My upstairs neighbor jetted off to Jamaica for a few days, so she asked me if I could let the dog out in the middle of the day. She has other neighbors feeding him and taking him for walks in the morning and the afternoon, so I am tasked with taking him out around noon, mainly so he can pee.
Yesterday, he was reluctant to go outside. He can be a little moody at times, and he wasn't exactly excited to go out to the backyard. Typically, when I come home on the weekend at 7AM, he goes nuts until my neighbor lets him out so we can goof off together for twenty minutes or so, until it's time for his walk. Middays, he's not always raring to go. Yesterday was one of those days. I managed to tap into my 'Bastard' persona, and did him dirty by playing this video on my phone:
That got his attention, and he ran out back, as I had hoped. In my defense, I had worked the overnight, so I really wasn't prepared to take a half hour to coax him outside. Well, he was pissed. I had a couple of balls that I threw, but no squeak, no dice. He just kinda gave me the stink eye, and who could blame him? I pulled a dirty, rotten bait-and-switch on him.
I realized that I had to expiate my guilt, so when I stopped at the supermarket on my way to work, I bought him a squeaky thing, and made my peace offering this morning:
I'm happy to say that all is forgiven, and the two of us spent a good forty-five minutes hanging out, while he let me know who the Squeaky Toy Boss was:
He doesn't look too smug there! I learned my lesson... no more bait-and-switch. It's a bad business, one that necessitates penance, squeaky penance.
3 comments:
Dogs are interesting. I live with them off and on all these years. I was thinking about the dogs in my life. It is mixed, mostly good.
I like them, but I'm more of a cat person. Cats tend to be less needy.
I read a behavioural study once that suggested dogs understand lack of fairness, such as one getting more treats than another for performing the same trick. The not real squeaker toy must have triggered his fairness assessment, so good thing you made it right.
I enjoy other people's dogs but I'm a cat person too.
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