Disappointing the Dog by Not Being a Superhero

[dressagetraks]

Does anybody else feel guilty sometimes about this?

My Bernese always stays close to me, but whenever I get up, she gets this, “Wow! THE MOST EXCITING THING EVER IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN!!!” expression and follows me. I am not talking about hyper energy; she isn’t bouncing around. She gets plenty of exercise outside and gets plenty of me, IMHO; I work at home, so she has me 24/7 on 4 days a week and only a few-hours errand absence on the other three. This is entirely an expression of the ears and eyes, not hyperactivity.

Over and over, every day, a dozen times a day.

“SHE’S GETTING UP!!! WOW!!! WHAT ARE WE DOING NOW!!!” :D:yes:

Um, I’m just going to the bathroom. Sorry.

One hour later - “EXCITEMENT!!! I’VE BEEN WAITING ALL MY LIFE FOR THIS NEXT INCREDIBLE THING THAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO DO!!!”

Nope, just walking up and down the hall to stretch my legs during a job download.

It’s like every single action of mine, even mundane, even if done 1000 times before, is an occasion for a press release, a full parade, and fireworks bursting overhead in her eyes.

I just feel sorry sometimes for not producing something worthy of the advance review. I’m more used to cats, and they have far better differential radar. They know from the next room what I will get out of the refrigerator and if it will interest them before I walk there, and they know if they need to be bothered to get up. Yesterday, I had turkey burgers for lunch. I had all five cats at my feet giving a fanfare before I even got the package open. They were correct, this was the food highlight of the week, and they got a nibble. But how many times has that performance been duplicated in the last week? None. Other meals received the varied interest they were due.

I’m just not used to the THIS NEXT ONE MINUTE IS NOT ONLY THE HIGHLIGHT OF MY DAY BUT OF MY LIFE, SO WHAT DO WE DO NOW?!?!?!? expression at every single action. I feel like I’m letting her down by not doing something in fact spectacular any time I arise from a chair.

Again, this is NOT hyperactivity, lack of time with me, or lack of exercise. It’s purely her expression. She’s done this for 3 years, since about a month after I got her when she started to settle into being “my” dog. It almost makes ME tired at times watching her excited anticipation, and it makes me feel bad occasionally for her sake that 99.9% of the time, nothing earth-shaking followed.

[SquishTheBunny]

That post just made my day.

[meupatdoes]

My dogs blame me when it rains.

They race out, stop immediately, look back at me with baleful accusation, and commence sulk.

I am like, “WHAT, WHAT? I DIDN’T DO IT.”

[millerra]

well,

with retrievers, you’re only super hero if you 1) open a bread bag, 2) get the tennis ball or leash, or best of all 3) get the gun!

Otherwise, they just cock an ear and stay asleep.

Maybe next time a retriever would be a better dog rather than a working dog? That way your super hero expectations are much lower.

[your post was hilarious, btw!]

[dressagetraks]

Now the cats, inside and out, blame me for the weather. Emily Dickinson, head barn cat, is especially eloquent (she earned her name by cursing me for the 45-minute drive home without ONCE repeating herself after I trapped her because she was a black city stray, and we were approaching Halloween. Whatever you think of Emily D’s poetry, it is established that she never seemed to run out of something else to say). She can meet me on the front steps and curse me all the way to the garage. Could have stayed in there and eaten in the dry, but nope, I get the escort from the door back there, even in pouring rain.

But Hannah (the dog) cracks me up when she isn’t making me feel bad for being boring. Seriously, it never gets old. She’s still convinced that THIS next trip to the bathroom is going to be something so spectacular that it will eclipse all previous bathroom trips in history.

[vtdobes]

Uh yes my Dobe bitch does this! The only time she doesn’t leap off the couch to follow me is when the phone rings…she knows I’m just going to walk over, pick it up and walk back to the couch.

My boy Dobe will wait to see if anything good is happening and then if it is he’ll get up and follow

[vtdobes]

@meupatdoes;6581490

They race out, stop immediately, look back at me with baleful accusation, and commence sulk.

One of mine doesn’t even make it out the door…she can hear or see the rain halfway across the back porch and u-turns it back inside. She’ll then peer at me around the door sulking…

[tarheelmd07]

This post totally made my day!

My pup is very much the same way - she’s a complete velcro-dog, and she is always RIGHT.THERE. whenever I’m doing anything…and she too looks very disappointed when standing up does not turn into something exciting like GOING.OUTSIDE! or GOING.TO.THE.PARK! or GOING.TO.LOOK.FOR.SQUIRRELS!

sometimes, when I do not do something exciting, she runs through her repitoire of commands spontanously to see if that will encourage me to be more exciting…you can see the little wheels in her brain turning…“if I just sit…or down…or spin…maybe we’ll do something fun!!!”

