I haven’t posted anything for a few weeks. The primary reason is that our younger daughter and her family were visiting. They live in Newton, Massachusetts. Their youngest (of 3) son is absolutely enamored of our 13 year old half Labrador, Maggie. He has always liked her. He still does, even though they now have a dog of their own. Maggie returns the favor. Every night when they were with us she would go to sleep in his room. He slept on a pull out bed. We didn’t elevate the bed because Maggie is feeling her age (13) and has a touch of arthritis. It’s hard for her to climb up on the bed when it is elevated. When the bed was lowered it was easier for her to climb up. She curled up at his feet and spent the night there.
We’ve always had dogs. My wife had two when we met. Sadly, neither survived until our wedding. One was poisoned. The other died of a heart attack. I went along to take her to the vet when it happened. She didn’t make it through to come home. I never met the next dog. I was in the navy, and since our first daughter was born less than a year after we were married, we hadn’t acquired another. It was probably just as well, because I was soon transferred to another ship and we had to move from San Diego to Norfolk, VA. That assignment lasted only a few months because the ship was decommissioned and placed in reserve. My new ship was operating out of Newport, RI. It soon sailed for an extended deployment and my wife decided to get a dog. I agreed. But while I was away she fell and twisted her knee. She wasn’t really able handle the dog while recovering from the injury and he was no longer part of our household by the time I returned.
We were already planning to move to Israel, so we deferred adding a fur covered member to the family for a while. Later, we would have a series of dogs. One tor the trousers of a neighbors’ child and we had to banish hem from the household. The boy had often taunted our dog and thrown things at the animal. This time, the dog was not tie up when he ran down the street. The dog simply followed his instincts. If the objects moves, chase it. If it doesn’t move, eat it. If it’s too big to eat, pee on it.
We raised our kids to be comfortable with dogs. When I was a child I was coming home from school with a good friend and we passed a house where a fairly unfriendly dog always met us with furious barrage of barking. My friend was frightened and ran. The dog pursued him for 22 blocks. I continued walking at a slower pace. When the dog returned it approached me, barking loudly. I did not even look at it and continued walking. The dog moved out of my path and came up behind me. If gave one more little “wurf”, sniffed at my shoes, and returned home.
one of the guidelines when meeting a strange dog is never to look them in the eyes. doing so is a sort of acknowledgement of equality. If the dog is not trained to attack and isn’t defending its’ own territory, it will withdraw. After all, it can see you are bigger (taller) than it is, and isn’t eager to get into a fight with some thing bigger (and probably stronger). I had this lesson drilled into my own conscious on two other occasions. Once we were looking for a particular address. There was a dog tied up next to the door. I ignored his growls and came close to read the name on the door. The dog made a weak attempt to take hold of my leg. I had read the name. It wasn’t who we were seeking. I felt him touch my leg and turned around. He meekly retreated as far as he could. I slowly walked away to conclude the confrontation. Score: Me – one, Dog – zero.
The second case took place very late at night. I had missed the last inter-city bus and was walking to the main highway where I hoped to get a ride. My route took my down a street where a small dog barred my way, barking furiously. I reasoned that a small dog would not be a trained attack dog, and the street would not be part of that dogs own home territory and continued walking. But he would not stop. At that point I looked straight at him, and began to move directly toward him at a faster pace. He recognized that I was challenging him and he prudently, and promptly, retreated quietly to the side of the street behind a parked car. I then continued on my way to the main road.
o
Wetherhorn 