Relaxed Dog
Relaxed Dog
Hank was always a relaxed sort of guy who never seemed to have to hurry over anything. He lived four doors down from us in the village. He was a haematologist, I seem to remember.
One day my wife told me that he and Annie had got a dog a puppy. I thought "Well, that'll be the end of tranquillity in their house!". But nothing was further from the truth. You'd never hear a raised voice when you passed their house (except Annie shouting at Hank every now and then). There was always a dull, reassuring sort of murmur with the occasional "Yeeeessss! Well done!".
And then, finally, he emerged from his back yard with Jessie, a black, mongrelly, Colley-sort-of thing, full of beans and ready for anything! He, Hank, sauntered over towards the field with Jessie covering ten yards back and forth for every step of his. He seemed to clear his throat as a car came gingerly round the corner nothing on more than two wheels could move very fast round the labyrinth of roads in our village and Jessie stopped her frolicking instantly and sought refuge next to him.
"Magic", I thought.
And thus it went on. Never a raised tone, never anything much more than a frown it seemed to me. Totally relaxed (Hank that is), and as the months and years passed Jessie quietened down quite a lot, too. A relaxed Hank and a relaxed dog as well.
Alas, one day Jessie died of natural causes I hasten to add. But in no time at all Hank and Annie had acquired another Jessie I mean this literally. Jessie II was a light brown, mungrelly, Labrador-sort-of thing, up to all the tricks Jessie I had been up to a few years earlier.
Murmurings from the back yard for a few weeks and then more gambolling towards the field with the very occasional throat-clearing or raised eyebrow.
"Magic", again!
We moved a while after that and had no more contact with Hank or Annie. My wife still very occasionally e-mails with Gwen who lived opposite them and had a hopelessly uncontrolled, chocolate-brown, Terrier-sort-of disaster of a dog as chaotic as her mistress seemed to be. She informed us that Annie had moved away - and taken Jessie with her! Hank had stayed on and got another dog apparently a Poodle-sort-of thing, I hear, a "relaxed dog"!
My conclusion is that the relaxed, unhurried, affectionately-praising approach of Hank's is what fashioned Jessie I's and Jessie II's characters and undoubtedly Jessie III's as well, by all accounts.
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