy were explosive. When Mao and Khrushchev fought over the TASS announcement in October 1959, it was Chinese Foreign Minister Chen Yi’s claim that the Soviets were “time-servers” that especially enraged Khrushchev, as it questioned his communist credentials by painting him as a traitor to the revolutionary enterprise. There is a lot of truth, then, to the historian Lorenz Luthi’s claim that “without the vital role of ideology, neither would the alliance have been established nor would it have collapsed.”

Chinese and Russian elites consider democracy promotion an existential threat.

Moreover, once ideological differences entered the equation, it became hard to talk about anything else, in part because debates over ideology could imply calls for regime change. In 1971, after a relatively productive conversation with two Soviet diplomats, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai exploded when one of them raised the issue of a People’s Daily article that they believed called for the Soviet people to start a revolution. Zhou noted that the Soviet Union was hosting Wang Ming, an early CCP leader who had clashed with Mao and been effectively exiled. “You think that we fear him,” Zhou said. “He is worse than shit!” When one Soviet diplomat asked a Chinese participant to stop yelling, saying “a shout is not an argument,” the Chinese diplomat fired back: “If not for shouting, you will not listen.”

Today’s Russia, however, is distant from the ideals of communism, to put it mildly. Although Putin once called the collapse of the Soviet Union a “geopolitical catastrophe,” he has often revealed rather negative views of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In his speech on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he blamed Lenin for creating modern Ukraine and spoke of Stalin’s “dictatorship” and “totalitarian regime.” Xi Jinping, on the other hand, continues to take communism’s legacy seriously. According to an Australian diplomat, Russian diplomats found it odd when, on one occasion, Xi quoted to them the Russian revolutionary novel How the Steel Was Tempered . Although not a dogmatist, Xi cares deeply about ideology and has even blamed the collapse of the Soviet Union in part on Moscow’s failure to ensure that people took Marxism-Leninism seriously.

Despite these important differences, Chinese and Russian elites do share a conservative, statist worldview. They both see attacks on their history as Western plots to delegitimize their regimes and consider democracy promotion an existential threat. They both appreciate traditional values as a bulwark against instability and think the West is tearing itself apart with cultural debates. They both have concluded that authoritarian regimes are better at dealing with modern challenges. They both want their countries to regain a lost status and lost territory. Putin and Xi even spin the same legitimation narrative, claiming their predecessors allowed an intolerable (and Western-influenced) degradation of authority that only their strongman rule could arrest.

Another factor binding Moscow and Beijing today are the warm relations between Putin and Xi. Chinese and Russian media tout a strong personal relationship between the two leaders, although it is hard to say how genuine the supposed friendship is. Putin was trained as a KGB agent, an experience that taught him how to manage people, and Xi would have learned similar tricks from his father, a master of the party’s “united front” efforts to win over skeptics. Putin and Xi are very different people. Putin once broke his arm fighting toughs on the Leningrad subway. Xi has consistently demonstrated extraordinary self-control, as evidenced by his ability to rise to power without anyone knowing what he really thought. Putin enjoys high living, while Xi’s personal style seems to border on ascetic. But at the very least, a functional relationship between Russian and Chinese leaders is something of a historical anomaly.

For Mao, Stalin’s ideological credentials and contributions to Soviet history made him a titan of the communist world. Yet Stalin’s cautious attitude toward the Chinese Revolution in the second half of the 1940s rankled him. So did Stalin’s high-handedness during the negotiations for the alliance treaty between the two countries in 1949 and 1950. After Stalin’s death, Mao felt his own stature far outweighed Khrushchev’s, and the chairman famously treated his Soviet counterpart with disdain.

Mao was impressed by the toughness his protégé Deng Xiaoping displayed during interminable debates over ideology in Moscow in the 1960s, when Deng was Beijing’s most prominent attack dog on the world stage. After Mao’s death, Deng noted that countries close to the Soviet Union had dysfunctional economies, while U.S. allies thrived. By the time Deng became China’s paramount leader, many of his associates hoped for a better relationship with Moscow, but Deng ignored those voices. He and Gorbachev met only once—during the Tiananmen Square protests—and Deng concluded that the Soviet leader was “an idiot.” After the Soviet Union collapsed and Boris Yeltsin became president of Russia, the Chinese were at first skeptical of him, given his role in helping bring about the demise of communism, but relations among top leaders gradually improved. Deng’s successor, Jiang Zemin, had studied in the Soviet Union and could sing old Sino-Soviet friendship songs.

Warm interpersonal relations are not the main reason Russia and China are so close today, but the past certainly shows how much individual leaders can matter when they have disdain for their counterparts and the countries they lead. And despite their differences, it is not hard to guess why Putin and Xi might get along on a personal level. They are almost the same age, and they are both sons of men who sacrificed for their countries. And perhaps most important, they both had formative experiences about the dangers of political instability. During the Cultural Revolution, Xi and his family were kidnapped and beaten by Mao’s Red Guards, and in 1989, Putin, then a KGB officer stationed in Dresden, watched as East Germany collapsed around him while he could not get guidance from Moscow. The two have much to talk about when they make blini and dumplings together for the television cameras.

Greater flexibility in the partnership between Beijing and Moscow today also makes it hardier than it was in the past. Since 1949, the central strategic challenge has been how the two powers, which together make up Eurasia’s authoritarian heartland, can cooperate effectively against the threat of the U.S.-led democratic periphery. Despite the extraordinary strength of Washington’s position in their neighborhoods, Beijing and Moscow have struggled to get this coordination right. Time and time again, they have proved unwilling to sacrifice their interests for each other, driven in part by a suspicion that the other is selling them out and seeking improved relations with the West.

Before the Sino-Soviet split, the alliance between Moscow and Beijing created real problems for the United States and real benefits for the two powers. A calm border between the two countries allowed them to focus on confronting the West and to share military technology. In 1958, when China attacked Taiwan in an attempt to take control of the island, Khrushchev came to Beijing’s aid by publicly warning that he would intervene to protect China if the United States entered the conflict—even though he resented that Beijing had failed to tell him about its plans ahead of time.

