Picture the scene…
A nice looking lady with her friendly Lab frolicking in the autumn leaves, the sun is beginning to set and dusk is coming in fast. The lady decides it is time to go home and starts heading to her car, only for her dog to look at her and with a spring in it’s step turn and run the other way. She calls him, (it turns out his name is Oscar as everyone in the park soon found out from her hollering) and he play bows her and runs a little further away before woofing. She turns around and walks towards him, again bellowing his name. Another play bow and he is gone haring it off behind some trees. She turns around and heads back to her car periodically stopping to look for her missing dog. A few minutes later Oscar appears, she calls him, he comes nearer, she goes to grab him and he is off again.
This wonderful game of ‘Tag you’re it’ lasted a whole 25 minutes, I didn’t quite see how Oscar was wrangled back into the car as I was walking two Lab unfriendly dogs around the outskirts of the park whilst giggling quietly to myself. Please don’t think me unkind to be laughing at this poor ladies probable daily game of chase with her dog, what I was laughing at was her complete inability to realise what she had taught her beloved Oscar. This lady was totally oblivious to her very first and totally obvious body cue to her own dog that their night time Tag session was about to start. She touched the lead draped around her neck, one quick touch to check it was still there… she may as well have shouted ‘on your marks, get ready, ruuuuuuun’. Her second mistake, she chased him. Ofcourse he was going to run off, he was having the best game of hide, seek and tag all rolled into one.
The reason for this blog? Her third and saddening mistake. Her own frustration took the better of her and she smacked poor Oscar who squeaked in shock. Our dogs pick up on the most minute of language, be it physical or verbal they are watching us, listening to us, sensing us. When we decide to invite a canine into our lives we decide to share our love with the most sentient of beings. Be calm, be fair but most of all be respectful of their abilities. Yes they can learn to manipulate us but they can just as easily learn to fear us when they don’t have to.
It is down to us as owners to educate them on what we require of them and if we make a mistake to learn from them and re-teach the dog what we originally set out to teach.
