Learning to Walk a Dog

So, yesterday I went to the Humane Society for my next training. This one was How to Walk a Dog. It was equal parts very interesting/fascinating and kind of basic.
The basic stuff was things like sign in here, park here, wear this name tag, etc. All important, but all fairly mundane.The interesting to fascinating stuff related to the dogs and the dog/human interaction. For example, while we were standing outside talking someone came in with a big bulldog in the back of a pickup truck. I said hi, and it gave me that big gargoyle grin that bulldogs get: ugly friendly, like a cartoon.
Later, when we were inside, someone came into a room we were being shown and the dog…walked? in after. Limped in? Slid in? She recognized me and tried to get to me, to lick my hand. Her human said, "Careful, she's got blood on her chin." "Oh, what happened?""She got hit."And the person caring for the dog went back to cleaning her up, while the dog struggled to stand on legs that couldn't support her, all so she could get petted. Ye gods.

I walked Gladys, who was officially the smallest dog I've ever touched. Well under ten pounds, the size a cat could slaughter without problem. I've seen squirrels bigger. In her kennel she was yipping a very high pitched yipe yipe yich! It was literally painful—my ears hurt for about 20 minutes afterwards. Outside, though, she was ready to cover some ground. We ran, then walked, and she was ready to investigate. Friendly, moderately smart, and completely unconcerned with weighing about as much as a sandwich.

She's getting adopted.

Greg