I grew up with a parent who believed a pet dog should not be stepped over, but rather should move out of a person’s way, even if the dog were enjoying a peaceful snooze. He should wake and move out of the way fast. So the family dogs were never comfortable lying in the pathway of foot traffic. And most places in our house were foot-traffic worthy.
Because the dogs had been conditioned to jump up and move out of the way when the sound of footsteps appoached, they were always jumping out of the way. They couldn’t distinguish between friendly or impatient footsteps, so even if someone didn’t want the dogs to move, they always moved.
Decades later, I’d moved from the west coast to the east coast, and I was participating in a group drill class to prepare for an upcoming AKC obedience trial. If you’re thinking about a sergeant yelling out commands to his recruits as drill class, you’re close. But in this case it was a volunteer dog obedience class instructor yelling out commands to teams of handlers and their pet dogs.
At the end of practice, we did the long sit and down stays. One and three minutes respectively. This class leader told us to down our dogs, leave them, and walk to the other side of the ring. Then she did something unexpected. (Mind you, in my west coast experiences, we never had drill classes, so drill class in itself was a novelty.) The drill instructor stepped over each of our pet dogs.
I watched as one dog after the other was stepped over. Some pet dogs were steady, some grew frantic and did the dreadful thing and broke the down and ran. I had no idea what my dog would do, and instead of objecting, I let it happen. I let the class leader progress up to and over my Dobermann, and amazingly, my pet dog, Baby, stayed.
It then dawned on me that I hadn’t followed my parent’s footsteps 🙂 . I don’t ask my dogs to move out of my way whenever I’m on the move and they’re in my path.
I think of my dogs as living in our house. That is to say my house and their house – our house. And because I adopt them and invite them into my life as part of my family, and train them as pet dogs, they are subject to the same comforts and access to space that I am.
There are occassion when I do have to ask one of my dogs to move out of necessity. If my hands are full of folded laundry and I can’t see beyond my own feet, “Coming through!” Or “I’m about to vacuum the floor you’re lying on, please move!” Or “I have to launder your dog blanket, so upsy daisy!” But as far as walking on by any of my snoozers, I’m fine with stepping over them.
I’m also fine with finding out that my own beliefs can change for the better right under my nose without my noticing. And when I do notice, it’s a nice surprise.
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Helen Verte Schwarzmann
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Certified in Training and Counseling
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