27 April

Chronicles Of the Little King: Compromise

by Jon Katz

Border collies don’t really ask me to compromise. They are so eager to work and to please that they not only do what you ask, they anticipate what you want, a sure sign of a dog’s intelligence.

Bud is different. He is affectionate and eager to stay out of  trouble, but he is not all that eager to please, and he handles criticism and correction with great aplomb. He obeys when he wants and doesn’t when he wants.

The sofa thing is a great example. I tell the border collies once to stay off the sofas and chairs, and they do, end of discussion (except sometimes for Fate, who also dances to her own tune at times).

Bud will get off the chair if I ask him, and then just go jump on another chair. We can go around like this for hours if I let him. After a few months of this, I caved. Bud does on the furniture when he wants to. I know when I’m beat and I don’t want to spend too much of my life yelling at a dog, especially a little monster like this one.

Now, Bud jumps up on a chair where I often sit and just gives me a baleful look, as in “poor guy, he thinks he can keep me off of the chair…”

With a little dog there is compromise, and if you don’t know how to compromise, you will learn.

7 Comments

  1. Actually, Bud is thinking “Poor guy. He thinks this is ‘his’ chair.”
    I’ve always found terriers are eager to be pleased, so they quickly learn to please you because then you will please them. It’s intelligence and “work” of a different kind than you are used to; they are very good at training their people.

  2. Love the colors of the flower on the left with the flower in the lampshade and in the quilt on which Bud is so comfortable.

  3. If all a person experiences is a herding dog or breed that aims to please, they don’t truly know dogs. Terriers are the great equalizer, they do not live to serve so you have to bring it. And they always make you smile, such life force.

    My dog is half terrier and it is really clear when that part kicks in. Like Jekyll and Hyde

  4. I have had 4 Bostons so far (2 right now) and they are furniture dwellers who occasionally choose a dog bed. I call them Velcro dogs. They almost always want physical contact and if that isn’t available, well, the furniture certainly is.

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