Does your dog talk to you? If it did, would you know what it’s saying? That’s really what “My Doggie Says…” is about — listening and observing and trying to figure out what your dog is telling you.
Last night, Barbara and I went outside for our pre-bedtime Jacuzzi (or Cajjuzzi, as granddaughter Lauren would say). Just as we got into the water, we heard four loud barks from Callie.
Now, this is pretty amazing all by itself, because we’ve only heard Callie bark three of four times. A few weeks ago, we were starting to wonder if she even had a voice. But she did bark at some raccoons at Lake Arrowhead and another time when a neighbor’s dog walked by off the leash. So it was surprising to hear Callie bark so loud and so emphatically.
Right away we wondered “what could be the problem?” She was in her crate, inside the house, with a sheet draped over it for the night. She has gotten tangled up in the sheet a time or two, so that was a possibility. The only other things I could think of, as I got out of the Jacuzzi, were that she was stuck in the crate somehow, that she wanted to come outside, or that her water dish was empty.
When I pulled the sheet back, Callie was standing up with her nose by her water dish, which was totally empty. I thought, “it sure looks like Callie was asking for a puppy water refill.” I filled the dish to the brim, closed the crate door, and pulled the sheet back over the crate.
And that was the end of the barking. I got back in the Jacuzzi, and Callie didn’t say another word. She was just saying, “Please fill my puppy water dish!”
It’s hard to understand what a dog is saying, sometimes, but it’s very rewarding when you figure it out. Sometimes you just have to think, “what are the different things he/she could be saying under the current circumstances?”
Think how good it makes your dog feel when you do finally “get the message.”
