Two very interesting years with my small dog Hopper !!!
He is always ready to go anywhere. Now, if we can just improve on him being nicer to brother Pepper. We have spent almost a year going to the park, which is one of his favorite words. He has learned which intersections have slow light changes, (3rd & Main St), so he likes to get out of his chair and try to snuggle for a few brief seconds until the light turns green.
When I leave him behind at the house on the rare occasion he can’t go to my destination, he will invariably chew me out verbally when I return home. He has understood short trips, like to the trash can where I am gone for a minute or two, but if I leave in a vehicle without him, he is very unhappy. But during the last six months I have tried to explain to him verbally and with my own sign language, where I am going and why he can’t come along AND I even (I know this part sounds really silly), yes, I even tell him how long I plan to be gone. Yes, like he is going to really, hah, going to make the connection between my sign language for the hand spinning around on an analog clock 360 degrees with my rotating finger. So after all this effort he has settled down a little bit during his welcome home celebrations.
In just two years we have easily taken a thousand trips together, and remarkably he has never made a mess in a vehicle or my office, except one time that he got sick at my office.
He has learned very well which side of the vehicle he is going to get out, based on our location. He knows that he can always get out the driver’s side door when we pull up into either driveway when we get home, but when the vehicle is parked uptown on Main Street he knows he has to wait until I come around to let him out safely onto the sidewalk. He even understands when we rarely park on the street at home at the end of the driveway, that he has to wait until I come around to let him out the right side of the vehicle.
It is nice to have someone you can say, “I love you” to throughout the day, who responds positively.
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3 comments:
He has turned out to be a great dog for you . . . . It is strange how fate can work at times, it is indeed a fickle thing.
Rob: I added a couple more paragraphs onto my story since you left your comment. I think I really did need him, he arrived at just the right moment for me to deal with the transition of losing Cooper. My wife hates him because he guards me closely and doesn't like anyone near me! Yet if I leave him home with her in the house, he will get right up on the couch right beside her happy as a lark to snuggle with her until I come back home.
It always amazes me just how the personality of animals such as cats and dog vary. . . I have even noticed it in the cows who live in the field next to us from time to time.
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