Dogs Make Me Laugh!!

Dogs make me laugh, that’s one of the many reasons I love working with them. Like us, dogs tend to be very habitual and prefer to follow established routines. Dogs also have a concept of time; they know when a normal event happens each day, like me showing up to take them out. If, for whatever reason, the routine changes, I can always tell they’re a little confused and bewildered…

Last Friday morning, I had an appointment with my doggie client, Dina. We were meeting another dog trainer friend of mine, to help work with her client. My friend’s client is a little dog reactive, so I brought Dina to help work with him.

I typically visit Dina every weekday afternoon, so she expects me to show up in the afternoon. Generally, she’s waiting for me at the door, or she’s running down the stairs to greet me. She’s always so happy to see me and can barely contain her excitement. However, this time I arrived at her house at 9:30 and, when I came in, there was no Dina at the door and I didn’t hear her running toward me. I called her, and I could hear her walking, very slowly, down the stairs. Then I saw her peek around the corner (they have switchback stairs). I so wish I’d been taping this, because the expression on her face was just priceless… at first she looked wary, then surprised, and finally confused. She cocked her head in that, “What the?” way dogs do when they not quite sure of what’s going on. I swear I could read her mind, she was thinking, “Who’s there?” then “Oh it’s you!” then “What are you doing here so early?” She just stood there for a few seconds, trying to process what she was seeing. I couldn’t help but laugh! Then her expression changed to one of joy, and she came running to me.

After harnessing and leashing her, I took her out to my car. This is something we do often; I take Dina and Jesse James to parks and other places a couple times a week. Otherwise, we take a walk. Our car routine is: I open the driver’s door, to unlock the back door. Jesse is always sitting on the driver’s seat, Dina sticks her head in and they say hi to each other. Then Dina gets in the backseat, I put them in their seatbelts, and we take off for where ever we’re going. However, I didn’t bring Jesse with me that morning. When I opened my door, as usual, Dina stuck her head in and realized there was no Jesse in the car. She jumped back and her face said exactly what she was thinking, “What’s going on today? WHERE IS MY FRIEND JESSE?” The expression of total bewilderment on her face was again, priceless… and I again had to laugh!