What is Wrong Here?

Let’s be clear. I didn’t purchase a single one of the dogs we now have living at the house. They were brought here by the woman I live with and her daughter. One came from a breeder, one from a pet store and one from the pound. The breeder and pet store dog barked from birth, and then taught the pound dog how to bark. Now, having perfected the skill, she’s taken it to the “next level” (how I hate that term) and out-barks the other two. Bottom line, they all bark for love and attention. One of our family tenets is to be as supportive as we can and encourage self-expression, self-esteem, and selflessness, while discouraging self-indulgence, the mother of all ails, according to a monk I once saw on television while watching “Robin Hood”. So the barking, as a means of self-expression, is allowed except when the child is asleep. Once the dogs understand this, peace will, once again, reign at home. If this sounds too strict allow me to continue by saying, the woman and her daughter can and do, bark just about any time they feel like it. When they bark at me I bark back and at any given time we can all be found barking with the dogs looking up as if to say, 

“What in the world is wrong with you people?” 

If the doorbell rings while we are barking, we all shut up at the same time. Amazing and yes, we allow that look to be used, but only by the dogs. In the meantime we have other things to worry about .The pound dog, already loaded with security issues, running from the broom, the vacuum cleaner and rain, became even more insecure when the other two (the dogs, not the people) decided they preferred segregation (even though all are the same color and the pound dog is probably the smartest) and wanted to be in their own room and alone. This I discouraged, feeling that they needed to learn how to live with one another in peace and harmony and not bark when the small child is sitting in the floor facing away from the television. He cannot, under any circumstances, be allowed to face the television as this would surely cause him to become obsessed with The Kardashians at an age when, well, his mother wants him to be able to feed and clothe himself eventually. Plus, the guy who used to be Bruce Jenner scares all of us. I’ve asked the dogs not to watch that show either, as it tends to disrupt the house training whenever the male feels compelled to “mark” Kanye on the Sanyo. This eliminates a major form of entertainment. 

It also requires one of us, the adults, to become the entertainment and once I get past babbling and gurgling that about does it. Next year we start tennis, golf or something with a ball involved. But I digress. I often wonder what caused the pound dog to be so insecure and afraid and I must conclude that she was indeed, abused. The interesting thing is that, of the three, she has taken to “Little Harmon” the best. Arriving on the scene the moment she hears a stressful cry or whimper, curling up by his bed, and doing other things to let us know she is a protector of something small and helpless. Something she was not privy to as a puppy. Well, you might say, “So goes the dynamics of the dysfunctional family.” But, sometimes, when watching our congress in in-action with all the barking, “marking” and crying I think, you know, these folks are not too different from us after all. I guess we’re all just looking for a little love and attention.