Journalist Lyla

I am a very smart dog, as dogs go. Most of us are pretty smart – much smarter than even the most generous humans give us credit for – but I would have to somewhat humbly say I am brilliant. I am after all a proud descendent of the line of German Shepherds. Need I say more?

It wouldn’t take a very smart dog, however, to have figured out long ago that “something is up,” as a human might say. It seems to me it started last winter when I heard long discussions between Fif (that is pronounced as if it rhymed with “life” and is short for what I call “Friend I Follow”) and her partner, Ef  (Emma’s Friend). Emma is the other mutt in the house, and I say that in a loving way. Ef is easier for you to pronounce than the actual way Emma and I say his name.

Emma and I live on a really neat farm in Ohio where we get to go to barns to help feed horses and harass cats every day. When Fif and Ef have time we also go for long walks on our hilly farm, where Emma and I run at least four times as far as our friends and that is mostly uphill. We check back on them every few minutes though, just to make sure they are going to be able to climb that hill.

So in this manner of predictability our lives have gone on for the past three years, when we first became part of this family. I came first at the age of three, just as the last of many dogs who formerly lived here was on her last legs. Poor Liberty, she was blind and deaf and a bit tottery at age 16. But she was able to fill me in on quite a legacy of previous dog inhabitants. But more about that later.

Emma arrived about six months later and she was just a bratty 8-week-old something or other from a local dog shelter. Really, it was quite impossible to define her breeding, although I heard Fif and Ef refer to her as a Lab. Ha, well, maybe, but sometimes I did hear the dreaded word “pitbull.”

As I was saying, our lives were pretty routine – until this past winter you would have just thought of us as farm dogs. Then we began overhearing talk of a “trip” Fif was planning. We knew what trips were – Fif and Ef went off to work almost every day. And sometimes we went in the car to the vet or for a walk in a park. But this sounded different. I heard Ef say Fif should take me with her and Fif say, ‘whoa, that sounds like a lot of work, plus you know Lyla (that’s me) doesn’t really like to be near other dogs.”

In fact, that is what made me really perk up my ears (although they are already perked, a German Shepherd’s ears can be hyper-perked). There ARE other dogs I don’t care for. Liberty was fine and I got used to Emma constantly chewing on my tail and neck, but strange dogs – just don’t want to go there. I have a very dim recollection that in the family I first lived with something very bad happened with a strange dog and I just don’t care to deal with them.

Then I heard Fif talking about taking me to an “animal behaviorist” to see if we could figure out how I could be more friendly around other dogs. Ef thought that was a great idea. I thought it sounded just horrible! For one thing, I probably know more about dog behavior than any so-called human animal behaviorist.

But early in February, off we went. Our friend, Dr. Daubenmire, who gives me shots and trims my nails and such went with us. She is my veterinarian, but she is also a very good friend and I don’t ever mind anything she does when I see her. In fact, I love all humans a lot! From teeny ones to big ones, to funny-looking ones to very old humans (especially them), I REALLY love humans. I love them so much I could be the prototype for the first dog who joined up with a human to be friends.

We drove to a big city called Columbus and went to a place called Ohio State University. A nice woman named Shana came to the car to walk in with us (I heard them say that was in case I saw another dog, which I did, a big Lab, and I did feel compelled to bark loudly so she would know I knew she was there.) We went into a little room that smelled of other dogs and TREATS and even horses and cows, since they were not far away in another part of the building. For more than three hours the humans talked and Shana asked me to do very simple things like sit and lay down and gave me treats every time I did what she asked. I loved this, so maybe being “evaluated” wasn’t so bad. Shana said I had a “fear aggression of other dogs.” Well, duh.

Then we left and Fif and Dr. Daubenmire talked all the way home about “strategies” and how I could learn to pay attention to Fif and eventually learn to ignore other dogs. And that is just what we did. I liked some of it – for one thing I love playing, “look at me” and can almost always do it. But, then as I said, with my breeding, most things come easily to me.

Some of our training was really hard though. We went for lots of walks where there were other dogs, who always looked at me. I didn’t particularly like this, but Fif was always very close and I got treats every time I looked at her instead of the other dogs. After awhile it didn’t seem like such a big deal to see another dog go down the street across from me. But I have to say I’m not really ready to run up to one and sniff butts.

Back to the “trip.” As my training progressed Fif bought lots of cool things for me, like a bed and harness for in the car and I got to go with her to meet people (did I mention I LOVE people?) and go for walks in interesting places where there were smells unlike any I have ever smelt. In the past few weeks Fif’s eyes have looked a little glazed as she works constantly to outfit our van with all the comforts she says we will need for six weeks of travel. I’ve heard her talk about “Wyoming” and “Idaho” and something called the “Pacific Ocean.”

Like I said, I am exceptionally brilliant and I sense a change is coming.

Journalist Lyla