There’s
loyalty, and then there’s loyalty.
Though
I’ve only had my new dog, Sadie, for a month and a half, she’s become quite
attached. As I’ve done with all my dogs,
I’ve trained her to have me be her primary focus. This helps to establish that though I am
human, I am Alpha of the pack, which consists of our other dog, Sadie and
myself.
Ensuring
that our dogs view me as Alpha helps maintain balance and also makes the dogs
very protective of me. This I like,
since I bring my dogs with me for protection when I head into remote or not so
safe areas.
Today,
Sadie proved that not only has she accepted me as the Alpha, but that she’s
beyond protective. Not in an
inappropriate manner, for I’m quick to manage what our dogs view as a threat
versus those things they can ignore.
While
stopped at the summit of the mountain this afternoon, I squatted down to fill
Sadie’s little water dish. While doing
so, a horse fly decided it wanted to be an absolute pest, trying to land on and
take a bite out of me. Anyone who’s ever
encountered a horsefly bite knows how painful this can be. But I had Sadie who wasn’t about to let her
“mommy” be attacked.
Sadie
had been lying in front of me when I squatted down and jumped up the moment she
saw the horsefly trying to attack me.
That’s when the battle of wills began.
Sadie snapped her powerful jaws at the horsefly in an attempt to make it
go away. The horsefly, determined to
make a snack of me, kept up its attack.
Me, I began laughing and wondered who might win.
Remaining
in my position, I let Sadie “defend” me from the horsefly. By the end, it lay on the
ground—dead—snatched out of mid air when it failed to give up its determined
attack. I looked down at the fly. So did Sadie, seemingly satisfied with her
conquest. Then we looked at one
another. Sadie’s tail began a rapid
beating of the air, and I hugged her while telling her what a good girl she’d
been to “defend” me.
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