Talking to your dog

[CMP]

Last night, I took Molly down the long (when I say long, I mean measured in miles) driveway (in a vehicle) to meet up with a fellow who is doing some fencing work for us. It was a nice night, so I got her out of the car, put her on a long line and sat on the bumper to wait for said fellow to show up.

 

Three people came by on bikes. Racer type bikes. Next thing I know, Molly is going hellbent for leather towards them (first time she has ever tried to chase anything) and some part of my brain clicks that the long line is *too* long and she will reach them. So I do what any person (ahem) would do ... I got myself up and made a diving tackle for her as she streaked by. No, I did not think to pull in the line. THAT would have been easy.

 

Anyway - I am not a young person and that diving tackle was WAY out of my "range of comfortable motion".

 

I got her but barely. I laid there on the ground with her for a few seconds while she licked my face (great game! let's do that again!) and gave her the talk about old bones and how she had a duty not to break me and without me she'd be eating cheap kibble at some run down dog hotel.

 

While I am regaling her with my spiel another set of bikers comes over the rise (turns out it's part of the route of the local bike club) and I can see her ears prick up and her legs start to scramble for purchase. Of course, I have spent my energy on the first tackle, have no idea where the end of the line is and she is MUCH faster than me.

 

"Oh my god, Molly," I say rather desperately as she starts to bound away, "cut me some freaking slack, will you? I CANNOT chase you! DOWN!"

 

And she dropped. Dead down.

 

I would not even have tried a recall under that circumstance - it WOULD have failed and I try not to let recall fail. She is very good on the down and the down-stay but she is too young to have been trained on a moving down and certainly not on a blood in the ears moment.

 

She whined and cried as they went around the bend, but she stayed down.

[D'Elle]

 

I do think dogs are a bit like toddlers in the fact that they pick up on more than we realize.

I agree.

I actually have some very clear memories of being a toddler, and I knew exactly what the adults around me were saying, and paid extra special attention (while pretending not to) when I knew that they did not think I understood and did not want me to know what was going on. I have often wondered if our dogs are not, in some ways, the same. They don't understand our words the way that I did but I think they often "get" more information than we give them credit for getting.

 

You know, scientists are now "discovering" that creatures formerly thought to have virtually no brain, like an octopus, use tools and think and reason. I think that human beings have misjudged and underestimated all other animals ever since some human being decided that we should be in charge. I think it is entirely possible that in another couple hundred years, if not less, (unless we head in an entirely different, and much darker, direction), it will be generally known and accepted that all creatures have great intelligence. Whether or not that will bring an appropriate level of respect from human beings....that's another matter.