Regular readers may know that I have taken against very few dogs that we meet, but that one such is a very dark, rather shaggy alsatian who gets walked in the Rec at dusk, and whom, if she looms out of the dark or mist at me, I can't resist charging. I shout and yell, and the alsatian kicks up a din back as I chase round the poor dog walker hanging onto the lead and the alsatian dances round in circles trying to get at me. It's a din that can be (and has been) heard the far side of the Rec.
Well, readers, let me teach you a humbling lesson in why a dog should not go by first impressions - or indeed a human (Dad has to hold his hand up to having thought dark thoughts and muttered mutterings about badly behaved unsociable dogs and owners who don't properly socialise their dogs when they are pups.......)
Tonight, it's a foggy evening but Dad (for the first time since before Christmas) is back in time to walk us our entire walk in daylight (all be it foggy), so we're in the Rec and I'm chasing the yellow frisbee, then a tennis ball, then having a chase about with collie cross Ben (I'm getting very muddy below the plimsoll line at this stage), and then the two Bichons we know - Billy and Bugsy.
Out of the mist looms the said dark shaggy alsatian, with owner, and I spot him, freeze, then charge. But the dog is off the lead, so she can lunge back at me, and there is a very brief shouting contest, but now she circles round and allows me to sniff her bum (like we do), and suddenly we three westies, and Ben, and the alsatian are all quiet and getting to know each other. I'm not saying we're all bestest mates, but we are in the same bit of Rec and not killing each other.
The bloke turns out to be nice and friendly, and comments that "There! I knew she'd be much better off the lead!" The dog we now know is Lucy, a Battersea Home rescue, who was 9 yesr old when the guy rescued her, and who he has now had for 2 years or so. Coming to him with "issues" she's been slow to socialise, hence he always has always walked her away from places and times when most people walk their dogs.
It also gives Dad a chance to apologise for my "attitude" (oh the shame!) and the humans agree that "There's always one! - These two (indicating Meggie and the H) are as chilled as anything and always have been, but Deefs here (indicating me), 2 years old and full of it!".
So, now we know the human and the dog and we are suitably humbled and apologetic for our intolerance.
Still reckon she needs telling!
Deefer
Showing posts with label Black Alsatian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black Alsatian. Show all posts
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Saturday, 29 November 2008
Deefski to Vetski for Jabski
"Gone to Vetski with Deefski for Jabski", says the "amusing" note left by Dad for Mum, fridge-mageneted to the fridge. Very funny I'm sure (how we laughed!) for Mum, and Meggie and the H, but presaging for me the annual booster at nice Vet John's place. Unusually we actually get John - he's usually being much too important and clever to see the likes of us, and we get a succession of 2nd-in-command vets and locums.
I get weighed at 7.6 kgs, poked, prodded, stethoscoped and pronounced 100% fit and well. I get jabbed between the shoulder blades, which seems a bit harsh, but I only whimper instead of shrieking the house down, so everyone pronounces me "very brave". Shucks. Money changes hands and a suspicious crinkly blister-pack of foil is passed across and trousered by Dad.
A couple of days later, supper includes 2 strange pill-shaped white bits, and I get a minor belly ache. Haggis and Megan exchange glances knowingly. Nobody tells me what is going on.
A series of late finishes by Dad at work, have meant a succession of short, in-the-dark walks round the Rec. As long as it's not totally dark, this is a good thing, as lots of dog-walkers get concentrated into a compressed "window" and we meet everybody.
They say you can't be popular with everybody. Although we are a sociable bunch, and have no real enemies, there's this one dark Alsatian who gets walked in the Rec in the dark, always on the lead. suspect this is because he is not the most sociable of beasts. I don't know what it is - he just gets to me, lurking and looming out of the dark like that. I just have to charge at him shouting.
Sometimes I give a few alert barks into the shadows (we'll call it a "pre-emptive strike" but the cynics among you might think I'm nervous of unseen beasties in the dark....."). This gives Dad a chance to grab my collar.
If he fails, and I go into charge mode, we end up with me running round the dark Alsatian shouting, just out of lead range, alternating shouts with squeaks of "He's gonna kill me!" drama-queen-dom. The Alsatian in turn dances round the owner pulling on the lead and shouting and snarling back.
The Dad joins in the shouting and dancing (at me! the nerve!) till he grabs me, apologises to the mysterious, quiet, unspeaking man hanging onto the Alsatian.
It all goes quiet again. Doesn't happen very often, but it did happen on Thursday at about 5 pm, in the dark and the rain. By coincidence, Mum is walking across the bottom of the Rec on her way home from work and hears, in the distance a doggie, shouting commotion which she thinks "vaguely reminds (her) of Deefer", but convinced that we'd not be still out at that time in the rain, she walks on by.
Getting home and finding us all still out she realises it's us she may have heard.
Ooops
Maybe I deserved the jab and the belly-ache tablets
Deefer
I get weighed at 7.6 kgs, poked, prodded, stethoscoped and pronounced 100% fit and well. I get jabbed between the shoulder blades, which seems a bit harsh, but I only whimper instead of shrieking the house down, so everyone pronounces me "very brave". Shucks. Money changes hands and a suspicious crinkly blister-pack of foil is passed across and trousered by Dad.
A couple of days later, supper includes 2 strange pill-shaped white bits, and I get a minor belly ache. Haggis and Megan exchange glances knowingly. Nobody tells me what is going on.
A series of late finishes by Dad at work, have meant a succession of short, in-the-dark walks round the Rec. As long as it's not totally dark, this is a good thing, as lots of dog-walkers get concentrated into a compressed "window" and we meet everybody.
They say you can't be popular with everybody. Although we are a sociable bunch, and have no real enemies, there's this one dark Alsatian who gets walked in the Rec in the dark, always on the lead. suspect this is because he is not the most sociable of beasts. I don't know what it is - he just gets to me, lurking and looming out of the dark like that. I just have to charge at him shouting.
Sometimes I give a few alert barks into the shadows (we'll call it a "pre-emptive strike" but the cynics among you might think I'm nervous of unseen beasties in the dark....."). This gives Dad a chance to grab my collar.
If he fails, and I go into charge mode, we end up with me running round the dark Alsatian shouting, just out of lead range, alternating shouts with squeaks of "He's gonna kill me!" drama-queen-dom. The Alsatian in turn dances round the owner pulling on the lead and shouting and snarling back.
The Dad joins in the shouting and dancing (at me! the nerve!) till he grabs me, apologises to the mysterious, quiet, unspeaking man hanging onto the Alsatian.
It all goes quiet again. Doesn't happen very often, but it did happen on Thursday at about 5 pm, in the dark and the rain. By coincidence, Mum is walking across the bottom of the Rec on her way home from work and hears, in the distance a doggie, shouting commotion which she thinks "vaguely reminds (her) of Deefer", but convinced that we'd not be still out at that time in the rain, she walks on by.
Getting home and finding us all still out she realises it's us she may have heard.
Ooops
Maybe I deserved the jab and the belly-ache tablets
Deefer
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