Friday, January 25, 2008

Safety Restraints.

The other day I needed to go to our Kids place to borrow a Drill while they were not home. So I e-mailed them all at work asking if there was anything they wanted while I was there, half expecting a certain result. Sure enough the oldest e-mailed back saying, not really, but while you are there you can take the dog(s) for a walk.

So when I got there I tried to put their harnesses on. On all other occasions, they or their mother always put the harness on and so I really didn’t know how to do it and with two frisky dogs jumping all over me I soon gave up and clipped their leads to their Collars and completely forgot about the harnesses, and so off we went, with me wondering how it would go as the little one in particular (George) is a real “Puller” and the other one just likes to keep up! (I have written earlier about “The power of Two Little Dogs.)

However after the first 100 metres or so George must have realised that his pulling so hard against the collar was restricting his breathing too much, and that it was much smarter for him not to pull so hard, and the rest of the walk was a real pleasure.

Since then, my wife and I were up there again and took them for another walk, this time with their harnesses on. Well, they (George particularly) almost pulled my arm off, and I couldn’t help but wish I had him just on the collar again because the Harness was just not correcting his pulling. (The girls use the harness for the leads and not the collars, as this is more comfortable for the dogs!)

As I thought on this, I wondered how many other safety devices there are, that we don’t use because they are not comfortable or restrict us too much. A bit like speed limits and such, we understand why they are there and all, but resent their restrictions upon us and will try and ignore them when we can.

This is just another reminder that these safety restraints are there for our ultimate Good, even if we can’t always see that at the time. So rather than ignore the safety restraints available to you, make the most of them and use them for what they were designed for: Your Safety.

Anyhow that’s my thought for today: have a safe year: Walter

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