+top trainer of animal actors (SVU, Sex and the City, Disney, the list goes on!) +have fun with your dog learning cool new tricks +http://subscribe.dogpotentialunleashed.com/ + https://linktr.ee/dogpotentialunleashed
Not Today
|
(trigger warning - no one dies, but this has to do with death) Those of us who have lived our lives with dogs and who are no longer young have a certain understanding about dogs dying. We've been through it and we know the ins and outs. But we only know it as well as we know how to live in a home. We understand the rough layout, the touchstones that tell us we are here where we belong, but each place we have lived was different. Each dog steps in and out of our life in a different way, in no small part because we, too, have aged. The prism through which we view their life and death is not the same. There are a lot of repetitive refrains we tell each other and ourselves. There are words we use and words we typically don't. They pass, they gain wings, they go over the rainbow bridge. They let us know the time has come. We release them from suffering. We let them go. Because we cannot fathom the hard edge of reality. That the line between us is severing. That we as we know it will be no more. Death is a hard word to pull out of one's mouth. Kiss has given me more time to think about loss than any dog who came before. We are 14 months into hospice. I am following her because I don't really know this terrain. I pick her up when she stumbles and falls. Sometimes we wonder, together, whether it's worth getting up this time. But once righted, she chooses her direction and moves on. This is where we are now. She is the most judgmental of dogs, and perhaps, to be anthropomorphic, the least sentimental. She is fiercely loyal to those she has deigned to love, but even we are not above being critiqued and corrected when we do not toe the line. Kiss lives her life striving to be and do the best, she expects nothing less from us. Do dogs teach us things by who they are? Kiss simultaneously judges me and loves me unconditionally. She might think I'm an idiot sometimes, but I'm her idiot. Dogs teach us a different way of loving. So heavy with responsibility yet so free of expectation. Kiss is dying but it's enough that right now we can say not today.
|
DOG POTENTIAL UNLEASHED
+top trainer of animal actors (SVU, Sex and the City, Disney, the list goes on!) +have fun with your dog learning cool new tricks +http://subscribe.dogpotentialunleashed.com/ + https://linktr.ee/dogpotentialunleashed
There is a common cultural belief that the lack of punishment and pain causes children to grow up entitled, out of control, selfish. It's not new, throughout history, any time people thought that the younger generation was acting poorly it was blamed on too much freedom and a not enough 'discipline' which was always meant as not enough hitting. What is incredible is the continued pervasiveness of the belief. You might be reading this wondering whether I forgot I was writing a dog newsletter,...
I don’t know how good a mother I was when my children were growing up. How are those things measured, and who measures them? It is patently unfair to ask one’s children, if they’re even moderately polite they will say something close to what one wants to hear. Did the kids turn out the way we wanted? That might mean that they might have survived despite our failures, because there’s so much else at play. And so it is with puppies, the vast majority of them turn out fine regardless of how many...
I generally find exaggeration incredibly off putting. Whether it's people making claims about their abilities, wins and successes, or tales of woes, accidents and misfortunes, it's really frustrating when things are blown to excessive proportions. Not so with dog tricks however. So many tricks seem to take on a whole new life when we encourage the dog to do the trick only more so. I was thinking about this while taking pictures of Know Me yawning. All my dogs can yawn on cue. The obvious...