/\blazy\b(.*?)\bdog\b/

##</code><code>##

while (<DATA>) {
    if(/\blazy\b(.*?)\bdog\b/) {
        my $length = length $1;
        my @words = grep length, split /\W+/, $1;
	printf  "Distance is %d characters, stepping %d words\n", $length, 1+@words;
    }
}
__DATA__
The brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
The lazy brown fox jumps over the quick dog
The lazy fox jumps over the dog
The lazy fox dog
The fox jumps over the dog...