Trusts Dog Instincts

Dogs are astute judges of character. Most can sniff the air and figure out if an individual is friend or foe. Their actions are based on that sense.

Our first dog was a Dalmatian. Pokey was an adult dog when Mother brought him home from a friend’s house. The dog stayed inside for a few days. When he hiked his leg on one of the plaster walls and flooded the hardwood floors, Pokey was exiled to the outside.

The dog was to be Mother’s pet, but in short order, twin brother Jim and I became Pokey’s masters, probably because we spent so much time outside together. The three of us were inseparable. On one occasion, Mother came outside to administer punishment to our backsides for transgressions we’d committed. She raised her arm to swat one bottom. Pokey stood up, eyed Mother, and growled. He could see that the thrashing was about to begin, and the dog had no intentions of letting it happen. Mother stopped, looked dumbfounded at the dog, and went back inside. It was the first and only time she suspended swift justice, and it was because Pokey sensed the hostility in the air.

Pokey II was another Dalmatian, a pup that a sociology professor at college gave me. He was Mother’s dog completely and fiercely protected her. On one occasion a neighbor stopped at her house to leave a wedding present for Amy and me. No one was home, and when the woman got out of the car, Pokey growled. She paid him no mind and walked to the door. After knocking without an answer, the neighbor reached for the handle of the screened door so that she could put the gift between it and the inside door. Pokey stood on his back feet, took the woman’s hand in his mouth, and pulled it from the knob. Then he again looked at her and growled. The lady decided to leave the present where it was and drive away as soon as possible.

Someone recently told me a story about a politician who unexpectedly stopped by a house in the Karns community. The man evidently knew the residents, and he pulled out of the community parade to visit. The resident’s dog, a usually gentle creature, spied the man, took about a second and a half to sniff the air, and then came after him. He retreated as quickly as possible. The story ended without the man being bitten or the dog being shot.

Perhaps we humans aren’t using our K-9 friends to their fullest potentials. We’ve picked plenty of leaders at all levels who haven’t turned out to be so good. Instead of primaries and campaigns that costs fortunes and wear on the nerves of voters, maybe we should line up those running for office and have half a dozen dogs of all breeds, as well as mutts, sniff each man or woman. If the dogs growl or take a plug out of a candidate, he or she would be removed from the ballot. Hey, it can’t lead to any worse choices than some we humans have made in passed elections.