Do you match your dog?

No, that heading is not a mistake. I am not talking about "washing" your dog. I want to know if you physically match it.

A post by E... on Facebook about dogs in London has prompted me to ask this. E...was talking about dogs she sees out an about.

It is possible that dogs and their owners in London have changed since I was there but I think it is unlikely because I have observed the same thing here. Some humans match their dogs and this happens more often than would seem to be by mere chance.

As poor, very poor, students we would take our entertinment where we could find it. If it was absolutely free even better. That would often mean someone saying, "I need to get out. Anyone else feel like wandering over to the park and watching the dogs?"

That would be followed, "Anyone got biscuit crumbs left?" That would be for the birds.

Suitably attired for whatever the weather was like we would head out on a Sunday afternoon and go to Regent's Park. It was much more entertaining than any of the "squares" around our area of the university. The others would always patiently include me in the invitation and see me safely across the heart-stopping roads in central London.  We would eventually reach the park. If it was fine and dry we would sit or sprawl in the grass and watch the dog walkers. 

There was an afghan hound. The owner needed to be long and thin and preferably hairy. There was a dachshund. A dacshund owner, preferably male, needed to be very smoothly dressed.  A highland terrier needed an owner wearing tweed. There were others too of course. The dog owners we most appreciated were the owners of poodles. The poodle need to be wearing a ribbon, preferably pink, and the owner had to be wearing what  we considered to be fussy or frilly clothes. Even more important than tht they needed to be wearing what we called "Dame Edna glasses" - with rhinestone wings. If the frames were pink or purple they would be given even more marks. 

We would give the owners points for grooming and behaviour. "We need a ten before we leave," a Welsh friend would say. The rest of us would groan and leave M... to go on watching. We would feed the ducks and S... (from Bristol) would hold her arm out, steady as could be, so that the sparrows could feed on the crumbs in her hand. She always seemed to attract them with no trouble at all. We would go on dog owner watching for a while.

We would leave the park as it was growing dark. Had weall found a ten today? M... was usually the one to decide we had. 

I remember someone else in our hall of residence being absolutely shocked by what we were doing. He thought we were dreadful, that we were making fun of people in a cruel way. I don't think we were. The dog owners never knew what we were doing. We just delighted in watching the extraordinary variety of dogs and their owners. It was even better when the dog and the human "matched" each other.