Down

I try to keep things lighthearted around here. Over-thought, but generally positive.

I’m just not in that space lately. I’ve been getting a lot of reminders of things that Silas “can’t” do lately.

Last week at the coffee shop a four month old puppy just . . . hung out under the table the whole time her owners ate breakfast. No barking, no cowering, no insisting that she run up to every person to meet them with who knows what outcome.

Sunday we ran across what looked like a nose work/tracking class at the park where we bike. I would love to do a nose work class with Silas. All the dogs were sitting in crates, calm and happy, while one dog worked. More than Silas could handle? Probably.

Today we got an invitation to a housewarming party. The couple giving the party have two very friendly and outgoing dogs, and they told us we could bring Silas. They haven’t met him since he was a puppy. I’m not sure if Silas could handle just the two of them and their two dogs, let alone fifty people.

One thing at a time I can laugh this stuff off. It’s just a bad combination of things all at once, plus our visit with the behaviorist yesterday was pretty hard. Rational brain knows that we, culturally, expect dogs to do ridiculous things like they aren’t hard at all. It’s great that some dogs can do those things, but we can’t let that be the expectation for every dog. (Especially if you stack them together, the way I see some people trying–they want a dog who can win agility and flyball meets, walks perfectly off leash, can hang out without stressing while you drink a latte, doesn’t chase squirrels, has never laid tooth to anything that isn’t a dog toy, goes to the dog park like it’s Disneyland, and will let kids climb on him like a pony. But they don’t want to spend too much time in Obedience class, because that makes the dog “like a robot.”)

Anyway, pity party, table of one. I’ll try to get over it.