terry...
Terry was a dog. Some sort of bitser. He was the family dog of my sister/husband/kids. Why am I telling you this? To share with you his special quality.
Like no other dog I've ever known, he did not have any loyalty to any one person. He seemed to be loyal to something entirely different. He seemed to be loyal to the idea of anti-aggression. I was the first one to notice it. To test it my brother in law and I would play games. If I "attacked" him, Terry would turn on me. If my brother in law "attacked" me, his dog would attack him!
It never failed. And it was the same when we got others to similarly test Terry. It was always the same - he correctly worked out who the aggressor was and he would attack them, even if it was his "master".
Has anyone else come across this sort of thing?
Like no other dog I've ever known, he did not have any loyalty to any one person. He seemed to be loyal to something entirely different. He seemed to be loyal to the idea of anti-aggression. I was the first one to notice it. To test it my brother in law and I would play games. If I "attacked" him, Terry would turn on me. If my brother in law "attacked" me, his dog would attack him!
It never failed. And it was the same when we got others to similarly test Terry. It was always the same - he correctly worked out who the aggressor was and he would attack them, even if it was his "master".
Has anyone else come across this sort of thing?
posted by The Editor at
11:20 PM
7 Comments:
Yes, in the family dog, who would bark at either my sister or myself if we fought - even play fighting, made him peculiarly neurotic.
Poor dogs, I reckon they pick up big time on the neuroses of humans. Far, far and away more sensitive than us, but so obviously involved and concerned for our happiness.
Most dogs are just so totally loving it makes you weep. I say most because I have a few problems with dogs bred for ugly purposes. e.g. pit-bull terriers.
Yep. My memory had fade-out again. the dog's name was Terry. Chester was a later dog. Terry was in the 70's. Chester was in the 80's. Glad we've got that sorted now... :-)
Jeffrey Masson's book - Dog's Never Lie about Love is an absolute delight for dog lovers.
I can imagine. I'm a fan of Masson's after reading Final Analysis. A great book if you want to get right into the misogyny of Freud and Freudian analysis. He wrote something about elephants too, I seem to recall. Interesting that a person who learned to focus his empathy on humans has extended it to animals as well. At least that's my take on him.
Yes, I have a dog like that - she'll get between the protagonists to break it up or go after the aggressor. She's a beaut dalmation that we rescued from the pound. My wife named her Angel because the first night we had her she slept out on the patio (covered). We had a vicious storm - thunder and lightening - and she never made a sound.
ds
Wonderul friends, dogs.
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