It’s a good thing dogs don’t know whether or not you’re the perfect pet owner. Today is a good example of my imperfection from a canine perspective. The four hounds in our house usually get a big afternoon walkie. On the walk, they get to run around through the forest, play with each other, and generally do silly dog stuff. Up until the walkie, the team tends to do a lot of hard core sleeping to rest up for the big event.
Of course, sometimes the stupid human gets so involved in what she’s doing, she doesn’t notice that, oops, it’s 5:30 and it’s dark outside. So the afternoon outing is short and businesslike, instead of fun, exhilarating, and exhausting. (Yes, tonight there will be squirrelly canines at our house.)
And speaking of imperfection, this week, it was heartening to read the information from the Westminster dog show. Even some of the best trained dogs out there are basically still just dogs. In case you missed it, Westminster was won by a 155-pound, slobbering, barking Newfoundland dog named Josh.
From all accounts, Josh was beautiful, but not exactly a model citizen at the show. The reports said he acted the same as any family dog, barking incessantly and generally being a goof. I also read that apparently Josh’s owner stopped handling him after Josh blew out his knee with that big giant head. I can so imagine my Great Pyrenees mix, Leto doing the same thing.
The way I figure it, even the "big wigs" in the dog show world have to accept that dogs will be dogs. Just like the dogs have to accept that sometimes humans will be humans.