Yet the heartland’s relationship with the periphery has always been a mix of coexistence and competition, and Moscow and Beijing have rarely given equal weight to those dueling objectives. During the 1950s and 1960s, China was essentially shut out of the international system while the Soviet Union was largely a status quo power. Mao’s cavalier language threatening nuclear war, along with his use of force on the Chinese-Indian border and against the offshore islands in the Taiwan Strait, raised fears in the Kremlin that China would drag the Soviet Union into war. Moscow supported the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, declined to help China during various crises, and hoped for détente with the West—moves that led leaders in Beijing to conclude that Moscow cared more about the West than it did about the communist bloc.

Now, China and Russia have switched positions. Beijing hopes to benefit economically and technologically from continued ties with the United States and Europe, while Moscow sees itself in a purely competitive relationship. The Russians undoubtedly wish that Beijing would provide lethal aid in Ukraine and agree to the Power of Siberia 2, a proposed pipeline that would send natural gas to northeastern China. Unlike during the heyday of the Sino-Soviet alliance, however, Beijing is not technically beholden to sacrifice its economic or reputational interests for Moscow because the two are not formal allies. The Russians have less reason to feel betrayed—and the Chinese have less reason to fear entrapment.

HISTORY LESSONS

As the son of a man so involved in his country’s relationship with Moscow, Xi Jinping knows his history. The past has shown the dangers of both incautious embrace and full-blown enmity. Now, Xi wants to have his cake and eat it, too—move close enough to Russia to create problems for the West, but not so close that China has to decouple entirely. It is not an easy cake to bake, and it may become harder. Washington is trying to make it as difficult as possible by painting Russia and China with the same brush, portraying China (correctly) as facilitating Russia’s war in Ukraine. The conflict has created real economic and reputational costs for Beijing, even as it shies away from some of Moscow’s requests.

Problems exist in any relationship, especially between great powers. What is different from the Cold War is that thorny ideological and personal issues no longer make such challenges so hard to manage. Absent high-impact but low-probability events—such as the use of a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, the collapse of the Russian state, or a war over Taiwan—China will probably maneuver within the broad parameters it has already set out for the relationship. Sometimes Beijing will suggest a close relationship with Moscow, and sometimes it will imply a more distant one, modulating its message as the situation demands. The United States, for its part, may be able to shape some of China’s calculus and limit what kinds of help Russia receives. For the foreseeable future, however, Xi’s model for Chinese-Russian relations will likely prove sturdier than in the past because, perhaps counterintuitively, it avoids the danger of intimacy.

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11 reasons to become a dog-walker, yes, you can be paid for your love of dogs..

I really love dogs .

Like, I love dogs. So much.

For a long time I had considered becoming a dog-walker, but the idea of finding my own customers, deciding what to charge for the service... all the logistics made me feel really intimidated and nervous.

However, a few months ago, in my post-college search for a purpose, I did some research and finally decided to take a leap and apply for a dog-walking website.

So far, my career with dogs has been a joy and a great adventure. If you love dogs, but you aren't sure yet if this would be a good job for you, I would like to share some reasons why I believe being a dog-walker/sitter is absolutely the best.

1. You get to set your own rates and hours

You're work schedule is completely up to you. You choose what jobs you accept, and you get to be the one that decides your availability and you work out with each pet parent when is the best time for you to visit their babies. Even better, YOU are the one that sets your wages. Major score. Just make sure you research the rates of other sitters and walkers in the area. You can make gooood money in some places. Make sure not to sell yourself short.

2. It's so easy to book jobs nowadays!

Gone are the times of making flyers and advertising for yourself on street lamps, subjecting yourself to possible prank calls... Now we have amazing websites that allow pet parents in your area find you. I personally use one called Rover to book my services, and I've experienced a lot of success through it. I like this one particularly, because the application is fairly simple, and it lets you really personalize your experience, including allowing you to set your own rates. I also know some people who have been successful through Wag , which sets rates of services for you depending on the market in your area, and requires a bit more extensive of an application. There is also Care.com , and many other up-and-coming services being created by the dog-lovers of the world. Do your research. See if there are any smaller services concentrated to your neighborhood. Each service often charges a small fee or percentage of your rates to cover what they do, but it is absolutely worth it for the ease and sense of security they provide. They make scheduling easy and payments secure, and if you end up making a lot of money by pet-sitting, they even help you sort out all the info you need to do your taxes. Most services have mobile apps as well, so you can stay connected and book jobs from wherever you are. What a time to be alive.

3. When they start to recognize you

It's so great when you become a regular walker for a pup and they begin to form a relationship with you. I don't know about you, but nothing makes my day like a little furry baby getting SUPER excited about seeing me. When their parent is at work and they are missing them, you become a superhero the moment you walk through the door. That feels really darn good.

4. When they give you the eyes

You know you have become real friends when they give you the sad eyes when you leave. It's SO HARD to say goodbye to that face, but that's the moment that you know they really love you . My heart is melting just thinking about it.

5. When they bring joy to strangers

I really love it when people passing by get really happy about seeing the dog I'm walking. It feels so great to know that a great part of my day has become a great part of theirs too. AND it's so cute to see the little pup get excited about getting a stranger's attention. Dogs love everyone. They are just too good.

7. When people ask how they can become a dog walker

I personally love it when I'm wearing my Rover.com t-shirt and someone asks me about my job. Or, when I run into somebody else that works as a walker. There's a feeling of community among dog walkers. Some great conversations take place at dog parks. It's a nice thing to be a part of, and I find it really sweet when people can see how much I like my job, and want to join that community.

8. Showing pictures of them to everyone like they are your kids

I love sending photos of my dogs to their owners and making their day at work a little brighter. I really just love taking photos of my dogs in general. And I will show those photos to anyone and everyone that asks about my job. I have so many photos of all of mine, and I refer to them as my kids. They will become your babies.

9. Seeing puppies grow up

They grow up so fast. I wasn't able to walk one of my regular puppies for just a week and I swear when saw him again he had gotten SO BIG!! Its such a joy to see them grow up, and so heartwarming to share that experience with their proud parents.

10. Getting to know each dog's unique personality

Every single pup is different. Just like us two-legged folks, they are all special snowflakes with their own likes and dislikes and quirks. It's really fun to get to know them all. I don't know if I've made this clear enough yet buuut... It will feel like they are your children.

