The Dog Blog with Kathryn Socie

View from the Fence, Watching a Battle Among Women Unravel

I’m a pacifist by nature, so when small wars break out around me, I silently protest and keep my distance. No surprise, while at a recent baby shower, when a woman turned to me and said: “Do you really think you can be happy just having dogs?” I nodded emotionlessly and shrugged half-heartedly, trying to deflect and defuse the potential for emotional onslaught and keep some semblance of peace. Despite my efforts, it is near impossible to stay out of the fray of this particular war among American women.

As if on cue, another woman began rushing in my direction filled with fury, ready to dive into battle. “If she chooses not to have children, that is her right and you have no place to criticize,” she exclaimed, sputtering. Sputtering. The two launched into battle. To have or not to have children escalated into issues of working or staying home with the children. Ugh.

The Dog Blog with Kathryn Socie

Training Sessions with the Dog

I talk too much. I know it. Everyone who’s ever met me knows it. Even my dog knows it. Despite the many times I’ve begged friends to give me some sort of indication as to when I’m going from charmingly chatty into the zone of an annoying over-talker, they never do. Somehow, they think it’s just a part of me that can be suffered. Suffer being the key word that I’d like not to be associated with. Self-checking works for only so long, but it always gets tossed out at some point, typically right on the cusp of going-too-far, which is when I need the most help.

My dog, however, has worked hardest and done his best to train this behavior out of me.

Lucky for the dog, I am a highly trainable human with a strong desire to please my master. Lacking opposable thumbs, he has to be very thoughtful in his training approach, tossing me treats and using a clicker are not feasible tools for him to use. The dog has nothing but my desire to make him happy to utilize as a reward.

The Dog Blog with Kathryn Socie

An Open Letter of Apology to the Dog

Dear Weeza,

First, let me say that I recognize my propensity to be an utterly self-involved, totally stupid, jerk of a human being. I need to apologize for these horrid, rather global, human traits and assure you I do try to be different, fighting everyday to be just a little less me and a little more, well, dog-like. It’s hard. I do try though.

So, it was one of those days. A late start filled with too many deadlines, lots of stress, long unnecessary meetings and a stupid amount of rushing around. I took you out for the briefest of romps in the morning, tossed the ball a few times to take the edge off, threw some food in your bowl and left for the day—you know all of this. When I got home, I admit, I wasn’t in the best of moods. Despite your many attempts to say “hello,” with your usual level of sweet happiness, I was exasperated with your efforts interpreting them as a pain rather than positive—you know this too. After awhile, I did notice the number of times you tried to get my attention.

The Dog Blog with Kathryn Socie

Becoming Slow Food Localvores

It's the same scene every morning in my house. Get up, dogs out, feed cats, dogs in, feed dogs. It never changes. Never. Sure, if we're traveling the cats aren't typically in the equation, but since I rarely go anywhere without the dogs, there is little deviation from this general schema. The routine is so every day for me it's been incorporated into my autonomic nervous system. Seeing as it's a bit like breathing, I tend not to notice the 'isms implicit to it all.

Like, for instance, the fact that black-and-white dog lays down to eat, hugging his bowl between his front legs, shoving his entire head into the depths of his meal. It's simply a part of my daily fabric, but pure entertainment to anyone newly introduced to it all. Well, that and the fact that the dog eats at a rate of 1 cup of kibble per half hour.

Yep, I have a high-powered, fast-moving, insane border collie cross that eats every meal one kiblet at a time.

The Dog Blog with Kathryn Socie

Big Lessons Learned from the Canine Trenches

Imagine yourself stumbling into a grocery store. Its 2 a.m. and though you wish you had a much better excuse as to why you are there, you don’t have one and you have not been out drinking. You are slightly disheveled having literally rolled out of bed; your eyes are straining to adjust to the terrible glare of those migraine inducing fluorescent lights. As you settle into the scene, you hum along to some off rendition of 'We are the World' while strolling down the aisles. You grab your much needed items and head for the checkout.

Of course, now, you are intercepted by your former employer who just recently had a baby and is driving around with his partner on a late night mission to get said baby to sleep. He is excited to see you, probably overly so because he doesn’t get out much these days, but his enthusiasm becomes buffered by his sudden realization. Once he finally comes to, notices your odd get-up and, finally, glances down to note the contents of your basket, he struggles to carry on any sort of coherent discussion. Your mind begins to race. Should you try to explain the situation?

The Dog Blog with Kathryn Socie

Marking Time

Most people track their lives in some way, capturing important moments in time in an effort to tuck memories away and allow those in their present into their past. Unfortunately for me, I never carry a camera or seem to collect many pictures and I can’t really say why. Laziness perhaps. I write, but chronicling my everyday thoughts and experiences in words has always been a futile effort; an entirely lame entry appears once every few months, causing me to throw out the exercise altogether. Yesterday, however, I discovered I’ve been recording my life's path in a rather unusual way.

I had gone in search of a bracelet stored in a cheap purple box picked up many moons ago for my “prized” smaller possessions. It’s one of those boxes divided into sections, consisting of layers. On one, I keep the few pieces of jewelry I own and in another I’ve been, somewhat absentmindedly, collecting tags; I.D. tags from each and every dog that has spent any amount of time in my life. Tags marking each move, from state to state or just across town. Tags recording chapters of my life. My first dog, my second dog, foster dogs, found dogs, tags including the name of a partner with whom I shared my dogged life for a spell.

The Dog Blog with Kathryn Socie

All Puppies are Cute

A hearty welcome back to all the students recently landing in the lovely Missoula valley with the aim of expanding their minds and opportunities in life (hats off to you). A true believer in free will, I completely allow for people to make their own choices and mistakes uninfluenced by any amount of rather meager wisdom I might have to offer, but for some reason I need to make one brief exception to my normal rule and share a bit of my thirty-something-life-long-doggedness.

I know it's tempting, but please, I beg of thee, don't get a dog or, at the very least, seriously think long and hard before you do. Yes, I know the recreational possibilities con canine are plentiful in these parts. Yes, I know you grew up with a dog, totally dig them and feel you absolutely "need" one. Yes, your current landlord will let you have one with an extra couple-hundred dollar pet deposit, which your folks are willing to help you out with. Yes, you found the perfect puppy in the paper. I've heard you sharing with your buddies all the places you'll go with your new dog in tow. I've also heard plenty of folks remind you that a dog is a huge responsibility and I've watched you roll your eyes at them.

Responsibility is the wrong word. Take a moment to envision your future.

The Dog Blog with Kathryn Socie

Fall Fashion Must-Have

If you live with a dog you are, no doubt, plagued by mounds of hair nestled in every nook and cranny of your life, traveling like tumble-weed across hard surfaces. You’ve suffered it, wrestled with managing it and probably given in. Reducing hair-load, for me anyway, is a daily task, but recently the thought of recycling and re-using it has begun to pass through my wee brain. It’s a little hard to even think about pulling out cold weather clothing in August, but cooler temps are just ‘round the corner and for the dogged you can never get out the rug brush and start collecting too soon. Really. I mean it.

The Dog Blog with Kathryn Socie

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Science is super cool and capable of AMAZING things, but are we really going to use it to catapult us into freak-ville? I mean really, cloning humans is a frightening concept and puts just about everybody’s panties in some kind of a bunch (OK, mine sure are), but spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to be “Best Friends Again” as in have a mad scientist make an exact replica of your beloved dog after it’s passed away, strikes me as a little more than disturbing. But BioArts, a bioengineering company in California, disagrees and is offering this very special service to dog owners round the globe. It’s true and SOOO much stranger than you think.