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Dogs and Rituals

Those of us who cohabitate with dogs know that they thrive on ritual. Doing the same thing the same way over and over again. I am sure an animal behaviorist would have us realize that it is conditioning; the dog is responding to the circumstance over and over again. If it is a favorable circumstance then the behavior is reinforced to repeat over and over again.

For those who have read a few of my previous entries, I have mentioned that dogs thrive on what they can count on. It is part of their job and how they are fulfilled each day, mentally and physically. However, there are many small things that go on each day that you may have never noticed, or become accustomed to, that are also ritual.

At my house, it is the greeting of my husband each afternoon after work.  This ritual is big, rowdy and ridiculous. But all involved (yes him too) seem to enjoy it. My husband will come in the door promptly around 5:20 where he is greeted with all of the enthusiasm of Christmas morning, but this is every day. There is jumping, licking, running, knocking over whatever is in the vicinity, and sniffing all on a grand scale. Then my chocolate lab tears through the house searching for an appropriate offering. She franticly finds a favorite toy, rawhide bone or her blanket and races back to present it to my husband. She will jump on our bed with it, catapulting whatever sleeping cat was there having it run for its very life. Hershey's tail wags so hard that she could throw her back out all the while snorting like a wild rhino while presenting the offering.  Meanwhile my yellow lab is jumping in place with a huge smile on his face. Husband will accept the offering, then the licking begins. She licks his clothes and face and gathers information about his day and shows massive affection. Labs have a way of boosting human self esteem, don't they?  Once this 5 minute ritual is complete, then all included can carry on.

Another one involves the yellow lab. For a few months before we were harshly persuaded by our vet to have him lose weight, there was the "cheese drawer ritual". Whenever my husband would approach the refrigerator, my yellow lab, who could hear this from a thousand miles away and in a deep coma, would come running to the kitchen, jumping up and down and spinning in the air. Then my husband would respond with, "Who wants some cheese, does Beau like cheese?". Then there would be a small display of obedience commands, loose and incorrectly performed but rewarded anyway with the dispersal of cheese.  As you can imagine, that was a hard ritual to break. Now, as the owners of our own house and refrigerator, we have to silently sneak into the cheese drawer to retrieve what we need and we never say the word. Beau does not understand why that ritual had to end, so we try to spare him the exposure to it.

The last one I will bore you with is a nightly ritual. The chocolate dog will jump into the bed and go to sleep the last 30 minutes or so before she has to go to her kennel and the lights are turned off. She stretches out the length of a surf board between us and then "dog piles" her head, with a hard deliberate thud, on one of our legs. But don't touch her or the whole "I have to find the right spot, sniff and turn circles in place, and settle down" thing starts over again. Then when my husband says, "time to get in your kennel", she will act as if she is in the soundest sleep available to dogs, and totally ignore him. She has to be "woken up" to get in her kennel. This is especially amusing after the spectacle of energy that happens each afternoon when he gets home.

I would love to hear about a few of your rituals. I never tire of dog stories. I truly enjoy telling them and hearing them. Just ask my kind, indulgent family and friends.