11. You get to meet cool people that also love dogs

Dogs bring people together. And if you love dogs as much as I do, you know how fantastic it is to meet people that love dogs as much as you do. It's really great to share that with other people. And all different kinds of people love dogs and need their own pups to get some lovin' while they're at work, or on vacation. This job gives you the opportunity to meets all kinds of people, knowing right off that bat that you have something in common. I've made friends with some of the pet parents I work with. We have good conversations (often about the funny and adorable things their dogs do). It's pretty neat.

Now, since I mentioned all these pros to dog walking, I suppose I should be fair and list the cons.

...Picking up poop, I guess??

Honestly, dog-walking and dog-sitting is a really great job. It isn't an easy job, and it does take a lot of work, but it is also really fun and rewarding. You will learn a lot, and meet a lot of good two-legged and four-legged people while doing it. And let me tell you, after a few months of walking multiple dogs a day, your legs will be looking fiiiiine .

So if you're interested, do some research and start applying! I highly recommend it.

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25 beatles lyrics: your go-to guide for every situation, the best lines from the fab four.

For as long as I can remember, I have been listening to The Beatles. Every year, my mom would appropriately blast “Birthday” on anyone’s birthday. I knew all of the words to “Back In The U.S.S.R” by the time I was 5 (Even though I had no idea what or where the U.S.S.R was). I grew up with John, Paul, George, and Ringo instead Justin, JC, Joey, Chris and Lance (I had to google N*SYNC to remember their names). The highlight of my short life was Paul McCartney in concert twice. I’m not someone to “fangirl” but those days I fangirled hard. The music of The Beatles has gotten me through everything. Their songs have brought me more joy, peace, and comfort. I can listen to them in any situation and find what I need. Here are the best lyrics from The Beatles for every and any occasion.

And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make

The End- Abbey Road, 1969

The sun is up, the sky is blue, it's beautiful and so are you

Dear Prudence- The White Album, 1968

Love is old, love is new, love is all, love is you

Because- Abbey Road, 1969

There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be

All You Need Is Love, 1967

Life is very short, and there's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend

We Can Work It Out- Rubber Soul, 1965

He say, "I know you, you know me", One thing I can tell you is you got to be free

Come Together- Abbey Road, 1969

Oh please, say to me, You'll let me be your man. And please say to me, You'll let me hold your hand

I Wanna Hold Your Hand- Meet The Beatles!, 1964

It was twenty years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play. They've been going in and out of style, but they're guaranteed to raise a smile

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band-1967

Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see

Strawberry Fields Forever- Magical Mystery Tour, 1967

Can you hear me? When it rains and shine, it's just a state of mind

Rain- Paperback Writer "B" side, 1966

Little darling, it's been long cold lonely winter. Little darling, it feels like years since it' s been here. Here comes the sun, Here comes the sun, and I say it's alright

Here Comes The Sun- Abbey Road, 1969

We danced through the night and we held each other tight, and before too long I fell in love with her. Now, I'll never dance with another when I saw her standing there

Saw Her Standing There- Please Please Me, 1963

I love you, I love you, I love you, that's all I want to say

Michelle- Rubber Soul, 1965

You say you want a revolution. Well you know, we all want to change the world

Revolution- The Beatles, 1968

All the lonely people, where do they all come from. All the lonely people, where do they all belong

Eleanor Rigby- Revolver, 1966

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends

With A Little Help From My Friends- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967

Hey Jude, don't make it bad. Take a sad song and make it better

Hey Jude, 1968

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they're here to stay. Oh, I believe in yesterday

Yesterday- Help!, 1965

And when the brokenhearted people, living in the world agree, there will be an answer, let it be.

Let It Be- Let It Be, 1970

And anytime you feel the pain, Hey Jude, refrain. Don't carry the world upon your shoulders

I'll give you all i got to give if you say you'll love me too. i may not have a lot to give but what i got i'll give to you. i don't care too much for money. money can't buy me love.

Can't Buy Me Love- A Hard Day's Night, 1964

All you need is love, love is all you need

All You Need Is Love- Magical Mystery Tour, 1967

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly. all your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Blackbird- The White Album, 1968

Though I know I'll never lose affection, for people and things that went before. I know I'll often stop and think about them. In my life, I love you more

In My Life- Rubber Soul, 1965

While these are my 25 favorites, there are quite literally 1000s that could have been included. The Beatles' body of work is massive and there is something for everyone. If you have been living under a rock and haven't discovered the Fab Four, you have to get musically educated. Stream them on Spotify, find them on iTunes or even buy a CD or record (Yes, those still exist!). I would suggest starting with 1, which is a collection of most of their #1 songs, or the 1968 White Album. Give them chance and you'll never look back.

14 Invisible Activities: Unleash Your Inner Ghost!

Obviously the best superpower..

The best superpower ever? Being invisible of course. Imagine just being able to go from seen to unseen on a dime. Who wouldn't want to have the opportunity to be invisible? Superman and Batman have nothing on being invisible with their superhero abilities. Here are some things that you could do while being invisible, because being invisible can benefit your social life too.

1. "Haunt" your friends.

Follow them into their house and cause a ruckus.

2. Sneak into movie theaters.

Going to the cinema alone is good for your mental health , says science

Considering that the monthly cost of subscribing to a media-streaming service like Netflix is oft...

Free movies...what else to I have to say?

3. Sneak into the pantry and grab a snack without judgment.

Late night snacks all you want? Duh.

4. Reenact "Hollow Man" and play Kevin Bacon.

America's favorite son? And feel what it's like to be in a MTV Movie Award nominated film? Sign me up.

5. Wear a mask and pretend to be a floating head.

Just another way to spook your friends in case you wanted to.

6. Hold objects so they'll "float."

"Oh no! A floating jar of peanut butter."

7. Win every game of hide-and-seek.

Just stand out in the open and you'll win.

8. Eat some food as people will watch it disappear.

Even everyday activities can be funny.

9. Go around pantsing your friends.

Even pranks can be done; not everything can be good.

10. Not have perfect attendance.

You'll say here, but they won't see you...

11. Avoid anyone you don't want to see.

Whether it's an ex or someone you hate, just use your invisibility to slip out of the situation.

