We like to say that our dog (Maddie) is selectively smart. She knows and understands what she needs to know and understand. In eight years of walking her, she still has no clue what the word "easy" means, and "no barking" is the phrase I use when I agree with her that the person on the other side of the street or a few hundred yards ahead of us looks dangerous.

She understands where we will turn around if I say, "short walk," and she understands that "later" means we will walk, just not now. I usually say "later" when it's cold but expected to get warmer or when it's raining but the rain is expected to stop.

As we are seeing some relief from the single-digit lows that had the ground frozen to the point that we worried about her feet, "later" seems to be up for debate. On Sunday, it was 15°f (-9°c) when she wanted to walk. I told her, "We'll walk later." She walked over to the coat rack and stuck her nose in the direction of her buffalo plaid coat, as if to say,

"I have a coat; we can go now!"

Ready to go. The wind doesn't bother her much until we're in the open space in the park

She barked and I knew I was not going to win that round. She loves wearing that coat. When we get home from our walk, she keeps it on for an hour or two. We think she likes the compression. This post is part of Linda G. Hill's fun weekly series One-Liner Wednesday. If you have a one-liner, If you would like to join in on the fun, you can follow this link to participate and to see the one-liners from the other participants.