Monday, October 23, 2006

Out-staring

Harvs and I just had a staring match.

He was standing in the hall barking (again). I went and opened the front door and he just stood and stared at me.

'Do you want to go out?'
'Do I look as though I want to go out?'
'Why are you barking then?'
Silence.
'You've had your breakfast and you don't want to go out: so why are you barking?'
Silence accompanied by a 'I'll bark if I want to' stare.
I stare back.

For minutes our eyes are locked. I remember what Heidi, the dog trainer, said. 'Never let a dog win.' I struggle not to blink.

Harvey looks away! Yes! I am Staring Champion!

He lies down, fixedly facing the opposite direction. He might be defeated but he is not bowed.

And he will have forgotten in three minutes.

2 comments:

Clare said...

My dog (one of the three we currently have, don't ask) William barks at the door to be let out, then when you've reached the door runs to the chair you've just vacated and jumps in it. Now that is either a sign of great intelligence or pure cheekiness... The puppy (recent photo on blog) seems to prefer the pink dog bowl to the blue one. So you never can tell quite what's going on in a dogs head.
(Saw the mouse again the other day. Screamed, again. Still haven't put traps down, we're going to give the humane ones another go...)

Liz Hinds said...

That is great intelligence without a doubt!

Perhaps you need to put something more tempting in the humane traps. Chocolate maybe?