12. Avoid responsibilities.

Chores? Invisible. People asking about social life? Invisible. Family being rude? Boom, invisible.

13. Be an expert on ding-dong-ditch.

Never get caught and have the adrenaline rush? I'm down.

14. Brag about being invisible.

Be the envy of the town.

But don't, I repeat, don't go in a locker room. Don't be a pervert with your power. No one likes a Peeping Tom.

Good luck, folks.

19 Lessons I'll Never Forget from Growing Up In a Small Town

There have been many lessons learned..

Small towns certainly have their pros and cons. Many people who grow up in small towns find themselves counting the days until they get to escape their roots and plant new ones in bigger, "better" places. And that's fine. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought those same thoughts before too. We all have, but they say it's important to remember where you came from. When I think about where I come from, I can't help having an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for my roots. Being from a small town has taught me so many important lessons that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

1. The importance of traditions.

Sometimes traditions seem like a silly thing, but the fact of it is that it's part of who you are. You grew up this way and, more than likely, so did your parents. It is something that is part of your family history and that is more important than anything.

2. How to be thankful for family and friends.

No matter how many times they get on your nerves or make you mad, they are the ones who will always be there and you should never take that for granted.

3. How to give back.

When tragedy strikes in a small town, everyone feels obligated to help out because, whether directly or indirectly, it affects you too. It is easy in a bigger city to be able to disconnect from certain problems. But in a small town those problems affect everyone.

4. What the word "community" really means.

Along the same lines as #3, everyone is always ready and willing to lend a helping hand when you need one in a small town and to me that is the true meaning of community. It's working together to build a better atmosphere, being there to raise each other up, build each other up, and pick each other up when someone is in need. A small town community is full of endless support whether it be after a tragedy or at a hometown sports game. Everyone shows up to show their support.

5. That it isn't about the destination, but the journey.

People say this to others all the time, but it takes on a whole new meaning in a small town. It is true that life is about the journey, but when you're from a small town, you know it's about the journey because the journey probably takes longer than you spend at the destination. Everything is so far away that it is totally normal to spend a couple hours in the car on your way to some form of entertainment. And most of the time, you're gonna have as many, if not more, memories and laughs on the journey than at the destination.

6. The consequences of making bad choices.

Word travels fast in a small town, so don't think you're gonna get away with anything. In fact, your parents probably know what you did before you even have a chance to get home and tell them. And forget about being scared of what your teacher, principle, or other authority figure is going to do, you're more afraid of what your parents are gonna do when you get home.

7. To trust people, until you have a reason not to.

Everyone deserves a chance. Most people don't have ill-intentions and you can't live your life guarding against every one else just because a few people in your life have betrayed your trust.

8. To be welcoming and accepting of everyone.

While small towns are not always extremely diverse, they do contain people with a lot of different stories, struggle, and backgrounds. In a small town, it is pretty hard to exclude anyone because of who they are or what they come from because there aren't many people to choose from. A small town teaches you that just because someone isn't the same as you, doesn't mean you can't be great friends.

9. How to be my own, individual person.

In a small town, you learn that it's okay to be who you are and do your own thing. You learn that confidence isn't how beautiful you are or how much money you have, it's who you are on the inside.

10. How to work for what I want.

Nothing comes easy in life. They always say "gardens don't grow overnight" and if you're from a small town you know this both figuratively and literally. You certainly know gardens don't grow overnight because you've worked in a garden or two. But you also know that to get to the place you want to be in life it takes work and effort. It doesn't just happen because you want it to.

11. How to be great at giving directions.

If you're from a small town, you know that you will probably only meet a handful of people in your life who ACTUALLY know where your town is. And forget about the people who accidentally enter into your town because of google maps. You've gotten really good at giving them directions right back to the interstate.

12. How to be humble .

My small town has definitely taught me how to be humble. It isn't always about you, and anyone who grows up in a small town knows that. Everyone gets their moment in the spotlight, and since there's so few of us, we're probably best friends with everyone so we are as excited when they get their moment of fame as we are when we get ours.

13. To be well-rounded.

Going to a small town high school definitely made me well-rounded. There isn't enough kids in the school to fill up all the clubs and sports teams individually so be ready to be a part of them all.

14. How to be great at conflict resolution.

In a small town, good luck holding a grudge. In a bigger city you can just avoid a person you don't like or who you've had problems with. But not in a small town. You better resolve the issue fast because you're bound to see them at least 5 times a week.

15. The beauty of getting outside and exploring.

One of my favorite things about growing up in a rural area was being able to go outside and go exploring and not have to worry about being in danger. There is nothing more exciting then finding a new place somewhere in town or in the woods and just spending time there enjoying the natural beauty around you.

16. To be prepared for anything.

You never know what may happen. If you get a flat tire, you better know how to change it yourself because you never know if you will be able to get ahold of someone else to come fix it. Mechanics might be too busy , or more than likely you won't even have enough cell service to call one.

17. That you don't always have to do it alone.

It's okay to ask for help. One thing I realized when I moved away from my town for college, was how much my town has taught me that I could ask for help is I needed it. I got into a couple situations outside of my town where I couldn't find anyone to help me and found myself thinking, if I was in my town there would be tons of people ready to help me. And even though I couldn't find anyone to help, you better believe I wasn't afraid to ask.

18. How to be creative.

When you're at least an hour away from normal forms of entertainment such as movie theaters and malls, you learn to get real creative in entertaining yourself. Whether it be a night looking at the stars in the bed of a pickup truck or having a movie marathon in a blanket fort at home, you know how to make your own good time.

19. To brush off gossip.

It's all about knowing the person you are and not letting others influence your opinion of yourself. In small towns, there is plenty of gossip. But as long as you know who you really are, it will always blow over.

Grateful Beyond Words: A Letter to My Inspiration

I have never been so thankful to know you..

I can't say "thank you" enough to express how grateful I am for you coming into my life. You have made such a huge impact on my life. I would not be the person I am today without you and I know that you will keep inspiring me to become an even better version of myself.

You have taught me that you don't always have to strong. You are allowed to break down as long as you pick yourself back up and keep moving forward. When life had you at your worst moments, you allowed your friends to be there for you and to help you. You let them in and they helped pick you up. Even in your darkest hour you showed so much strength. I know that you don't believe in yourself as much as you should but you are unbelievably strong and capable of anything you set your mind to.

