we interrupt the quest for relevance with a bunch of whining:
my dog has issues. issues that cause her to behave in a manner that resembles, for lack of a better word, evil. she has definitely decided that i am not in charge of the household, or the boss of her, and to make every effort to negate my attempts to occupy a more dominant position in the pack.
case in point: we know that dogs can sense human emotion. today i reached a breaking point with my house, where hanging out in the social network scene held no joy because there was just too much disarray around me. so i attacked the problem at a serious problem-attacking level: moving furniture and cleaning behind things. at my age, weight, and level of physical fitness (or lack thereof) this led very quickly to me being bathed in sweat; the level of mess i uncovered led to me feeling desperate and overwhelmed (how did i let it get this way? i'll never be able to get through this & make it right.)
now we know the dog is clearly fully capable of comprehending the rich bouquet of emotional and physical distress that was oozing from my every pore. and when i moved a couple small pieces of furniture that had a bunch of crap scattered underneath, she moved in. i gave her a stern 'no' but she held her ground, head low, protecting her find (bits of broken toy she'd chewed up, hair ties, fragments of plastic wrap). i YELLED at her to move. she scurried to her dog bed. i turned my back and she was right back there snarfling around the debris, which i could not reach at that point unless i climbed over the furniture. this went on until i got the furniture moved back.
evil? no, i don't think the canine brain is capable of actual evil, not like the human brain is. but i know for a fact that my dog sensed my vulnerable state and chose to take full advantage of it. i am afraid that the struggle to dominate me is something she's committed to, i think she considers herself an alpha female and intends to pursue this until she succeeds. and i do not want to spend the next ten years struggling to maintain my position.
i've had dogs all my life, never one like this. no matter how casually i took discipline, they seemed to naturally accept me as the leader. perhaps this is because they were all puppies when i got them? i don't know. but i did not expect this when i adopted this dog and if i had that expectation, would never have gotten her. but now, i am stuck with her, until death do us.
my dog has issues. issues that cause her to behave in a manner that resembles, for lack of a better word, evil. she has definitely decided that i am not in charge of the household, or the boss of her, and to make every effort to negate my attempts to occupy a more dominant position in the pack.
case in point: we know that dogs can sense human emotion. today i reached a breaking point with my house, where hanging out in the social network scene held no joy because there was just too much disarray around me. so i attacked the problem at a serious problem-attacking level: moving furniture and cleaning behind things. at my age, weight, and level of physical fitness (or lack thereof) this led very quickly to me being bathed in sweat; the level of mess i uncovered led to me feeling desperate and overwhelmed (how did i let it get this way? i'll never be able to get through this & make it right.)
now we know the dog is clearly fully capable of comprehending the rich bouquet of emotional and physical distress that was oozing from my every pore. and when i moved a couple small pieces of furniture that had a bunch of crap scattered underneath, she moved in. i gave her a stern 'no' but she held her ground, head low, protecting her find (bits of broken toy she'd chewed up, hair ties, fragments of plastic wrap). i YELLED at her to move. she scurried to her dog bed. i turned my back and she was right back there snarfling around the debris, which i could not reach at that point unless i climbed over the furniture. this went on until i got the furniture moved back.
evil? no, i don't think the canine brain is capable of actual evil, not like the human brain is. but i know for a fact that my dog sensed my vulnerable state and chose to take full advantage of it. i am afraid that the struggle to dominate me is something she's committed to, i think she considers herself an alpha female and intends to pursue this until she succeeds. and i do not want to spend the next ten years struggling to maintain my position.
i've had dogs all my life, never one like this. no matter how casually i took discipline, they seemed to naturally accept me as the leader. perhaps this is because they were all puppies when i got them? i don't know. but i did not expect this when i adopted this dog and if i had that expectation, would never have gotten her. but now, i am stuck with her, until death do us.
