I come from dog people. Not the ones caricatured on Best in Show, or the ones who join clubs or show them. I come people who just enjoyed being out with dogs–maybe with a gun, maybe without one.
Dogs were the greatest joy when I was a child. I didn’t have many friends growing up, and I’ve always sort of been “odd.” So when I could come home and spend time outside with the dogs, it was the greatest time of my life. I can still remember those long, seemingly endless summer days when I was out in the woods and the fields the family dogs.
But those times are over. All I’ve ever written about dogs is attempt to recapture what has been lost and will never be recovered.
To that extent, I’m torturing myself thinking that I can ever be in a place to enjoy the presence of dogs without all the baggage of the greater dog society looming over me.
I have to cut things that are poisoning to my soul. The continuous fighting over training methods, feeding regimes, vaccine schedules, and the true breed standards is nothing but pure arsenic.
Yeah, you people have gotten to me. It’s taken a while.
Sometimes, I let it lapse, but then I see something like I saw yesterday, where someone was “saving” two Trigg foxhounds from hunting and didn’t even know what kind of dog they were. The dogs were going to “enjoy” a wonderful life where they got to go to play dates and lots of treats.
Those dogs would almost be better off euthanized. Those dogs will be babied and coddled until one of two things happens. Either their baying gets on the nerves of their rescuer or her neighbors or the hounds go off on a nice cat hunt and wind up tearing a suburban tabby into a few pieces.
Then they’ll be euthanized.
Virtually every problem dogs face comes from us, and I just can’t correct it anymore.
People are wrong. People are assholes.
Dogs are generally better than the people promoting them.
But you cannot deal with the dogs without dealing with “dog people.”
And I just don’t fit in anywhere.
For the sake of dogs, I think I’m better off keeping my mouth shut, and I’m probably better off walking a different direction.
Anyway, there isn’t much I can do. I am not changing. If I’m wrong, you won’t be hearing it from me anymore.
So you give in. I’m not a very good writer I know this because experts have told me so, again and again, some resent my very presence online so bad is my writing.
I could care less partly because I’m very stubborn and ‘they’ have got my back so far up it may never come down and partly because I don’t believe writing is about pleasing anyone but me.
In some ways its the same with you. You love dogs, you have clear and healthy ideas about their needs. You are good for dogs, and you enjoy writing, and you have something else the ‘dog experts’ may very well be jealous of: you enjoy and are a very good writer.
Stop if you want to its up to you but don’t stop because you think others know better or are louder. Ignore them or if you like do as I probably would and mention their expert advice – and dismiss it.
I like your posts about dogs and I love dogs. I have three and all three think they are in charge of me. Such a bully I am…
Do what you enjoy because you can, because dogs and you benefit and, because you’re very, very good at it.
I know it’s hard for you when the others crowd you in. It can be overwhelming for anyone. “Overwhelming” is why people join crowds instead of fighting them.
That’s why George Carlin said people are dangerous in groups.
Do what you have to for your own mental health. There are different ways to fight battles. Not everyone is the best front man or loudmouth. Some are the strategists that put pen to paper, or go quietly on doing their own thing.
There’s a wolfdog man in VT who seems to have found his way. There’s a Chatham Hill Retrievers you introduced me too that have some support. I can imagine you working things out as you wish to, in either format.
We Can Be Heroes, just for one day.
I find it interesting that the dog pictured is a Shikoku. The breed has recently been accepted into AKC FSS. Another breed goes to the world of conformity. I understand your withdrawal from the dog world. I love your dog posts. I hope you’ll keep posting about them.
That’s not a Shikoku… It’s a Jamthund.
Incredible! I must learn more about the breed.
Thank you!
Thank you, Losech. I’ll hope to learn more about them..
It’s very clear that you love dogs, and you love them for what they are, not for what others think they are. That’s commendable. But we live in such a highly-populated, fast-changing world, it’s no surprise that your concept of dogs (or mine, for that matter) bump up against the perspectives of others. It’s not necessary that you fit in with the “dog people” who seem to think of dogs like children, without taking their breeding and background into consideration. I hope you will keep doing what you’re doing in terms of educating people about dogs and expressing your opinions, while perhaps keeping a slightly more open outlook. Those people who are “rescuing” the Trigg foxhounds may be able to manage the dogs and still provide them with a comfortable life…without endangering cats or enraging the neighbors. Hunting instincts can be channeled into a variety of games and sports. The peoples’ actions certainly show compassion; let’s hope they are also knowledgeable.
I personally am a great believer in doing whatever works, combined with doing the research necessary to understand any given breed and their requirements. I find that, the more wedded I become to approaching any situation in one particular way, without being open to other approaches, the more insistent and close-minded I become. That’s why, with the dog I have now, I try so many approaches to overcoming her reactivity. I’ve had her almost 9 nears — she’s closing in on 11 — and she’s still a work in progress. (She was badly neglected as a young dog.) But being flexible, imaginative, and willing to examine new solutions have helped me a great deal in improving both our worlds. I guess what I’m trying to say is, the treatment of dogs, like everything else, does not come in black and white, but beautiful merles.
I enjoy your writing and respect your perspective on dogs; I wish you all the best and, above all, a more flexible outlook.
You have been a great source of info and wisdom over the years. I hope you do not stop
So who was this person who was “saving” two Trigg foxhounds from hunting?
Do they have a blog?
Some random person who friended me on Facebook, but I quickly unfriended.
I have people down the road who have asked to be my “friend”. NO WAY! Not in this village. NYC, where art thou?