Walking with furry friends

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I love the idea of dogs. I'm not so committed to the reality. Cats suit me better; they are self-reliant, clever, and quite capable of entertaining themselves when you're not around. My husband says I can't have a dog because I'm not really a grown-up yet. He may well be right. None of that stops me from 'borrowing' dogs at any opportunity. Our neighbours have a red cockerpoo called Ralf who is about 6 months old. Ralf has a cousin called Paddy who is a black cockerpoo and he's 3 years old. As we were setting off to walk around the village we ran into Ralf's hu-brother and his friend coming back from the shop. Owen is 11 and quite certainly my favourite small person. He's ginger and friendly and quite the most inquisitive kid I've ever known. He told us Paddy was visiting and invited us in. Owen's mum was looking really tired. She runs the local pre-school and term just ended. Her father has been in hospital for a couple of weeks. She's really been burning the candle at both ends. So we asked if we could take the dogs for a walk. Ralf lies towards the cocker end of the cockerpoo spectrum. Paddy's the opposite with gloriously curly black poodle hair. They dragged us round the village at great speed, doing several laps of the churchyard (loads of interesting things to sniff) and up and down the back roads. Last time I walked Ralf he was very stubborn. I had to keep picking him up and carrying him when he didn't want to walk ahead. This time they egged each other on, chasing one another around the village. And best of all, no poops! Do you have dogs of your own or walk dogs for other people?