I'm actually glad it happened, because it started me thinking about the complex world of dog-walk etiquette. Each time you meet another dog, you have a complex interaction of at least 4 unpredictable animals - 2 owners and 2 dogs.
I decided it was time to practice recalling my dog before she actually engages with the other dog, so that I'd be able to prevent fights. Because, by the time two dogs have actually started to fight, they're usually deaf to anything their owners say. If you shout at them, to a dog's ears you are barking and joining in the fight, and that makes things worse.
Anyway, I was doing the usual bushwalk this morning, and the headphones were playing Free's "Mr. Big." It was just at the point where all the instruments lay down a headbanging monotonous riff while the bass takes off on a solo that, on a good day, can turn your brains inside out, in a good way.
We were just at that part of the forest where the path narrows to single file as the trees close in on all sides. At the other end of this tunnel of trees, there appeared this great slobbering alsatian (aka german shepherd) and his owner. Naturally my dog ran ahead to make contact. I dragged my attention away from the headphones and called her back. She ignored me, and was almost upon the other dog when I let her have it. My scream at her came out extra loud because:
- wearing headphones makes you shout anyway
- I was annoyed at having to miss the best bit of the music
- I was determined to be able to recall her in any circumstances
- the other owner had his hands round his dog's neck to restrain it, but the slobbering mouthful of teeth was freaking me out.
Unfortunately, the alsatian took my shouting as a challenge, and was pleading to its owner to be allowed to kill us. Meantime, my dog came trotting obediently back to me. Success! So I began backing us both out of the tunnel to make way for the other pair. The guy could have given me some space to do this, but they kept advancing on us.
As they drew level with us, the dog was roaring at mine, while the owner was making what he thought were calming purring noises. But since I'm an honorary dog pack member, I was able to hear the guy through dog ears. To a dog he was actually going "Grrr Grrr!". Joining in the snarling. No wonder his dog's a psycho killer. The guy turned to me and said "he's very gentle really."
Some days I wonder why everybody except me is an idiot.
After they moved on, my composure was gone and the rest of Mr. Big was wasted on me.
Fortunately, the headphones were on random play, and the next song they chose was My Brother Jake. In the first 3 seconds, there are 3 descending chords that tell you that everything's going to be okay, everything balances out in the end. A mere handful of chords can shake your molecules into harmonious alignment. Fantastic.
If you missed previous HNTs, you can access all the old half baked thursday posts here.
This is a freelance Taoist blog.
Every true story contains a wee lie.
And every lie contains a grain of truth.
PS - If you are using the new version of Internet Explorer (i.e. IE v7), the links in this post were unclickable earlier today. There was a fault in IE7 or in my template, either way I've fixed the template. Only wasted most of the day tracing it.
If you're still using IE 6, I'd say don't upgrade yet. There's more info here.
Better still, ditch IE and use Firefox.