Your passion to make a difference in the world is unbelievable. You put your heart and soul into your endeavors and surpass any personal goal you could have set. Watching you do what you love and watching you make a difference in the lives of others is an incredible experience. The way your face lights up when you finally realize what you have accomplished is breathtaking and I hope that one day I can have just as much passion you have.

SEE MORE: A Letter To My Best Friend On Her Birthday

The love you have for your family is outstanding. Watching you interact with loved ones just makes me smile . You are so comfortable and you are yourself. I see the way you smile when you are around family and I wish I could see you smile like this everyday. You love with all your heart and this quality is something I wished I possessed.

You inspire me to be the best version of myself. I look up to you. I feel that more people should strive to have the strength and passion that you exemplify in everyday life.You may be stubborn at points but when you really need help you let others in, which shows strength in itself. I have never been more proud to know someone and to call someone my role model. You have taught me so many things and I want to thank you. Thank you for inspiring me in life. Thank you for making me want to be a better person.

Waitlisted for a College Class? Here's What to Do!

Dealing with the inevitable realities of college life..

Course registration at college can be a big hassle and is almost never talked about. Classes you want to take fill up before you get a chance to register. You might change your mind about a class you want to take and must struggle to find another class to fit in the same time period. You also have to make sure no classes clash by time. Like I said, it's a big hassle.

This semester, I was waitlisted for two classes. Most people in this situation, especially first years, freak out because they don't know what to do. Here is what you should do when this happens.

Don't freak out

This is a rule you should continue to follow no matter what you do in life, but is especially helpful in this situation.

Email the professor

Around this time, professors are getting flooded with requests from students wanting to get into full classes. This doesn't mean you shouldn't burden them with your email; it means they are expecting interested students to email them. Send a short, concise message telling them that you are interested in the class and ask if there would be any chance for you to get in.

Attend the first class

Often, the advice professors will give you when they reply to your email is to attend the first class. The first class isn't the most important class in terms of what will be taught. However, attending the first class means you are serious about taking the course and aren't going to give up on it.

Keep attending class

Every student is in the same position as you are. They registered for more classes than they want to take and are "shopping." For the first couple of weeks, you can drop or add classes as you please, which means that classes that were once full will have spaces. If you keep attending class and keep up with assignments, odds are that you will have priority. Professors give preference to people who need the class for a major and then from higher to lower class year (senior to freshman).

Have a backup plan

For two weeks, or until I find out whether I get into my waitlisted class, I will be attending more than the usual number of classes. This is so that if I don't get into my waitlisted class, I won't have a credit shortage and I won't have to fall back in my backup class. Chances are that enough people will drop the class, especially if it is very difficult like computer science, and you will have a chance. In popular classes like art and psychology, odds are you probably won't get in, so prepare for that.

Remember that everything works out at the end

Life is full of surprises. So what if you didn't get into the class you wanted? Your life obviously has something else in store for you. It's your job to make sure you make the best out of what you have.

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This Happened — June 27: Nixon And Brezhnev Meet In Moscow

Updated June 27, 2024 at 11 a.m.

The Moscow Summit began on this day in 1974 and lasted six days. The primary participants of the Moscow Summit were the United States and the Soviet Union, led respectively by President Richard Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev.

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What was the purpose of the Moscow Summit?

The main objective of the Moscow Summit was to promote dialogue and improve relations between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The summit aimed to address various global issues, including arms control, nuclear disarmament , and regional conflicts.

What were the key outcomes of the Moscow Summit?

The Moscow Summit led to the signing of several agreements, including the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) and the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. These agreements aimed to limit the nuclear arms race and establish a framework for arms control between the two superpowers.

How did the Moscow Summit impact U.S.-Soviet relations?

The Moscow Summit marked a significant milestone in U.S.-Soviet relations during the Cold War. The agreements signed during the summit laid the foundation for future arms control negotiations and helped ease tensions between the two superpowers. The summit demonstrated a willingness to engage in dialogue and work towards areas of mutual interest, contributing to a period of détente between the United States and the Soviet Union.

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Putin's Kharkiv Escalation Was Another Bluff — What Happens Now?

Vladimir putin threatened major escalation if ukraine was allowed to strike into russian territory with western weapons. once the west crossed that red line, the escalation did not happen. the west knows that bluffing is putin's favorite way of conducting foreign policy, so why does it keep playing this game.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov attend the Main Naval Parade marking Russian Navy Day.

KYIV — Over the past month, many Western countries, which for more than two years refused, hesitated and struggled with their own red lines, dared to make a logical and fair decision: They allowed Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory with Western weapons. And in doing so, they broke down a very important psychological barrier which previously seemed insurmountable due to the fear of escalation.

Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war , with our exclusive international coverage.

From now on, American and European missiles and ammunition have a great opportunity to cross the officially recognized Russian border and fulfill their main function. Of course, Russia does not like the fact that its military facilities in the border zone are under direct attack from Western weapons .

But the “terrible escalation” threatened by Moscow has not happened. No nuclear warheads flew to London, Berlin, Paris or Washington. No one attacked the airfields of NATO countries. On the contrary, Ukraine's strikes on Russia's Belgorod region had a positive de-escalating effect.

The big question

The lifting of the ban on strikes against Russia enabled the Armed Forces of Ukraine to stop Russia's offensive in the Kharkiv region and seriously disrupt its plans.

The Belgorod region got to know the weapons of NATO countries, and they were not pleased with the acquaintance. Until recently, they were quietly accumulating forces and assets near the Ukrainian border, firing at Ukrainian towns and villages, killing civilians and destroying infrastructure. And they were not too worried about retaliation.

The big question is: If Ukraine could have launched preemptive strikes, would there have been a new Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region? Such a military operation cannot be prepared without accumulating reserves, creating command centers, forming strike teams and equipping troops with air defense systems .

If Ukrainian forces had targeted them in the previous months, preventing the deployment of groups numbering tens of thousands of people, perhaps there would be no fighting for Vovchansk today. And the Russian invaders would not have captured several Ukrainian villages in the north of the region. It is always better when the gray zone is the enemy's border, and not your own.

