Yes, he is not the brightest dog in the world (not exactly Jack Russell or border collie in intelligence), but he has probably run full bore into glass doors before (so that caution is not completely crazy).
That reminds me of habitual criminals or people who stay on the public dole no matter what opportunities they encounter. I always thought that going to work everyday was a far easier path than staying committed to not working. Especially for criminals who basically still work for a living, but put up with an unreliable income and who play a kind of negative lottery where they can go to prison any day. Just walk through the door and get a job. It's easier.
He learned his lesson very well. How the humans magically go through is beyond him. It's a thing about humans. They're baffling.
You know what the most amazing thing is about humans to a dog? Humans can throw things. Ace!
In one second you can show the dog sometimes the invisible wall with door rule doesn't apply.
I cannot forget my sister doing that. "I'm running, I'm running," running straight at me in her situationally unaware usual uncoordinated spastic way in her little doll dress, splat, smack into the glass doors at the hospital where my brother was being born and knocked herself backward flat on her back like a doll falling backward hard. Except screaming. So she was well situated for repairs. Man, did she ever have a huge bump on her head. It could have killed her.
I had an uncle who walked into a glass door at a catering hall and sued the hall because the glass had no decals on it, nothing to let you know it wasn't just open space. I think he was right to sue. Big expanses of glass without any markings on them (with the exception of windows of course) are a real hazard.
Many years ago a friend was vacationing with another family and she looked out the window in time to see the friend's 5 year old start to dash across the street - complete with moving cars -- so she bolted out the door. Only the door was glass.
They both ended up in the same hospital. They both survived, but man, her forearm scars are pretty nasty.
This friend also accidentally shot herself when she dropped her pocketbook while trying to get her room key to work in a hotel. She had a derringer in it her father gave her for protection when she was traveling alone as a single woman (decades ago).
While I agree that the dog illustrated has mastered abstract boundaries, similar to my dogs who would pause at the top of steps or at a street curb or at a door to let me go first, but that was a result of training...however, not a one of those German Shepherds wouldn't have figured out the ruse the second time I did it...they'd follow me or go beside me as I passed through the windowless door.
Appropriate post for me today as yesterday, now missing my dogs intensely, I looked at an older German Shepherd who is totally blind and needs a home. Since our home has several steps up, front and rear, to enter or exit, I couldn't figure out how I'd teach him, even on leash, to handle that obstacle...let alone figure out Nitwit the cat and the multiple children who stop by to play with the dogs. I'm torn...do I have it in me to try to teach him new terrain, and the energy to always be beside him on leash? My conscience says I should, my common sense says wait a minute. Am I underestimating him? I really don't know. Maybe I am under estimating my self.
8 comments:
Yes, he is not the brightest dog in the world (not exactly Jack Russell or border collie in intelligence), but he has probably run full bore into glass doors before (so that caution is not completely crazy).
That reminds me of habitual criminals or people who stay on the public dole no matter what opportunities they encounter. I always thought that going to work everyday was a far easier path than staying committed to not working. Especially for criminals who basically still work for a living, but put up with an unreliable income and who play a kind of negative lottery where they can go to prison any day. Just walk through the door and get a job. It's easier.
He's brilliant. He recognizes abstract borders. And he's not even a border collie.
WHO'S A GOOD DOG? YOU ARE! TREATS!!
He learned his lesson very well. How the humans magically go through is beyond him. It's a thing about humans. They're baffling.
You know what the most amazing thing is about humans to a dog? Humans can throw things. Ace!
In one second you can show the dog sometimes the invisible wall with door rule doesn't apply.
I cannot forget my sister doing that. "I'm running, I'm running," running straight at me in her situationally unaware usual uncoordinated spastic way in her little doll dress, splat, smack into the glass doors at the hospital where my brother was being born and knocked herself backward flat on her back like a doll falling backward hard. Except screaming. So she was well situated for repairs. Man, did she ever have a huge bump on her head. It could have killed her.
I had an uncle who walked into a glass door at a catering hall and sued the hall because the glass had no decals on it, nothing to let you know it wasn't just open space. I think he was right to sue. Big expanses of glass without any markings on them (with the exception of windows of course) are a real hazard.
Well that dog is definitely not a bird.
Many years ago a friend was vacationing with another family and she looked out the window in time to see the friend's 5 year old start to dash across the street - complete with moving cars -- so she bolted out the door. Only the door was glass.
They both ended up in the same hospital. They both survived, but man, her forearm scars are pretty nasty.
This friend also accidentally shot herself when she dropped her pocketbook while trying to get her room key to work in a hotel. She had a derringer in it her father gave her for protection when she was traveling alone as a single woman (decades ago).
For some people stuff just happens....
While I agree that the dog illustrated has mastered abstract boundaries, similar to my dogs who would pause at the top of steps or at a street curb or at a door to let me go first, but that was a result of training...however, not a one of those German Shepherds wouldn't have figured out the ruse the second time I did it...they'd follow me or go beside me as I passed through the windowless door.
Appropriate post for me today as yesterday, now missing my dogs intensely, I looked at an older German Shepherd who is totally blind and needs a home. Since our home has several steps up, front and rear, to enter or exit, I couldn't figure out how I'd teach him, even on leash, to handle that obstacle...let alone figure out Nitwit the cat and the multiple children who stop by to play with the dogs. I'm torn...do I have it in me to try to teach him new terrain, and the energy to always be beside him on leash? My conscience says I should, my common sense says wait a minute. Am I underestimating him? I really don't know. Maybe I am under estimating my self.
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