19.5.05

Life with Dog


Everyone, meet Pogo.

Pogo came to the office with me today, and here's how it has been so far:

8:00am - Leave home with Pogo for march to work with Lola, J. and his wife.

8:10am - Starbucks: SoyChaiLatte yumminess. Enjoy free cake samples - For breakfast! Cake!

8:12am - Poobag #1. I still find this mildly amusing and troubling at the same time.

8:25am - 2nd stop, this time at nice bakery with awesome muffins. Notice the rhubarb muffins too late...

8:30am - Okay, getting tired of this whole "I'm going to stop & sniff everything and then run (and thus dislocate memeboy's arm) to catch up to my owner" thing.

I think this is the hardest part of walking someone else's dog while they are walking near/with you. Pogo/Dogs(?) is/are just are so attached to the owner - the object of their affections, their alpha - that the person walking them gets frustrated trying to independently manoeuvre self and dog without the dog desperately trying to alternately smell _every_fscking_novel item and racing to then catch up with the owner who didn't have to stop with the curious dog.

I don't like being in this position at all. I either let Pogo do her thing (see above) or I spend my all of my time and energy keeping her in line. Neither of these options works for me.

8:31am - Start to realize that if this keeps up for much longer, children will begin to seem like a reasonable investment of time vs. dogs. Come to think of it, they sorta do...

8:35am - Encumbered with disposable cup, formerly containing SoyChaiLatte yumminess, muffin-in-a-bag, leash with one Pogo attached, computer bag (large, slung over shoulder), a jacket (light, .75 length) & hoodie black (my fav.); Poobag #2 is inevitable. It is steaming in the beautiful morning sun and smells bad. Big surprise.


8:45am - Mistake #1: Open Mouth. Out come thoughts on 'wise investment of energy and emotion'. ie. Investment: Children vs. Dogs This is unwise territory to cover on a nice walk to work. Or ever. It is typical boy thinking, all sort of "A Modest Proposal" in its economy, clean and too simple. Discussion continues. Pogo is happy because we all start and stop walking together due to the heated discussion, while being completely obvious to the core principle friction she has precipitated into my lovely morning with my even more lovely SO. Discussion degrades to "No one is an island." I'm just dealing with stuff. Mistake #2: I deal with it out loud.

8:55am - Arrive at corner where I and Pogo will turn to go to my work. L. is obviously hurt, and oh, look, before I can start to try to repair the damage, the streetcar that everyone else needs to catch arrives. I begin to feel terrible for the past fifteen minutes of indiscreet venting.

8:56am - Walking up to work w/ Pogo. Feeling: shanked in the gut. Thinking: I'm really just having issues with finding my way through were I stand in relation to L. and her dog... Pogo is not my dog. I like Pogo, but I'm not sure, should I 'adopt' her into my life (more than I already have,) or not? How much responsibility should I take for this living creature? Well... Here I am unlocking my office with my girlfriend's dog. I guess I am taking quite a bit of responsibility for her.

8:57am - Oh Pogo, look, your knotted animal skin/bone toy thing! Water in a nice bowl! Cool office space, good tunes, nice big windows, air conditioning even!

9:04am - Pogo writes Lola a text message. I hope she wasn't begging to be picked up already.

9:15am - I'm puttering around sorting out what to do today... Pogo is scouting out the office. Just the two of us here. I spend some time talking to her... I set up her bedding under the desk where I've set up my computer today. Dogs universally seem to like to sit at their master's feet. Thousands of years of breeding to get them to do this... Might as well enjoy it.

9:30am - Work. I was expecting the barking at bicycle couriers thing to really bug me, but it just didn't. I know that Pogo's breed is territorial and protective, and she didn't move from her perch overlooking the stairs, so no one was really freaked.

10:15am - Still working. Pogo is totally chilled out. She hasn't moved in twenty minutes or so.

10:30am - Realize that Pogo likes French Hip-Hop too. Being a German breed, I thought she'd sneer at it, but maybe the last decade of European reconciliation has spilled over to their national breeds as well... The third courier to come in doesn't get barked at nearly as much as the first one. This might actually be okay.

10:45am - I've found some doggy treats kicking around. I'm taking a break and read some websites on training dogs. Treats and dog training go together like peanuts and butter, Seems like apart from the love that you get from a dog, you also get a firm foundation on mammalian behaviour.

Although I've got a problem with using what computer scientists call an exploit, I guess it is necessary to live in reality and just accept that this is the way things are. It may not be a bad thing. I guess if I can find a way that involves positive 'soft' methods and steers clear of negative reinforcement then I'll be happy. Does this work? The last thing I want is a "hobby" that absorbs more time/energy than it is worth. It is weird what becomes important sometimes.

Weirder still is finding things that make you feel uncomfortable and not really knowing why. WTF?

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi, there memeboy, I am out searching for information on dog training videos and found your site. Although Life with Dog is not exactly what I am looking for it certainly got my attention and interest. I see now why I found your page looking for information on dog training videos and am glad I stopped by even though this is not a perfect match. Great blog thanks for the read.

12:57 p.m.  

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