Ukrainian soldiers from the 33rd brigade crouch and sit inside an M109L artillery piece at a position near Kurakhove, in Donbas.

Laurel Chor/SOPA/ ZUMA

The usual game

On May 29, when it became clear that Ukraine would be able to use Western weapons to strike Russia, President Vladimir Putin tried his usual game. He repeated the scary stories about the inevitable escalation that awaits American and European politicians.

“Continued escalation could lead to serious consequences. If these serious consequences occur in Europe, how will the United States behave, given our parity in strategic arms? It's hard to say. Do they want a global conflict ?” he said cynically at the time.

The West has already crossed so many of the Kremlin's red lines in supporting Ukraine.

Putin added that the possible deployment of French troops to Ukraine would be a step toward a global conflict. But he backed down the following week. At first he claimed, as usual, that the supply of weapons to Ukraine was a direct participation in the war against Russia. And he threatened to supply powerful weapons to the West's enemies in other parts of the world.

But at the same time, he tried to play the peacemaker. And he falsely insisted that Russia has no imperial ambitions and definitely does not plan to attack NATO, because it is “complete nonsense.”

Worldcrunch 🗞 Extra!

Elsewhere in the press • Even if the all-out blitz isn't in the cards, analysts are predicting a tough summer for Ukraine on the battlefield. Sir Richard Barrons, former commander of the UK's Joint Forces Command, want as far as telling the BBC that “Ukraine might face defeat in 2024.”

The former commander said that a Russian offensive is expected at some point this Summer, one where Russia will have a “five-to-one advantage in artillery, ammunition, and a surplus of people reinforced by the use of newish weapons." But Barrons says the greatest risk of a Ukraine defeat is darkening morale, with a growing sense that Russia cannot be defeated.

Still, over the past few months Ukraine has managed to secure a series of aid packages — a $60 billion one from the US, $50 billion from the G7 countries and a further €50 billion from the EU —that are resupplying Ukrainian troops with weapons. Yet, Ukraine is still facing a shortage of manpower , with a pressing need to replenish tired troops at the front, Dara Massicot, senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told The New Yorker . With Russia still trying to target Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Massicot does not think that the Russian army has “the manpower or the skills to try to occupy a city of that size,” adding that no major breakthrough is expected on either side anytime soon. — Fabrizio La Rocca (read more about the Worldcrunch method here )

Redrawing redlines

The fact that the Russian dictator's military ardour has somewhat faded is evidenced by his subsequent statements. On June 7, Putin assured that strikes by Western weapons on Russian territory still do not cross the imaginary red line, so there is no reason for Russia to use nuclear weapons.

That is a change from earlier statements by Russian officials. They threatened an inevitable violent response if Ukraine was allowed to attack Russian territory with Western weapons. Perhaps now we should expect new red lines from the Kremlin. The old ones have been redrawn so many times that they have lost their relevance.

The West has already crossed so many of the Kremlin's red lines in supporting Ukraine that a full-fledged Third World War should be underway by now. Russia has constantly threatened consequences for supplying Ukraine with certain types of weapons; for strikes on Crimea ; for the transfer of airplanes, tanks, and missiles; for the Patriot system; or the presence of foreign instructors.

Bluffing is Putin's favorite way of conducting foreign policy.

Russia's full-scale invasion itself began with the threat of escalation: In a speech on February 24, 2022, Putin warned third countries against interfering in the conflict, saying that “Russia's response will be immediate and will lead to such consequences that you have never encountered in your history.”

We are used to the fact that the West always makes its decisions to help Ukraine with a considerable delay. As a rule, this happens after another aggravation of the situation. Of course, U.S President Joe Biden or German Chancellor Olaf Scholz can say that they do not want escalation. But should we believe these excuses of experienced politicians? There is no escalation by Russia when Ukraine receives more weapons and gets rid of unnecessary restrictions on their use.

Volodymyr Zelenskyi, President of Ukraine, stands in front of a Patriot air defense missile system during his visit to a military training area.

Jens Büttner/dpa/ ZUMA

Bluffing and blackmail

Western politicians are disingenuous when they attribute their indecision to fear of getting involved in a war. Moscow has always escalated most strongly due to weak reactions from the United States and Europe, and not due to demonstrations of their readiness to firmly oppose the Kremlin's imperialist plans.

Bluffing is Putin's favorite way of conducting foreign policy. The lord of Kremlin has consistently bluffed when threatening inevitable fatal consequences for supporting Ukraine or for its accession to NATO . But it is well known that politicians who threaten a lot in public often do not do so because of their strength and confidence. They do it because they are weak and want to get their way through blackmail and threats.

Why should the West continue to play this game and accept its rules?

So the question is: Why should the West continue to play this game and accept its rules? The threats of escalation are pathetic and demonstrate that Putin is not as confident and formidable as some in Europe or America still think he is. He just likes to deal with the weak .

What will happen if NATO countries decide to deploy their troops in Ukraine? The situation will repeat itself. First, Russia will shout at the whole world and verbally brandish a nuclear warhead. Then Putin will say a few words about the treacherous West and that Russia can cause it big problems. But in general he is not looking for war. And in the end, he will say that it is very bad that foreign troops are in Ukraine, but it is still not crossing redlines.

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Le Weekend: Music Labels vs. AI, Oslo’s Humblebrag, Robot Skin

This happened — june 29: brazil wins world cup, ice ice baby: when things get steamy between antarctic researchers, a tragedy in 4 acts: palestine, israel, the u.s. and turkey.

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AT THE SMITHSONIAN

The sad, sad story of laika, the space dog, and her one-way trip into orbit.

A stray Moscow pup traveled into orbit in 1957 with one meal and only a seven-day oxygen supply

Alice George

Museums Correspondent

With a pounding heart and rapid breath, Laika rode a rocket into Earth orbit, 2,000 miles above Moscow streets she knew. Overheated, cramped, frightened, and probably hungry, the space dog gave her life for her country, involuntarily fulfilling a canine suicide mission.

Sad as this tale is, the stray husky-spitz mix became a part of history as the first living creature to orbit the Earth. Over the decades, the petite pioneer has repeatedly found new life in popular culture long after her death and the fiery demise of her Soviet ship, Sputnik 2 , which smashed into the Earth’s atmosphere 60 years ago this month.

