Dogs

Just a little mindless chatter for the afternoon from hell (for me, anyway)

Dogs are pack animals. All of their behavior is based on a pack mentality.  I am a total dog person--I love dogs.  But people who personify dogs crack me up.  Now, I'm not a dog so I don't know if they have feelings or not--but they don't need them to explain their behavior. Whether they actually feel affection or not, has nothing to do with how they act.

I have had numerous conversations with my co-worker about this.  He is always talking about his dogs acting this way or that and then applying human feelings to the action.  Once at the beach, his dog wandered off and lost sight of him--then got frantic, racing about until it found him again.  He thinks the dog 'missed his daddy'.  I think the dog just wanted to find the leader of its pack again, I told him so and pissed him off. So nowadays I sort of just let him talk. Well today he mentioned his new puppy was playing with him, and started biting him a little too hard so he yanked his hand back to let the dog know he didn't like it. The dog immediately 'ran up to his face and started giving daddy kisses to say how sorry he was'.  I couldn't bite my tongue--I said: or, he knows it would be a bad idea to piss off the guy who is responsible for his dinner.

I realize I'm a bit cynical--but believe me, your life will be a lot better if you realize--your dog is part of a pack.  If you don't take the role of leader, he will. Dogs in a pack have to lead or follow, there's no partnerships.  It amazes me to hear about people with dog problems who let their dogs run the house and then get shocked the dog won't behave as they want him too. Really? Does a boss listen to his subordinates?   If you've watched the Dog Whisperer on Animal Planet, that guy is amazing. And it's ALL about the pack mentality.

Now he feels bad about putting the dog, who is yet to be potty-trained, in the cage while he goes to work.  He is going to enclose an area of his house with access to the doggie door for his two dogs. I told him, don't be surprised if that damn thing never gets potty trained. 

Am I an asshole? Probably. But I've got two of the best behaved black labs you'll ever see in your life. I treat them very very well, but don't let them run the house. You always see people who don't want to be mean to the dog, so they let him on the couch, let him jump on people, feed him when he barks at them, won't reprimand him, etc etc etc.  It's not being mean, it's letting the dog know his place in the pack.  Every dog 'wants' to know his place (there I go personifying).

Anyone have any thoughts on this?