After working so intensely with Sage on walks- and knowing how much more of that is coming- I enjoyed deeply my walk this morning with Rei. We walked on leash up to the frozen golf course and I asked her to wait, and she did. And I unclipped her leash, and said Okay- and she ran ahead to the edge of the brush, sniffed and celebrated with some exclamatory scoring of the earth. We walked along in the cold wind, more connected without the leash, I think- it was the old feeling when it was just Rei and I. To speak without a word and travel together.
Reilly sniffs and hunts and seeks- she reads and writes. Usually when we walk here I keep to the cart path, which runs along the edge of the brushy area. Today I went off onto the open green and Rei noted this and left hunting the edge to come by me. She ran full sighthound tilt along the bumps and traps of the course, then turned and ran to me to do her Springs. She is a serious person, but Springs is where she gets silly- she jumps straight up and down a few times like a much smaller dog, and has this big happy face. “Wow! You’ve got Springs!” I say. She stands still panting and politely takes a small crunchy treat. OKAY and she’s trotting along, seeking.
Even out with Reilly, I can’t help thinking about Sage- why he’s so different, what I didn’t understand till later, what I can do now, what I still don’t understand. I shake that off to be here and now with Rei. She is between me and the brushy edge, stopped and looking at me with her head tilted and ears perked. “Want to walk over by the edge? There’s more likley to be meadow voles there.” I could call her to come and walk the other side, but I don’t. I say out loud, “Sure! I’ll come over there.” At Sure and the turn of my shoulder, she knows I am joining her and she gallops to the edge.
Unlike reactive Sage, she doesn’t need my constant direction, I don’t get her to look at me with clicks or cookies. We are having a flow experience, choosing to go along together, not me directing her, not her ditching me for her own hunt. I am not specifically teaching her. She is no trainer’s perfect dog, but we ‘get’ each other. I think any companion is a good or bad match for any specific other, and while there are lots of books that will tell you what you should and should not tolerate from a dog, my relationship with Rei fits us both.
Yes she begs at the table by laying her chin on my leg- I didnt mind this because it is the only time she would initiate physical calm sweetness. I liked it. I draw my line at nose nudging my arm and salivating on my pants. She draws her line at chin on leg, but dislikes it if I pat her head. “Ah-ah! Under the neck, please, if you must pet me, but really I just want a tidbit so I’ll give you only this much snuggling.” I am not supposed to tolerate pushy behavior, but I am frequently grateful when Reilly gets up, stretches and woofs pointedly at me that it’s three o clock and time to go to the bus stop and get my daughter Raye. I get lost in my work, and I forget the time. My Pushinees line is behind telling me boisterously that it is three o clock. Or even five o clock- the dog food hour. I understand that- it is what a dog needs to do when she lives with someone lost in drawing or writing.
Our pushiness line stops short of Rei checking credentials and denying access at the door. For this we have instituted Study! Which is less snooty sounding than Studio! and instead of confronting company, she has something yummy in my work room. She asks that I not let anyone bother her in there, and I think that’s a good, fair deal.
