We know all the usual things about dogs, have seen a bazillion dog ‘reels’ on FB (with a shout out to Rocky Kanaka – love the vidz!) and if you have been or are currently a ‘dog parent’ you have a pretty good idea about our four legged ‘kids’. Here are a few things that I have found that probably will never show up on social media. Many of these things I have noticed are courtesy of long Covid and working from home.
- Dogs may be red-green colour blind but they do seem to have colour preferences. Frieda, for example, is never interested in stealing my burgundy toque but leave the black togue anywhere in reach and the chase is on!
- In line with colours dogs appear to have texture preferences. If I am sitting on the couch wearing a cotton sweater Frieda will flop at the other end; if I am wearing a polar fleece hoodie she will lie with her nose rubbing up against me.
- Dogs relate to us as individuals. I first noticed this with Baxter (predecessor to Frieda). With Baxter, due to my wife’s hearing issues his bark was always louder when she was in the house, rarely more than a whisper when I was home alone. Frieda is the same and even louder when Sam is outside with her (much to his chagrin).
- Dogs do have ‘words’. My wife will look at me when Frieda gives an odd little bark. I know what she wants by looking at what way her nose is pointing and the related bark. And usually if I don’t pick up on the bark she will repeat it for me, just a little bit louder, like the three year old she will probably always be.
- Even when I am in the house Frieda will get ‘the lonelies’, sometimes at the oddest moments. This morning at 5:30am for example, I woke up as usual, quietly sat down at my desk with a coffee and not two minutes later I could hear a wee yip from her kennel (her kennel is across the hall from my office). Nothing doing the yips kept up until I let her out and she could come into the office for a quick snuggle.
- Dogs also understand routines. When my wife and son are in the house and I sit at my desk Frieda will bug for attention from me. When the house is quiet and I am at my desk she will either lie on the couch or under my desk as she understands I am working.
- Dogs are entrepreneurs at heart. If Frieda wants a cookie she will steal something of mine (toque etc.) then jump up on the couch to present the ill gotten booty as trade for a cookie. Sneaky bugger!
- Dogs have different outside modes depending on which of their humans they are with. When my wife and son are with Frieda in the backyard she will usually position herself between them and the fence with the occasional bark to tell other dogs and boogymen to stay away. When Frieda is out in the yard with me she will trot along exploring and sniffing for rabbits, rarely barking unless a loud noise startles her.
- Dogs have excellent memory. We had a neighbour who was in a word ‘nasty’ to Frieda, hiding behind trees and calling her just to get her riled up in the backyard. Why I have no idea other than some sick sense of humour. That neighbour has been gone for a few months (evicted and then thousands of dollars in reno’s later) but whenever we are outside Frieda will check that part of the fence, just in case they should come back.
- There is no such thing as a dog owner. You are either a dog parent or you don’t have a dog, period. And if you have a dog and are not a dog parent do yourself and the dog a favour by finding someone who wants to be the dog’s parent. Dog’s have a much shorter lifetime then we do and deserve to live it to the fullest, toque stealing, attention demanding love muffins that they are!