Tag: A Man and His Dog

Camera Girl Grows Up

photog Current Events, Life in Dunwich, OCF, photog's Corner , ,

Camera Girl is acknowledged across the multi-verse as the worst dog trainer of all time.  Whereas children and grandchildren respond to and obey her enlightened methods of child rearing, her dogs on the other hand are completely wild.  This happens because she thinks dogs are perpetually infants.  And so, she coddles them and allows them to walk all over her and run amok.  Many years ago, we had our first German Shorthaired Pointer, Max.  He was a magnificent specimen of a very large GSP and I thought he was fairly well-behaved.  But one weekend I come home to find my youngest daughter standing on the couch because the dog had taken her socks while she was putting them on and was growling whenever someone came near them.

So, I went to get the socks from Max and he bit me.  I was shocked.  I asked Camera Girl, “When did this start?”  She looked sheepish and said since he’d started to mature, he had been getting aggressive.  I guess I’d been busy over the last six months and hadn’t spent any time training Max.  But now we were in a bad situation.  I didn’t want to lose the dog but I couldn’t have a large strong dog that might bite my kids.  So being a lunatic I put on a pair of cowhide gloves and winter coat and attacked Max.  I went for the socks and he went for me.  I grabbed him around the neck and threw him to the floor and pinned him.  Then I growled like a lunatic and bit him on the throat.  And I never had another bit of trouble from that dog again.  From that point on he worked for me.

Over the years Camera Girl has improved slightly.  But depending on the temperament of the dogs, she’s done anywhere from fairly well to really poor at training them.  Our latest pup is a female basset hound and she is feisty.  And she likes to chew on things, including me.  So, I started to follow Camera Girl when she was “training” Penny.  And of course, the dog was running the show.  She had this short legged chunky hound running around causing chaos and the only attempt at training was baby talk admonishments. So, I demanded that we get her straightened out.  Now luckily there have been great strides taken in dog training since my days of biting Max on the throat.

One training aid is a shock collar.  Well, actually it’s a combination buzzer/shocker.  Camera Girl is way too tender-hearted to shock the dogs.  But I’ve finally demanded that she start using the buzzer and use it consistently to get Penny to stop biting and jumping up.  This is actually also for her own good.  Basset hounds are very prone to hurting their backs and jumping up is a good way for them to do that.

And what do you know?  After about two weeks of consistent training the absurd puppy is finally, finally beginning to behave.  She hasn’t even tried to chew on my face once today.  And I’m overjoyed.  I think Camera Girl is finally beginning to grow up.  Any day now I’ll be comfortable enough to finally throw that ratty coat and gloves away once and for all.  And it’s a good thing.  I think next time the dog would win.

A Man and His Dog

photog photog's Corner , ,

Many, many years ago I read an autobiographical short story by Thomas Mann called “A Man and His Dog.”  It’s a very charming description of Mann’s life in a rural suburb outside I believe Munich.  His dog Bashan is a German Shorthaired Pointer (GSP) or, as he mentions in the story mostly of that breed, because he mentions some irregularities of his appearance that Mann hints should b a point of embarrassment for Bashan.

When my children were young, we found ourselves looking for a family dog and I thought long and hard what breed to get.  Camera Girl is a dog lover and any breed will find a place in her heart but I insisted that it be a manly and courageous breed because I see the value of having a capable watchdog in the house.  But I wanted a dog that had the even temperament needed around small children.  So, no pit bulls or bull mastiffs.  After a thorough review of the physical and temperamental characteristics, I selected the GSP as the optimal dog breed for us.  We ended up travelling about six hours each way to get the puppy and when I brough “Max” home he was an immediate hit with the children and settled in with his family.

And I will say that he lived up to the description for his breed.  The GSP’s are incredibly friendly with children in the family and tolerant of people around the home.  But they are extremely protective of their territory if another dog enters it and will fight ferociously against an intruding dog.  They are extremely smart and amazingly fast and agile.  And as one of our later GSP’s demonstrated, powerful hunters.  Our older dog Kaylee once took down a young deer that happened to be in a field that she was running in.  It was all that we could to get the deer away from her alive.

In his story Mann mentions that the pointers can make themselves a nuisance by their single-minded approach to the master of the house.  And in a sense, this is true.  Although Camera Girl is the primary dog walker in the house, the two pointers look to me for their marching orders.  Whenever anyone enters the property, they come to me and start complaining about the intrusion looking for leadership in repelling this invasion.  And as annoying as it sometimes is to have yapping dogs running around in circles when the oil truck comes down the driveway or the Fedex guy is dropping off a package, it is a good feeling to have loyal minions whose allegiance is to the king of the castle and no one else.

Over the years we have had other breeds too.  Early on we had a Newfoundland.  Up until six years ago we had a Bassett hound.  Both dogs were wonderful creatures that we loved immensely.  And they had their own unique qualities and characteristics.  But to my mind the pointers are the best family dogs I’ve come across.  And in a pinch, if a serious animal threat wandered onto the property, I’d feel better knowing a GSP was there to look out for Camera Girl and the grandkids.

So, when I think of a man and his dog, if the man is me then the dog would be a German shorthaired pointer.

A7 III with Sigma 150 – 600mm MC-11 adapter

A photog and His Corner

photog Current Events, OCF, photog's Corner , , , ,

Old people and literary types will have heard of Thomas Mann.  He was a German author born in 1875.  He won the Nobel Prize in literature in the 1920s and he belonged to the Modernist school.  Back in the 1970s if you had a high school English teacher who was especially perverse he would assign a book of Mann’s called “Death in Venice and Other Stories.”  Now the title story “Death in Venice,” is vile.  It’s the story of an old German writer who has a premonition of death and goes to Venice to feel young again.  He has an infatuation verging on pedophilia for an adolescent boy that mercifully goes unfulfilled and then to the reader’s great relief the protagonist dies.  The only legitimate reason to read this story is for law enforcement profilers to gain a better understanding of pedophile motivation.

One of the other stories in the book is called “A Man and His Dog.”  It is autobiographical and describes Mann’s life in a suburban/rural area of Germany.  He chronicles the walks he takes with his approximately German Shorthaired Pointer dog Bashan.  We hear about the landscape, the flora and fauna and the farmland occupants of his little world.  It is without a doubt, the best thing in the story collection and I’ve always envied his opportunity to share a slice of his world and life in such a congenial narrative.  It really is a pleasure to read.

So, even though I keep German Short Haired Pointers, I can’t do what Mann did.  I don’t have his facility for felicitous phrasing.  But I’m a lot funnier than he was.  So, from time to time, I’ll address things in a post that have very little to do with politics, photography or science fiction.  When that happens, I’ll assign them to the category “photog’s Corner” and that will be a warning sign of irrelevance to the primary foci of this blog.  Caveat emptor.

 

photog