“Why-Did-My-Dog-Do-That?” moments are the essential ingredient of understanding dog-talk. Whenever my dogs do something I don’t quite understand, I’ve learned to ask myself, “Why did Callie do that? What message is she trying to send me?” My personal objective is to never let a doggie-message go unheard, although I’m sure I miss a few.
This morning, Callie and I jogged our morning jog together without Barbara, who had an early business meeting. When we got to the golf club road, Callie pulled me in that direction, which didn’t surprise me, as we often jog down the driveway into the golf club parking lot.
But then Callie went on a “sit-down” strike. She just stopped running and sat her feathery puppy butt down on the asphalt.
I probably should have known right away why she did this, but I didn’t put two and two together fast enough. So I started through my mental checklist: “Does she want to go pee or pooh? Is there someone or somedog she wants to visit with? Does she have some bark or twigs caught in her hind puppy feathers? Is she hearing a strange noise or smelling a strange smell?”
Satisfied that the answer to all of these questions was “no,” I dug a little deeper and finally “connected the dots.” Callie was sitting in front of the stone wall that supports the golf club sign, and Barbara always lets her jump up on the wall and walk along the top until she has to hop back down to the driveway.
So I walked Callie over to the wall, and, sure enough, she jumped up and walked tightrope-style along the top as far as she could — a happy puppy because she sent a message and I (finally) heard it and did something about it.
To me, this is an important part of building a strong relationship with a dog — getting the message and showing my dog — by my actions — that I understood.
