What truly goes through the mind of a dog? We can only hypothesize. Some of the greatest minds in Veterinary medicine have tested numerous theories on the subject matter. I'm here to say that all of those theories might hold true for the average dog, but they don't hold true in the case of my Sarah Nell. The dogs mind is relatively complex. If there was spirituality involved, dogs practice perfect nirvana of living in the now. They comprehend and react to what's around them. They have wants and desires. It is my experience that dogs exhibit the ability to retain both positive and negative. Some behaviors are instinctive while other behaviors are learned through repetition, praise and loyalty.
Pit Bulls are great examples. I can tell you first hand that the majority of people don't understand the breed or have assumptions of the breed that are simply not true. As a matter of fact, Pits are perhaps the most loyal dogs I've owned. The greatest difficulty with them is that they have the uncanny ability to remember the bad often times resulting in the need for serious rehabilitation. I believe this is why they can be easily turned into vicious dogs that people dread and fear. They don't want to be abused and are more apt to fight rather than flight. They fight out of loyalty to their owners and out of the reaction to the bad. Simple abuse by owners. Don't blame the dog; blame the person. Anyone who abuses a dog is lower than dirt and should be treated no less than a child abuser. It is a statistical fact that you have a greater chance of being hit in the head by a coconut than ever being attacked by a Pit Bull. Also, there are more bites annually from little dogs like Chihuahuas than Pits. Talk about a misconception of a breed!
In Sarah Nell's case, however, she seemed to retain only a couple of things. First, she needed her man... Me. She would wait anxiously all day until I got home so that she and I could sit on the sofa together and watch the evening news. We were inseparable. She would actually knock Susie Q, my first love and original Pointer, out of the way just to get to me when I walked in at nights. I could tell from the first moment we met that she had always been handled by a man. I'm pretty sure that she wanted me all to herself. The running joke was that she plotted feverishly to snub out my girlfriend at the time so that I would be all hers.
I discovered her passion to accomplish this as she sat on my ex while she slept in the middle of the night possibly looking to make it look like an accidental suffocation. Who would suspect the old senile dog? That's my theory at least. The second thing she remembered was that she got more alone time with Daddy (her man) every night by begging to be walked by herself promptly at 8:00 p.m. She would jump up at the door then come running over to me. Then back again. Our ritual was to take a nice stroll around our long block to work out the day's energy. Sarah was always in the lead pulling as usual. It was our moment; it was just the two of us.
The remainder of Sarah's mental state, as we soon diagnosed as cognitive dysfunction - much like Alzheimer's in humans - was an abstract collage of randomness. She would lie on the sofa and stare out towards the wall as if to be holding some kind of conversation with an invisible person or watching the clouds roll by on an afternoon Summer day. She was unsure of the front door at times. Startled by its existence, she would leap backwards knocking over the water bowl. I've never seen a water bowl dumped over with more grace and passion.
Some dogs are great communicators. They'll cry at the door to let you know that they need to use the bathroom. Not Sarah Nell. Unlike the little foster Pointer puppy peeing all over the condo, we had Lake Sarah all over the kitchen floor. I was thankful we had the carpet removed and tile put down prior to moving in. Sarah didn't know how to play well, but was quickly discovering that she could spin around in circles (most times she spun backwards mind you) and bark loudly to gain affection and attention from the other dogs and me. If she had a Native American name, it would have been "Spins in Circles." Always backwards. None of the rest of our pack knew exactly what to do with her or how to play safely with her. Except for me. I knew her limits and would quickly get her into a game of tug of war... Her favorite.
Some dogs have a great sense of reason. Some dogs remember the good and the bad. They can demonstrate incredible abilities. Sarah Nell's ability was to love, to be compassionate, to be silly and to be the best man's companion in the world. I laugh at the zany antics including her homicidal tendencies. She wouldn't have been Sarah Nell without them.
Pit Bulls are great examples. I can tell you first hand that the majority of people don't understand the breed or have assumptions of the breed that are simply not true. As a matter of fact, Pits are perhaps the most loyal dogs I've owned. The greatest difficulty with them is that they have the uncanny ability to remember the bad often times resulting in the need for serious rehabilitation. I believe this is why they can be easily turned into vicious dogs that people dread and fear. They don't want to be abused and are more apt to fight rather than flight. They fight out of loyalty to their owners and out of the reaction to the bad. Simple abuse by owners. Don't blame the dog; blame the person. Anyone who abuses a dog is lower than dirt and should be treated no less than a child abuser. It is a statistical fact that you have a greater chance of being hit in the head by a coconut than ever being attacked by a Pit Bull. Also, there are more bites annually from little dogs like Chihuahuas than Pits. Talk about a misconception of a breed!
In Sarah Nell's case, however, she seemed to retain only a couple of things. First, she needed her man... Me. She would wait anxiously all day until I got home so that she and I could sit on the sofa together and watch the evening news. We were inseparable. She would actually knock Susie Q, my first love and original Pointer, out of the way just to get to me when I walked in at nights. I could tell from the first moment we met that she had always been handled by a man. I'm pretty sure that she wanted me all to herself. The running joke was that she plotted feverishly to snub out my girlfriend at the time so that I would be all hers.
I discovered her passion to accomplish this as she sat on my ex while she slept in the middle of the night possibly looking to make it look like an accidental suffocation. Who would suspect the old senile dog? That's my theory at least. The second thing she remembered was that she got more alone time with Daddy (her man) every night by begging to be walked by herself promptly at 8:00 p.m. She would jump up at the door then come running over to me. Then back again. Our ritual was to take a nice stroll around our long block to work out the day's energy. Sarah was always in the lead pulling as usual. It was our moment; it was just the two of us.
The remainder of Sarah's mental state, as we soon diagnosed as cognitive dysfunction - much like Alzheimer's in humans - was an abstract collage of randomness. She would lie on the sofa and stare out towards the wall as if to be holding some kind of conversation with an invisible person or watching the clouds roll by on an afternoon Summer day. She was unsure of the front door at times. Startled by its existence, she would leap backwards knocking over the water bowl. I've never seen a water bowl dumped over with more grace and passion.
Some dogs are great communicators. They'll cry at the door to let you know that they need to use the bathroom. Not Sarah Nell. Unlike the little foster Pointer puppy peeing all over the condo, we had Lake Sarah all over the kitchen floor. I was thankful we had the carpet removed and tile put down prior to moving in. Sarah didn't know how to play well, but was quickly discovering that she could spin around in circles (most times she spun backwards mind you) and bark loudly to gain affection and attention from the other dogs and me. If she had a Native American name, it would have been "Spins in Circles." Always backwards. None of the rest of our pack knew exactly what to do with her or how to play safely with her. Except for me. I knew her limits and would quickly get her into a game of tug of war... Her favorite.
Some dogs have a great sense of reason. Some dogs remember the good and the bad. They can demonstrate incredible abilities. Sarah Nell's ability was to love, to be compassionate, to be silly and to be the best man's companion in the world. I laugh at the zany antics including her homicidal tendencies. She wouldn't have been Sarah Nell without them.
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