Soviet engineers planned Sputnik 2 hastily after Premier Nikita Khrushchev requested a flight to coincide with November 7, 1957, the 40th anniversary of Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution. Using what they had learned from the unmanned and undogged Sputnik 1 and often working without blueprints, teams labored quickly to build a ship that included a pressurized compartment for a flying dog. Sputnik 1 had made history, becoming the first man-made object in Earth orbit October 4, 1957. Sputnik 2 would go into orbit with the final stage of the rocket attached, and engineers believed the ship’s 1,120-pound payload, six times as heavy as Sputnik 1 , could be kept within limits by feeding its passenger only once.

They expected Laika to die from oxygen deprivation—a painless death within 15 seconds—after seven days in space. Cathleen Lewis , the curator of international space programs and spacesuits at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum doubts that a few ounces of food would have made a difference, and she recalls reports that a female physician broke protocol by feeding Laika before liftoff.

The Soviet canine recruiters began their quest with a herd of female stray dogs because females were smaller and apparently more docile. Initial tests determined obedience and passivity. Eventually, canine finalists lived in tiny pressurized capsules for days and then weeks at a time. The doctors also checked their reactions to changes in air pressure and to loud noises that would accompany liftoff. Testers fitted candidates with a sanitation device connected to the pelvic area. The dogs did not like the devices, and to avoid using them, some retained bodily waste, even after consuming laxatives. However, some adapted.

Eventually, the team chose the placid Kudryavka (Little Curly) as Sputnik 2’s dog cosmonaut and Albina (White) as backup. Introduced to the public via radio, Kudryavka barked and later became known as Laika, “barker” in Russian. Rumors emerged that Albina had out-performed Laika, but because she had recently given birth to puppies and because she had apparently won the affections of her keepers, Albina did not face a fatal flight. Doctors performed surgery on both dogs, embedding medical devices in their bodies to monitor heart impulses, breathing rates, blood pressure and physical movement.

Soviet physicians chose Laika to die, but they were not entirely heartless. One of her keepers, Vladimir Yazdovsky, took 3-year-old Laika to his home shortly before the flight because “I wanted to do something nice for the dog,” he later recalled.

Three days before the scheduled liftoff, Laika entered her constricted travel space that allowed for only a few inches of movement. Newly cleaned, armed with sensors, and fitted with a sanitation device, she wore a spacesuit with metal restraints built-in. On November 3 at 5:30 a.m., the ship lifted off with G-forces reaching five times normal gravity levels.

The noises and pressures of flight terrified Laika: Her heartbeat rocketed to triple the normal rate, and her breath rate quadrupled. The National Air and Space Museum holds declassified printouts showing Laika’s respiration during the flight. She reached orbit alive, circling the Earth in about 103 minutes. Unfortunately, loss of the heat shield made the temperature in the capsule rise unexpectedly, taking its toll on Laika. She died “soon after launch,” Russian medical doctor and space dog trainer Oleg Gazenko revealed in 1993. “The temperature inside the spacecraft after the fourth orbit registered over 90 degrees,” Lewis says. “There’s really no expectation that she made it beyond an orbit or two after that.” Without its passenger, Sputnik 2 continued to orbit for five months.

During and after the flight, the Soviet Union kept up the fiction that Laika survived for several days. “The official documents were falsified,” Lewis says. Soviet broadcasts claimed that Laika was alive until November 12. The New York Times even reported that she might be saved; however, Soviet communiqués made it clear after nine days that Laika had died.

While concerns about animal rights had not reached early 21 st century levels, some protested the deliberate decision to let Laika die because the Soviet Union lacked the technology to return her safely to Earth. In Great Britain, where opposition to hunting was growing, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the British Society for Happy Dogs opposed the launch. A pack of dog lovers attached protest signs to their pets and marched outside the United Nations in New York. “The more time passes, the more I’m sorry about it,” said Gazenko more than 30 years later.

The humane use of animal testing spaceflight was essential to preparation for manned spaceflight, Lewis believes. “There were things that we could not determine by the limits of human experience in high altitude flight,” Lewis says. Scientists “really didn’t know how disorienting spaceflight would be on the humans or whether an astronaut or cosmonaut could continue to function rationally.”

Alas, for Laika, even if everything had worked perfectly, and if she had been lucky enough to have plenty of food, water and oxygen, she would have died when the spaceship re-entered the atmosphere after 2,570 orbits. Ironically, a flight that promised Laika's certain death also offered proof that space was livable.

The story of Laika lives on today in websites, YouTube videos, poems and children’s books, at least one of which provides a happy ending for the doomed dog. Laika’s cultural impact has been spread across the years since her death. The Portland, Oregon, Art Museum is currently featuring an exhibition on the stop-motion animation studio LAIKA , which was named after the dog. The show "Animating Life" is on view through May 20, 2018. There is also a “vegan lifestyle and animal rights” periodical called LAIKA Magazine , published in the United States.

The 1985 Swedish film, My Life as a Dog , portrayed a young man’s fears that Laika had starved. Several folk and rock singers around the globe have dedicated songs to her. An English indie-pop group took her name, and a Finnish band called itself Laika and the Cosmonauts. Novelists Victor Pelevin of Russia, Haruki Murakami of Japan, and Jeannette Winterson of Great Britain have featured Laika in books, as has British graphic novelist Nick Abadzis.

In 2015, Russia unveiled a new memorial statue of Laika atop a rocket at a Moscow military research facility, and when the nation honored fallen cosmonauts in 1997 with a statue at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Star City, Moscow, Laika’s image could be seen in one corner. During the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity mission in March 2005, NASA unofficially named a spot within a Martian crater “Laika.”

Space dog biographer Amy Nelson compares Laika to other animal celebrities like the Barnum and Bailey Circus’s late 19th-century elephant Jumbo and champion thoroughbred racehorse Seabiscuit, who lifted American spirits during the Great Depression. She argues in Beastly Natures: Animals, Humans and the Study of History that the Soviet Union transformed Laika into “an enduring symbol of sacrifice and human achievement.”

