I spent a good part of today feeling terribly holier-than-thou after hearing someone make a blatantly homophobic comment in front of the entire class. Man, it’s comfy up on my high “judge no one” horse. Of course, I was judging her, but that’s different. She deserved it!
But then I realized that twice in the past two days I have thought to myself “gee, at first I thought that person was a real dolt, but it turns out he’s actually quite interesting and I hope to get to know him better.” Then it struck me that both of those people have southern accents. That’s right. Apparently I think everyone from the South is Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel. I guess I’m not so perfect when it comes to the old open mind…
Anyway, today was less eventful in terms of dog handling. We’re still working on name recognition and general building of the relationship. I think Sugar definitely sees me primarily as a treat dispenser, but I’m told that will change. We had our first weekly health check, and Sugar is absolutely terrified of the grooming building. It didn’t help that the person in charge didn’t have the patience to go slowly with her and probably freaked her out more. She’s been fine in every other indoor area, so I’m not sure what about this scared her. She was back to normal in her run for dinner, and was fine again tonight for her potty break, so I don’t think there was any harm done.
I had to spend a long time standing around waiting with Joker for his health check so we actually got to do some bonding. He came and sat in my lap of his own free will and I got my first face lick from him. He also flopped over on his back for some belly rubs, and when I started to get a little rough and tumble with him, he got pretty mouthy. I think it was all in fun, but I couldn’t be sure. It was yet another moment where I realized how utterly clueless I am. Any of my instructors would have seen the instant he turned from goofy mouthiness to overstimulated alligator and been able to tell me where I went wrong. Of course there were no witnesses so I’m left wondering.
I haven’t been this excited to see a weekend in a long time. Of course, having to get up early to walk/train dogs before class has been great in terms of avoiding the heat, but I will sacrifice a little extra sweat for an extra two hours of sleep. I think I’ll get up around 8:00, go feed breakfast, and then come back and take care of my own business at a leisurely pace. I have a ton to do this weekend, but it doesn’t feel unmanageable.
Oh, and there was a 4H show in our event center today, and it continues tomorrow. It totally brought me back to my 4H days. There was even a drill team! I never in a gabillion years would have thought back then that I’d be wanting to make a living at it now. And so much of what I learned was so…wrong…I mean, not terribly horribly destructively wrong or anything, but just so regimented and inflexible. And I am realizing how many mistakes I’ve made with my past dogs. It’s all very humbling, really.
But then I realized that twice in the past two days I have thought to myself “gee, at first I thought that person was a real dolt, but it turns out he’s actually quite interesting and I hope to get to know him better.” Then it struck me that both of those people have southern accents. That’s right. Apparently I think everyone from the South is Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel. I guess I’m not so perfect when it comes to the old open mind…
Anyway, today was less eventful in terms of dog handling. We’re still working on name recognition and general building of the relationship. I think Sugar definitely sees me primarily as a treat dispenser, but I’m told that will change. We had our first weekly health check, and Sugar is absolutely terrified of the grooming building. It didn’t help that the person in charge didn’t have the patience to go slowly with her and probably freaked her out more. She’s been fine in every other indoor area, so I’m not sure what about this scared her. She was back to normal in her run for dinner, and was fine again tonight for her potty break, so I don’t think there was any harm done.
I had to spend a long time standing around waiting with Joker for his health check so we actually got to do some bonding. He came and sat in my lap of his own free will and I got my first face lick from him. He also flopped over on his back for some belly rubs, and when I started to get a little rough and tumble with him, he got pretty mouthy. I think it was all in fun, but I couldn’t be sure. It was yet another moment where I realized how utterly clueless I am. Any of my instructors would have seen the instant he turned from goofy mouthiness to overstimulated alligator and been able to tell me where I went wrong. Of course there were no witnesses so I’m left wondering.
I haven’t been this excited to see a weekend in a long time. Of course, having to get up early to walk/train dogs before class has been great in terms of avoiding the heat, but I will sacrifice a little extra sweat for an extra two hours of sleep. I think I’ll get up around 8:00, go feed breakfast, and then come back and take care of my own business at a leisurely pace. I have a ton to do this weekend, but it doesn’t feel unmanageable.
Oh, and there was a 4H show in our event center today, and it continues tomorrow. It totally brought me back to my 4H days. There was even a drill team! I never in a gabillion years would have thought back then that I’d be wanting to make a living at it now. And so much of what I learned was so…wrong…I mean, not terribly horribly destructively wrong or anything, but just so regimented and inflexible. And I am realizing how many mistakes I’ve made with my past dogs. It’s all very humbling, really.
2 comments:
This is your mother speaking. Well, my brave and crazy daughter, you're doin' it. I would say that I envy the adventure, but then thoughts of heat, dog bites and armadillos come to me. Then I decide that the raccoon who sits on the branch above the niger seed feeder, pulls it up to sit beside him, and feeds contentedly is enough animal life for me. But I shall be your most devoted reader.
Love, Mom
AK! Hey, it was great seeing you a while ago. Any plans to come back and see us any time soon? :)
I just read all of your posts for the first time, and I want to go on record as saying that the blogging idea was BRILLIANT, whoever it belongs to.
Love,
Hannah
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