Good morning! Sofie really pissed me off this morning in the Park. She's a little devil-dog sometimes. It was a nice walk until we came to the end. They have drained Conservatory Pond to clean it before winter, and so the bottom of it is all full of dried up algae and other crap. Because there's so much crap down in the bottom of the pond there's lots of birds down there eating it. Before I knew it, Sofie had leaped down in to the pond and was chasing the birds around. You're not supposed to let your dogs down there (I don't really know why). Bear quickly followed and after gallivanting around for a few minutes, they settled down to sniffing things and eating old, dry pond scum. I tried calling them a few times with no avail. They just completely ignored me. I've seen other people go down into the pond and chase their dog around until they catch it, but I was not planning on being that as*hole today.
So I just turned and walked away from the pond as fast as I could. Bear immediately panicked and ran out after me. Sofie paid no attention and looked unconcerned with her prospects of finding a new home. She did this another morning when a little kid spilled a box of Fruit Loops and she would NOT come to me. Finally when I was completely up the hill and out of sight and she still hadn't come I began to worry that she wouldn't know where I was and run off in the wrong direction. Just when I was about to go down the hill for her, she came sprinting up. But when she saw me she stopped about 15 feet away and looked at me warily. She knew she was in trouble. She crouched and cowered as I approached her (making me look like I abuse her). I snapped her leash on like everything was cool and walked away.
These dogs are good for practice in keeping your cool when you're angry. They have the ability to make you so mad sometimes and while I've never been that person totally flipping out on my dog, I've definitely embarrassed myself. I think people get so mad because they think their dog is a reflection of them and their ability to train them - which is, to some extent true. The thing is, they're not little robots. You can't just program them to do exactly what you want when you want. You can work on it (which I do - every. single. morning), but in the end, they're a little living thing that wants to eat duck shit sometimes. Sometimes there's a noise in the bushes and I can't hear it - how can I expect them to resist the promise of possible squirrel to chase or a box of half-eaten Fruit Loops guarded by a wimpy toddler? They're just being dogs. So I try not to flip out now when they don't do exactly what I tell them to. It's not a reflection of my time spent training them - it's just the fact that their living beings. They've made me a lot of more patient in that sense. They're also the best, most loyal little friends I have.
Carpe diem,
J
