September-October201.. - Dogs Naturally Magazine

y: Leonard CecilI met Milt when I was sniffing around in the fields behind thatbig white house in our town, the one where the music sometimescomes out. Milt is a good-looking dog with a strangestripe of fur on his back that always stands up, like if he weremad, but he isn't. He also speaks with a funny accent.When I first met him, dad and I first did our “look-at-me" gameso I could cool it and not scare him or his human with my maddash to greet. Milt had his human attached differently that Ido with dad. I have these straps around my chest and a longcloth line is attached on one end to the straps in front of mychest and the other to dad's hand. That way I can tell dad Iwant to go right or left or stop and he can tell me to hurry upor slow down or just walk with him. Milt had attached hishuman with a short metal line around his neck and one thatwas attached at his neck and to his dad's hand. As soon as Miltsaw me, he took off to meet me and it was hard not to run tohim, but dad and I had worked on this and I knew, if I waited,dad would let me go. Milt's dad however suddenly yelled „NO"and then I saw Milt almost fly up and then back to the groundand he yelped. That stopped me cold. I'd never seen anythinglike that before.A little while later, dad let me go and Milt's dad let him go andwe ran all over playing and jumping and running and sniffingeach other (I won't get into that, I know dad doesn't likehearing about that) and in a break I asked Milt if he was ok.Milt said yeah, but that one really hurt. I asked why his dad didthat and Milt didn't know. “He's not a bad dad, but sometimeshe does that and it hurts. I don't know why he does that,though. Doesn't your dad do that to you?"I replied, rather stunned “No, dad used to do that, but Ishowed him, that that wasn't necessary if he'd only show mewhat he wanted me to do instead."Now Milt was stunned. He thought a moment and then asked“How did you show your dad that wasn't necessary?"I took up the challenge: “Well when dad put that long thing onme and jerked, I got scared of him, that he'd jerk it again, so Ididn't want to walk with him. He jerked anyway. But I just kepttrying to get away from him. And he kept jerking. I'd lay downand he tried to drag me, but I just cried. And then I didn't wantto come to him any more, even when he didn't have the longthing on me."Milt stood first shaking his head and then replied: “If I don'tcome to my dad, he gets really angry. He starts talking reallyfast, saying stuff I can't understand...."I interrupted. “Yeah, do they even know that we don't speakhuman? I mean I KNOW they don't speak dogese, but whydon't they understand, that we don't speak human?"Milt continued: “I dunno, but the more I didn't come, thelouder he got and he got all red in the face. He then took outmy favorite toy and despite everything, I went to him thinkinghe was really wanting to play with me. But then he grabbedthat chain thing around my neck, hit me on the backsideseveral times - WOW did THAT hurt! - and then threw me onmy back!"I was astounded: “Why did he want to KILL you? Mom told me,that if a furry ever did that to me to run away as fast as I can,'cause he wants to kill me! I'm glad my dad doesn't want to killme."Milt shaking his head again: “That was the strange part. Mymom told me the same, and I was really afraid, because hewas yelling at me and pushing me so hard into the ground Icouldn't breathe. At first I tried to run away, 'cause my momtold me the same thing. I tried using my teeth - I may haveeven gotten him once or twice, but he just pressed harderDogs...Naturally! September/October 2010