Fear of the dark (dogs)

One of the most peculiar things in my opinion I deal with in the doggy world is how often people try to find excuses for themselves and blame it on the dog. Today on my morning walk I again experienced such a case when a doggy friend and I where chatting for a few minutes before we parted after a walk together. While we were talking two women approached us, walking along the path with a small mix off leash (our dogs were off leash as well). Sambo was seating next to me, already bored to death because of the lack of action and I saw that he wanted to go and sniff the little doggy when he saw him. But I saw the look on both the women's faces, so I told him to stay seated and held him next to me. At that moment the two women started to call the doggy anxiously, and the doggy couldn't care less, he didn't even twitch with an ear or something, he calmly headed towards us, so I let Sambo go because I don't want him to meet any unknown dogs without having enough manoeuvre space due to many bad experiences (not to complicate, he was attacked and jumped at numerous times by small and big annoying dogs when he was on leash or close to me, so he didn't even have any room to move away and avoid them). The ogs sniffed each other calmly, Sambo was even wagging his tail and the little one was (surprisingly!) cool, totally relaxed and didn't show any signs of uneasiness, aggression or fear. And then, one of the women comes running to the dogs (great), calling her Gizmo and saying that he can't do that, that he has to go away, that he fears dark dogs very much because he was attacked by one. Doing that, she leans over Sambo (awesome, what better thing to do to an unknown dog than to lean over hs back) and reaches towards Gizmo, who obviously wanted to do a bit more sniffing and moved away from her. So I said to her 'Lady, everything is ok. (No, you see, my dog is terribly afraid of dark dogs.) He isn't afraid, he's completely happy and unconcerned.' At that moment, the second woman comes running, goes between both dogs with her hands, grabs poor Gizmo by the harness and lifts him into her lap (brilliant). I actually felt sorry for the little guy, he was one of the very few smally dogs that behaved more than exemplary, without a trace of panic, aggression or fear, and that two women interrupted an interaction with two normal dogs (the thing he needs most if he really has a problem with big dark dogs, which I wouldn't say, judging by what I saw…). I can only hope that a) they don't REALLY impart a fear towards big dogs, so that he becomes one of the endless small annoying dogs, dashing at every dog they meet, and b) that one of the women doesn't get half of her face bitten off by a dog that hasn't got Sambo's socialization or character if they keep leaning over unknown dogs like that or getting their hands in between two dogs that are meeting for the first time. Yeah, I really wonder which of the three of them has a problem with big black dogs…

Just another manic Monday

Today Sambo finally got to go to agility training. Recently he started limping again and so he was on a forced rest last week – he had just walks and clicking, nothing too active, no training, no playing with his tricolor friend… Besides, last week I was quite busy and poor Sambo got only one walk a day instead of two for two days in a row. I tried to convince myself that he has to rest anyway and that it is for his own good. Well, after this two days I noticed that the neurotic in him started to increase rapidly inspite of my effort (clicking and tricks for his brain) as he started to howl, scream and whine at every smallest sign of me leaving, all in all, he started being an average unbalanced Belgian. So when he saw me leaving the living room through the window he flew over the five steps that separate the terrace from the garden a few times, probably hoping that I'm going out and that he's coming with me. I don't know if this is the reason that despite of the otherwise calm and inactive week the limping continued. Anywho, today I decided to take him to training anyway because last week he almost threw himself under the car when he realized I was going to training without him. I came a bit earlier so I could do some rally obedience with him and then he had a little chat with his schoolmates that had already arrived; I only did a few dogwalks and tunnels with him, the least risky obstacles, so he could have a bit of fun anyway. He of course worked much less than usual, but I think it was better than doing nothing at all. He was the good old Black Death from the beginning years in agility though… A glassy look, his eyes spinning round, foam coming from his mouth… How romantic ;-).

Oh well, let's keep our fingers crossed for the leg to be ok so that the nigger will be able to fly over the obstacles as soon as possible without limitations again.

Messages

A few days ago I went to walk Sambo in the evening and in the middle of the walk my neighbour and her two daughters, Tina (7) and Teja (5) came running after me and joined us. The little ones wanted Sambo to run with them by all means, which he actually did every now and then out of the goodness of his heart, but most of the time he didn't let himself be interrupted while doing his evening errands such as sniffing, marking and having his doggy fun. So Tina (frustrated because of Sambo's lack of interest in running around with them) aksed why Sambo sniffs so much and then pees on the spot he sniffed. I told her that's because when a dog pees he leaves a message behind him so that other dogs can read it and find out different things, like watching TV or reading the newspaper. And all was quiet for a few minutes. But then again…

T: Urškaaaa…

U: Yes?

T: Does EVERY pee has a message?

U: Yes, every pee.

T: … (thinking)

And what does the message say?

U: Look, Sambo just peed now and his message says: I'm Sambo, a magnificent 8-year-old boy, it's my second walk today, I'm a happy and healthy dog and I live nearby.

T: Aha…

And we keep walking. Tina was being unusually quiet, obviously thinking about the message in a pee sutff. Meanwhile, we were getting very near our houses as we were on the last metres of the field before we would cross the road and enter our street. At that moment Tina yells to her mom that she has to pee urgently and that there's no way she can make it home. We start convincing her that she can pee right there, that it is almost dark and no one will see her. So Tina goes a few metres away, does her business and runs after us. All was quiet for a few metres and then…

T: Urškaaaaa…

U: Yes?

T: Is there a message in my pee too?

U: Yes, of course. At least for the dogs.

T: And what does it say?

Just as I'm thinking what to reply, Teja, who has remained uninvolved so far, turns to us and says: 'That you couldn't hold it until we got home.'

UFO (Uncontrolled Flying Object)

As most of my weekends, this one was in doggy style too. On Saturday we went to the first agility trial of the autumn round (which was again more fun than successful, sadly) and on Sunday the Black Death and I participated in a frisbee seminar, organized by an agility friend. The seminar started with some serious warm-up – first we ran around the training field for some 5 min, which was followed by stretching and warm-up exercises. Firstly Jean showed us a few grips and throws, which we then practised in pairs. Then we were showed the next series of throws, practised them in pairs and so on a few more times. I have to say it was very interesting and we learnt a lot of new things. Of course we will definitively have to do quite a bit of practice as some of the throws resembeled an attempt to decapitate the near and not so near surroundings. Anyhow, we had a blast, we learnt a lot of useful things and, of course, Sambo enjoyed our practise together. I hope this wasn't Jean's last effort for us, frisbee fans…