2017 June – Hindsight is a Wonderful Thing, Rabbits v Nettles, Aliens and Balloons
Hindsight is a Wonderful Thing
Mum has been pestering me to let her write something so I have finally relented. It’s because I am a kind dog. It’s also because I know Mum has some chicken in the fridge which could be coming my way any time soon, paws crossed.
Mum wrote this:
Looking back, what arrived in our house a little over a year ago was a very, very scared animal. (see diary entry Nov 2020 for how she selected us!)
Excitedly, what we saw, at the time, was simply our new dog.
After spending a little money and putting in consistent and significant effort (and a considerable amount of chicken!), we do indeed now have our new doggo.
And she is lovely and absolutely worth it.
As a rescue, her background is a bit sketchy to say the least but it seems likely from the shreds of evidence that she has had a pretty tough start. Not her fault. Since we will never know what made Saffron the dog she is, we can only really deal with her behaviours in the here and now. Some of them are great – perfectly toilet trained, doesn’t chew furniture, doesn’t beg at table, doesn’t jump up (mostly), sleeps well. But some of her behaviours when out and about, are really rather less desirable and at times quite challenging.
Along the (slightly bumpy!) journey, I have discovered 2 important things about my fellow dog owners.
First thing
- There are a number of lovely, responsible, alert dog owners who spot that your dog is on a lead and that you are ‘treat training’ your dog – so they call their dog, walk past calmly and as far away as they can and maybe nod encouragingly in your direction.
Second thing
- These people seem to be a VERY small minority of dog owners, which was a complete and utter surprise. Not to say a bit of a shock.
Over the course of the last year and a bit, Saffron and my family and I have been shouted at, sworn at and chased (yup really). I’ve been told to put my dog to sleep and been given all sorts of well meaning (?) advice.
We have been run at and jumped all over, by out of control ‘friendly’ dogs. We have been run at and barked at by out of control and less than friendly dogs. I’ve been bitten by other people’s out of control dogs twice and Saffron has been bitten once. Saffron is reactive (in a very loud way) but she has never bitten.
Don’t get me wrong, Saffron is a larger than average Labrador crossbreed with a very, very loud and snarly bark and an obvious dislike of other dogs, cows, horses, men she doesn’t know and occasionally cyclists.
At times she can look scary. I get that. Completely. Because of this and her general impulsiveness, she is always, always on a lead when outside. It is a bright coloured lead so it is obvious she is on a lead.
When we are out and about and other people see Saffron, it is often when she is looking and sounding rather less than lovely. This is usually simply because they are there, sometimes with their dogs – which isn’t anyone’s fault. Other people are allowed to be there, of course! I get that. Completely.
However other people and especially other dogs make Saffron super, super stressed. In that situation, Saffron is on a very short lead, normally no more than a few inches from me and being fed treats or ignoring me and barking her head off and lunging about – but still right next to me on a short lead.
I accept this is not a pretty picture at all. From someone else’s perspective all they will be seeing is a large yellow, noisy, jumpy dog and probably a lot of teeth lunging about making a scene. Again, I get that. Completely. Not nice to witness.
In spite of this, I have lost count of the number of times people (and their dogs) have come right up to us to talk or ask questions or (more frequently) to give me advice. Why?
This inevitably makes things worse, much worse. For everyone involved.
We thought about getting Saffron a ‘nervous’ tabard or me a ‘leave us alone’ T-shirt (that’s the polite version !) but people would probably just come up to try and read it. It’s really difficult to know what to do for the best.
On the whole, I am sure people mean well and are simply trying to help and it would be comical if it wasn’t so immensely frustrating.
When other people are not there (which is most of the time because we are very choosy about where we take her) Saffron is a calm, relaxed, normal looking and well-behaved dog. Hardly anyone sees this. But she needs her space and we try very hard to respect this and keep her away from stuff that stresses her out.
Mostly it works.
Luckily for Saffron, we found a brilliant animal behaviourist to help. And also luckily for us, Saffron likes chicken. A lot. So we have worked really, really hard to keep her calm and focussed (on us and chicken) and very, very slowly and very, very gradually Saffron is getting better at coping at being around other dogs. She may never be great at it but she is improving.
Without professional advice I can honestly say we would probably still be struggling. And so would Saffron. I expect we would be resorting to walking Saffron at midnight which is not really ideal. For anyone.
Instead of which we are now out and about in broad daylight trying our very best to stay well behaved. Yes, some days we have loud barking incidents but increasingly we are having nice, long, relaxing walks.
Alongside the dog phobia, Saffron stresses over the vacuum, the lawnmower and the hosepipe. I mean really stresses. To the point you could imagine her having a heart attack. This time, tennis ball chewing therapy seems to be doing the trick. Again, slow, slow progress. But progress nonetheless.
And she barks and crashes about excitedly in the car, which was becoming dangerously distracting. So Saffron now has a proper dog crate which is covered over when she barks and not when she is calm. Slowly, she is getting it. And she jumps happily in and settles down for the journey now. She is usually given a few treats in there, so her crate is a good place to be.
Looking back, it took many months for Saffron to even begin to settle in and to wag her tail for the first time. She wasn’t keen on anyone being near her at all for quite a while and she couldn’t tolerate being stroked or cuddled. In fact, pretty much anything that should take a ‘normal’ dog a few weeks to do, often takes Saffron many months.
However, she is great to have around the house, well behaved, a little bit playful and is just starting to interact voluntarily and be a little bit affectionate – in her inimitable Saffron way and most definitely on her own terms.
Which is amazing. We’re getting there.
All the family adore her and Saffron herself is finally, finally starting to chill out a bit and respond to this.
Which is lovely to witness and incredibly rewarding. Hopefully we’ll be able to go some way to restoring her confidence in humankind.
Rabbit v Nettles
This is a picture of me hunting rabbit.
I can smell them. But all I can see is nettles. So I am being very, very careful. In case you don’t know, nettles make your nose and eyes really, really itch in a stingy sort of way. It is not nice. I have a sneaky feeling the rabbits have let the nettles grow on purpose.
I prefer chicken anyway.
Aliens and Balloons
This is a picture of me chasing off a large balloon. You can just see it in the distance.
In actual fact it is probably aliens. Aliens aren’t stupid and they’re not going to just land in a UFO. They are going to make some effort to disguise themselves and a hot air balloon works at several levels. It is below the radar quite literally. It is slow moving so lots of chances to observe stuff. It looks innocent and non threatening. No one will report it.
I emailed Stephen Hawking and he agrees.
Also and not really connected, I now have a glove, brush thingy so I am looking super well groomed – means I’m all ready for the alien invasion tho’.
I have (quite generously in my view) let Mum choose this months stuff.
Mum’s recommendations this month:
Music: Randy Crawford – just an incredible, incredible voice.
Street Life
Rainy Night in Georgia
You might need somebody
One day I’ll fly away
Almaz (Mum’s favourite song ever, ever, ever and one of the few songs actually written and performed by RC, Almaz means “diamond” in Amharic and Arabic.
Reading (fiction): Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte written in 1847.
Not the easiest read and in it’s time and (arguably hopefully) still today controversial for the cruelty it describes and the challenges it brings to the table regarding social and moral values, it has been described as a savage book with selfish, intolerant, passionate characters.
Take a deep breath and go for it.
Film: Eye of the Needle (1981 British spy film based on the 1978 book by Ken Follet).
Starring Donald Sutherland and Kate Nelligan. Compressed, violent and bleak, you may need a strong drink to watch this. A truly great film – Mum’s top film ever, if she had to make a choice that is. That and Leon.