Soon after the flight, the Soviet mint created an enamel pin to celebrate “The First Passenger in Space.” Soviet allies, such as Romania, Albania, Poland and North Korea, issued Laika stamps over the years between 1957 and 1987.

Laika was not the first space dog: Some had soared in the Soviet military’s sub-orbital rocket tests of updated German V-2 rockets after World War II, and they had returned to Earth via parachuted craft—alive or dead. She also would not be the last dog to take flight. Others returned from orbit alive. After the successful 1960 joint flight of Strelka and Belka, Strelka later produced puppies, and Khrushchev gave one to President John F. Kennedy.

During the days before manned flight, the United States primarily looked to members of the ape family as test subjects. The reason for the Soviet choice of dogs over apes is unclear except perhaps that Ivan Pavlov’s pioneering work on dog physiology in the late 19th and early 20th century may have provided a strong background for the use of canines, Lewis says. Also, stray dogs were plentiful in the streets of the Soviet Union—easy to find and unlikely to be missed.

According to Animals In Space by Colin Burgess and Chris Dubbs, the Soviet Union launched dogs into flight 71 times between 1951 and 1966, with 17 deaths. The Russian space program continues to use animals in space tests, but in every case except Laika’s, there has been some hope that the animal would survive.

Ed Note 4/15/2018: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the postage stamp at the top of this article, stating it was from a Soviet bloc country. It is from the Emirate of Ajman, now part of the UAE. This story also now includes updated information about the Portland Oregon Museum's exhibition "Animating Life."

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Alice George | | READ MORE

Alice George, Ph.D. is an independent historian with a special interest in America during the 1960s. A veteran newspaper editor, she is recently the author of The Last American Hero: The Remarkable Life of John Glenn and has authored or co-authored seven other books, focusing on 20th-century American history or Philadelphia history.

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Dog Walker Business Plan and SWOT Analysis

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For many people, their dogs and cats are like their children. As such, many people now taken to hiring dog walkers so that their companion pet can be properly cared for while they are away or at work. Several studies have shown that people spend nearly 10 times as much money on their dog than they did 25 years ago. As more and more people have decided to start a career rather than immediately starting a family, dogs have become not only a companion pet also in many ways a surrogate child for individuals and couples that are waiting or have decided not to start a family. As such, a large amount of discretionary income is spent on the daily care of these animals. The demand for dog walking services is extremely high in major metropolitan areas – especially those that have a number of high income jobs available to people at own dogs.

The startup costs that are associated with the new dog walking service are very low. In fact, these businesses can be started for as little as $100 to $500. However, for the purposes of this discussion we are going to assume that the dog walking service is looking to develop into a large-scale business relatively quickly with a number of staff walkers on retainer. In this instance, the costs are associated with developing a dog walking business range anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000 depending on whether or not vehicles are going to be purchased as part of the overall operation.

Given that there are a very low start up costs associated with this business, most financial institutions are willing to provide a very small business loan in order to get these businesses off the ground. This is especially true if the business is going to be acquiring vehicles that are going to be used by the owner or by staff dog walkers. Of course, a dog walking service business plan is going to be required if a small business loan is being sought. This business plan should include a three-year profit and loss statement, cash flow analysis, balance sheet, breakeven analysis, and business ratios page. As it relates to industry research, the dog walking and pet care industry generates about $1.5 billion per year and provide jobs to about 25,000 people. There are approximately 5,000 active businesses within the United States that render the services to the general public.

Within the business plan, a full discussion and development of the demographic profile should be included as well. This includes an overview of annual household income, median family income, population size, population density, number of families that own dogs, percentage of people that work from home, percentage of people that work in an office, and other relevant statistics to the local need for dog walking services. As it relates the competition, this is somewhat of a different difficult profile developed given that many individuals simply does provide dog walking services on an under the table basis. However, an examination of the number of known dog walking services should be included within the business plan.

A dog walking service should marketing plan should be developed as well. This marketing plan should focus heavily on the usage of referrals coupled with an online-based marketing campaign. Of special importance to a dog walking service is the use of popular social media platforms like FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google+ in order to generate interest in daily dog walking services.

One of the nice things about using social media platforms to market this type of business is that these companies allow for reviews to be placed on a website. This is extremely important for dog walking business given that again many people consider these pets to be almost like their children and they are going to want to see stronger views from individuals that have used the service in the past that can vouch for the care and quality of service rendered by any dog walking employee. It should be noted that many of these businesses will also maintain pages on yelp.com in order to further expand their online visibility. Beyond maintaining a proprietary page on a number of different social media platforms – it is also important that the dog walking service maintain its own website. This website should feature information regarding daily cost, ancillary services rendered, contact information, location information, and the distance that staff dog walkers are willing to travel in order to provide service. This website is listed among all major search engines including Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

One of the other ways that dog walking services market themselves to the general public is by maintaining relationships with area veterinarians that can hand out business cards in order to further boost the visibility of the business. Although some veterinarians shy away from vouching from a third-party company, many are happy to do so especially in areas where the need for dog walking is significant. This can be an excellent source of additional revenue for the business given that many people trust their veterinarians as it relates to receiving opinion.

A dog walking service SWOT analysis should be produced as well. As it relates to strengths, dog walking services are almost always able to remain profitable and cash flow positive given the strong demand for these services among working professionals. The startup costs are low and the barriers to entry are considered to be very low as well. The gross margins generated from services are extremely high given that there are very few costs associated with providing dog walking services.

For weaknesses, these businesses face constant competition from individuals that simply walk into another persons dog for a small fee on a daily basis. Additionally, there may be some issues as it relates to liability if a third-party animal causes damage. However, these businesses can obtain a liability insurance policy that allows them to operate without this massive risk.

For opportunities, many additional staff dog walkers can be hired so that a greater number of clients can be serviced on a daily basis. Additionally, these businesses can establish secondary locations in other areas outside of the company’s target market radius.

As it relates to threats, there’s really nothing that is can impact the way that these businesses conduct operations moving forward. There is no risk of automation given that people want to trust another human being with their animal, and as such these businesses will remain strong in any economic climate. The most primary threat faced by these types of companies are ongoing competitive threats. However, once a strong relationship is established between the dog walker and the family of the animal there’s very little risk of them switching service providers.