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Ponderings from Home
Nov. 26th, 2014 02:22 pmHome means relearning how to use a computer/read/eat with a cat on your lap.
Smoosh seems to be doing well with his new daily vitamin, my mom reports he is a bit more active now. He is a good Smooooosh-cat and keeps me warm.
I was trying to describe Panic and the relationship I have with him to one of my housemates before I left last night. He's never had a dog and never really been around dogs, so I'm sure what I was saying came across as extremely foreign to him.
It is incredible how much the pet-human relationship changes once you add in training/agility/whatever other dog activity. It's not just about the time commitment or the "stuff" your dog knows, it's about the commitment that you and your dog make to attempt to understand each other, to meet in the middle between dog and human language. Panic is not the best/cutest/most awesome dog that ever existed...but we get each other, or at least we try very hard to. And of course we all know that Maxie was the best/cutest/most awesome dog ever.
Obviously I'm preaching to the choir here, but the more time I spend on the outskirts of the dog world, the more time I spend thinking about these kinds of things. Learning the language of another species is so incredibly rewarding, and spending a lot of time trying to do that is what I miss much more than agility itself.
Among other things, what my friends always seem to ask if they spend any amount of time with Panic is "Why is he staring at me? What does he want?" I know that's partially a border collie thing and partially a trained eye contact thing, but beyond all that I really feel as though he's trying to understand. Looking, listening, trying to communicate. It is good to be home.
"Look I get it. Its great to see you and have this special bond and yadda yadda but please look into my eyes now and understand that I am bored and I want to go do things."
Smoosh seems to be doing well with his new daily vitamin, my mom reports he is a bit more active now. He is a good Smooooosh-cat and keeps me warm.
I was trying to describe Panic and the relationship I have with him to one of my housemates before I left last night. He's never had a dog and never really been around dogs, so I'm sure what I was saying came across as extremely foreign to him.
It is incredible how much the pet-human relationship changes once you add in training/agility/whatever other dog activity. It's not just about the time commitment or the "stuff" your dog knows, it's about the commitment that you and your dog make to attempt to understand each other, to meet in the middle between dog and human language. Panic is not the best/cutest/most awesome dog that ever existed...but we get each other, or at least we try very hard to. And of course we all know that Maxie was the best/cutest/most awesome dog ever.
Obviously I'm preaching to the choir here, but the more time I spend on the outskirts of the dog world, the more time I spend thinking about these kinds of things. Learning the language of another species is so incredibly rewarding, and spending a lot of time trying to do that is what I miss much more than agility itself.
Among other things, what my friends always seem to ask if they spend any amount of time with Panic is "Why is he staring at me? What does he want?" I know that's partially a border collie thing and partially a trained eye contact thing, but beyond all that I really feel as though he's trying to understand. Looking, listening, trying to communicate. It is good to be home.
"Look I get it. Its great to see you and have this special bond and yadda yadda but please look into my eyes now and understand that I am bored and I want to go do things."
