Dogs Are…Well It’s Their Life…

I’m glad I’m not young anymore because I sure was stupid while I was ticking.

Not content with four children under six we, or was it just, I, decided to round out the family good and proper by adding pets.

My parents always had a dog.  In fact I learned the art of compassion and patience while watching my father painstakingly train our dogs.

I used to wish I was a dumb animal as I witnessed him rewarding the dog for doing stupid things like balancing a piece of cheese on the end of his nose and sitting there drooling, going cross eyed, looking like the idiot he was, while waiting for the command, “Eat!” On cue he would jerk his head ever so slightly upward, cleverly tossing the cheese morsel in the air and catching it noisily in his slobbery mouth.  Then, and this is what separates the girl from the dog, he’d excitedly sniff the floor around him in case he had missed a piece.  I would never do that!

My father, please remember this was obviously pre-Facebook or Wii, would praise him lavishly, scratch him behind the ears, rough and tumble with him then repeat the trick with another tit-bit.

He had no such patience with me.

He would send me away when I wanted to…learn how to put a plug on for example…declaring that he could do the job quicker himself, which of course he could.

I left home not knowing how to give my paw, stay, or catch a piece of cheese!

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