The problem with dogs: owners!

During the Winter, when the snow is deep and the temperature bitterly cold, we yell at the dogs to "hurry up and take care of business!" Now it is Summer, the snow is gone, temperatures and humidity are tropical, and we yell at the dogs to "hurry up and take care of business!"

the Better Half's Franco, from several years ago

Photo by J. Harrington

The dogs, on the other hand, patiently wander about, sniffing the breeze and the ground to find just the right spot to take care of business. First they have to check in front of themselves, then behind, then to the left, then to the right, the entire time getting more and more entangled in their long lead, until, finally, they squat and take care of business.

our SiSi, from several years ago

Photo by J. Harrington

To paraphrase Shakespeare, from  his play Julius Caesar, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars dogs, But in ourselves, that we are underlings not dogs." Now, we know better than to get perturbed at least once, and sometimes several times, a day when we walk the dogs and they engage in the classic "dogs will be dogs" behavior. And yet, and yet, we keep doing it. When we were younger, a long, long time ago, we learned, fairly quickly, that every time we put our hand on a hot stove, we burned our hand. We stopped putting our hand on a hot stove. That leaves us with a judgement call. Is it likely to be more work and/or more rewarding to train the dogs to not be dogs or to train us not to act as we always have while the dogs sniff about looking for just the right spot during Minnesota's extremes of heat and cold? We've only been us for a handful and a half of decades. Dogs have been dogs much longer than we've been us. We think we see a pattern emerging.

It's not so much that the dogs win as it is that it's probably less work to change one of us than two of them. Hard as it may be to believe some days, we think we may be both more intelligent and more educable than either dog or both dogs combined. We've recently learned how to bake sourdough bread. The dogs haven't.

In fact, this probably goes back at least as far as when we were the system administrator for a small consulting firm. Much more often than not, we found that complaints by system users, when investigated, were most often attributable to users misusing the system (not following proper procedures, etc.). We have come to suspect that the dogs may be viewing us as one of those pesky users (owners) who just won't learn to use the system (dogs) properly. Once again we're back to the inimitable Joni Mitchell. "We've looked at dogs from both sides now, from up and down and still somehow, it's dogs illusions we recall. We really don't know dogs at all." We have, however, also learned to let sleeping dogs lie. We can probably build on that, especially if we pay attention to what a Nobel Laureate has written about dogs.

If Dogs Run Free

Written by: Bob Dylan

If dogs run free, then why not we
Across the swooping plain?
My ears hear a symphony
Of two mules, trains and rain
The best is always yet to come
That’s what they explain to me
Just do your thing, you’ll be king
If dogs run free

If dogs run free, why not me
Across the swamp of time?
My mind weaves a symphony
And tapestry of rhyme
Oh, winds which rush my tale to thee
So it may flow and be
To each his own, it’s all unknown
If dogs run free

If dogs run free, then what must be
Must be, and that is all
True love can make a blade of grass
Stand up straight and tall
In harmony with the cosmic sea
True love needs no company
It can cure the soul, it can make it whole
If dogs run free 

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.