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The 'Instant' Dog
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The other evening two Police Officers came to our home, as I had witnessed an incident and they wanted to take a statement from me.
As they knocked at the door three of our dogs started to bark and as the Officers came into the kitchen and I asked them to please avoid looking at the dogs, one Officer did and the other did not, which resulted in the barking going up a gear.
The Officer that had looked at the dogs then raised his voice to ask if there was somewhere that we could go to talk and looked very surprised when I asked him again to please ignore the dogs and just wait a moment.
This time he did as I asked, so I simply thanked the dogs for their contribution to the protection of our family and home. As I turned to speak to the Officers I could see them exchange looks of, "just go along with this nutcase" but by the time I walked to where the Officers were, I have to admit to a little smile crossing my face, as their expression suddenly changed totally. The dogs not only stopped barking but just walked to their beds and lay down with absolutely no need for anything further from me, as they trusted my judgement completely in this unusual situation.
We then did what we had to do and as they left both of the officers commented on the fact that none of the dogs moved from their beds or seemed bothered about them, to which I replied that every dog owner could gain this level of control in any situation, once the dog has freely given the important decisions to the owner.
I was also reminded of how impatient people tend to be with a dog, which, were the owner to become anxious about their dog, would naturally pick up on their distress with the resulting chaos.
For this reason I ensure that I allow my dogs the time to respond in the way that I want them to and accept that like us all, they can become distracted or concerned for a few seconds and by giving them an extra moment to respond, make it possible for them to get it right.
Jan Fennell
5th September 2011
PS. On a different note; 580 dogs were destroyed this year in the Yorkshire region alone. I wonder how many discarded cars were crushed too.
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