So, I helped Lloyd move the dogs from the kennels to the runs, give biscuits, rotate them back in, repeat. I watched, acted confident, and dog wrangled. Threw a ball for the biggest dog. Got all but one to more or less sit for their treat, and keeping them from jumping on me. I've been watching It's Me or the Dog.
I often think about Boo, my brother's border collie that he left with our parents when he was stationed in England for a year. Boo could be aggressive, dug holes in the yard, jumped up on people, barked constantly. He needed consistent training and regular walks, but I lacked the knowledge to define the problem, then. My brother would have a series of large dogs with the same issues.
So I watch the Problem Dog shows, and I read about positive reinforcement and listen to Calling All Pets, still working at that old knot of wrongness. And I practiced the body blocking, treats, and tried to communicate with animals I'd never met before. Sort of like trotting out my rusty Spanish for my patients. Being a bit surprized that it works.
I've got a pretty good handle on Cat, Moby has given me plenty of practice. One cat apparently speaks a different dialect and attacked my arm without my noticing any clues, but most seem to be forgiving of my accent.
Trying out Dog is more like my minimal Japanese.
Long ago, taking naginata classes, I tried to learn more than the words for the numbers. What I remember is how to say, "I don't speak Japanese." Tried that on a native Japanese speaker, an anesthesiologist at MGH, who burst out laughing. Because, apparently my accent is good enough that it comes across as a pretty good joke. Which was the intention.
One huge black dog was barking in the kennel, an anxious bark. I leaned against the grating, talked him down, and he leaned against me, until he relaxed and dozed as I scritched his face with my fingers. A few moments of peace for both of us, as I assured both of us that, yes, life is hard all over, but we are here now, it's fine just now.
I'm not volunteering to be a Good Person. More like working through old lessons.
9 comments:
Yes. Showing up for the old lessons.
One of my favorite cartoons showed a dog sitting in front of a mirror. The dog was looking at himself and thinking, "Sit."
am,
Oh, that's funny. I love it.
I am frightened of large dogs...except for mine! But I am much better since I started dog training lessons...which do work, and I know how to behave to establish my position in the pack (at the top)
Being Pack Leader is tough on everyone - much nicer when there's someone to lean on and give you the odd scratch.
My mother's white English bull terrier, Kim, was a problem dog. When his food was put down his first act was to seek out the cat and swat it sideways with his cumbersome head. Yet when the budgie was allowed to wander round the kitchen it would frequently crawl up the back of Kim's head. This would make him tremble with the effort of suppressing any movement which might disturb the budgie.
The cat bore Kim no ill-will. When he had settled down in his basket she would sit by him and lick clean a small patch on his head. This showed up since his white fur was perpetually filthy. During this toilette he would again tremble, as with the budgie.
Rosie,
Funny, I'm afraid of the small ones, something squirrely and nippy about them.
RR,
Indeed.
BB,
Moby has to come get scritched, or head butt, one of us before he will eat. A strange sort of ritual that appears to be a gesture of appreciation.
Kim sounds a good sort, underneath.
A while back I turned a corner and leapt out of my skin when I realised there was a dog tied up outside a shop right beside me. I don't know why it scared me so much, but the next thing I thought was, "Oh no! Don't show fear!" And I scampered off.
And through all this the dog just kind of looked at me like, "Hi! What's your name?"
I'll never forget sitting down with a group of people I thought were Americans practicing their German. Chatted away happily with them for twenty minutes before I started asking people where they were from. I turned out to be a bunch of ex-pats that got together every week to chat. I had actually been talking with Germans & Swiss & Austrians, and it had worked just fine!
I would have been too shy if I'd known it was their native language I was speaking. Which is just silly & stupid, but not I think very rare here in monolingual America. I work hard now to say a few words of Spanish to people I guess are Spanish-speaking, just to get over that sort of language-stammer. So what if I don't speak it perfectly? I've found that everybody -- well, everybody but Parisians -- appreciates it if you at least have a go at their language. And, as you say, surprisingly often it works :-)
(sorry about the long & very tangential comment :->)
Pacian,
Anyone can get startled. Even god... dogs.
Dale,
Feel free to post comments of any length here. Good for you for jumping in. Very cool.
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