I feel terrible for being a constant source of dissapointment :lol:

[wendy]

ah, well, try a malinois. He stares at me 24/7 just in case I might issue a command, or a request, or perhaps a mild desire for him to do something. Anything. Stand up and it’s WHATDOYOUWANTMETODO!!! complete with excited quivering, and sometimes excited spinning, and if looks like I might actually HAVE A REQUEST he might issue horrible shrieks of excitement before flinging himself off to accomplish it. It’s dreadfully exhausting at times.

[2ndyrgal]

Oh yeah… been there

and inadvertantly trained our beloved Corgi, Miles that the phone ringing was VERY IMPORTANT.

When he was a baby puppy, I was home with him the first few months, we had moved into a new house. The phone in the master bedroom was waaaayy on the other side of the bed, and inevitably, my DH would call when I was in the master bath on the other side of a very large room. It went something like this

Miles is sitting at the edge of the bathroom watching his Mom take a shower. whatever. Phone rings, and his mom opens the door, grabs a towel, runs across the room, leaps across the bed and reaches for the phone. Miles of course thinks this is great fun and runs and barks each time the phone rings.

He barked and spun and ran to the phone each time it rang, every day until his last. Because I had made it A Very Important Thing.

Good dog.

[sk_pacer]

it’s once again time to post this gem: Dog and Cat Diary

[Kadenz]

OP, I feel your pain. My incredibly simple possibly-houndish-mix makes me feel this way aaalll the time.

Get up from the couch? Open a beer? Laugh at something?
All of the above will get you a bright-eyed, long-nosed alert stare, followed by the scampering scramble to be as close as possible to you.

The pit bull is SO much chiller. He might open an eye to inspect what I’m getting out of the fridge; but it has to REALLY be something for him to leave his throne…er, couch.

[dressagetraks]

Then there is the slow down-wag, like a wind-up toy running down. This is when she finally realizes that in fact, saving the world has been postponed until my next arising and that we really aren’t doing much this time. The tail slows gradually, less and less brush waving. Then at last, when I return to the computer, the tail falters to a stop, and she gives a sigh and lies down next to my work chair in the office.

Until the next time . . .

[Rubyfree]

I don’t feel guilty when Arlo the wonderdane gets this way when I’m just going to have a wee or what have you because, as far as I am able to discern, it really IS the MOST EXCITING WEE I HAVE EVER TAKEN. To him. He has recently developed an irrational fear of ceilings, and ceilings have a disconcerting habit of being everywhere, so if it gives him a thrill to follow me to the bathroom, more power to him. I’m happy to provide the distraction from his suffering. :lol:

[bits619]

We disappoint our dogs multiple times a day. Seeing as there are usually 9 or so dogs chilling in our living room at any time (foster dog farm), that’s a lot of disappointment! Not all of them fall for it every time we stand up or walk across the room, but enough do to make it feel like the room is crawling I can also tell which way MrB has gone by the collection of dogs gathered by whichever doorway. And how long he’s been there by the number of remaining dogs still loyal in their wait (ie his shepherds).
When it comes to food in the kitchen however, everyone pays attention. It’s not helped by the labrador scrambling as if something just bit her every time I eat in the kitchen. Her frenzied hope sets off a chain reaction.
Again, the food thing isn’t improved by the fact that we’ve begun to add toppings to their food. A rehydrated wet food on top of their meals for some, or yogurt, or blueberries and other fruits and vegetables. Now they think that the fridge is THEIR fridge too.
My first dog was so clingy at first that it drove me crazy. I’d shift my weight in the chair and he’d pop up from my feet, look at me. Two steps backward because I left something? Hed follow. It’s not like he could have gotten lost, we were living in a studio the size of a motel room.

[meupatdoes]

[QUOTE=bits619;6581674]

My first dog was so clingy at first that it drove me crazy. I’d shift my weight in the chair and he’d pop up from my feet, look at me. Two steps backward because I left something? Hed follow. It’s not like he could have gotten lost, we were living in a studio the size of a motel room.[/QUOTE]

Do you just love it when you are sitting on the john and you look down and RIGHT THERE are two woeful, emotively liquid eyes staring up at you?

…continuously?

[MunchingonHay]

[QUOTE=dressagetraks;6581458]
Does anybody else feel guilty sometimes about this?

“SHE’S GETTING UP!!! WOW!!! WHAT ARE WE DOING NOW!!!” :D:yes:

Um, I’m just going to the bathroom. Sorry.

One hour later - “EXCITEMENT!!! I’VE BEEN WAITING ALL MY LIFE FOR THIS NEXT INCREDIBLE THING THAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO DO!!!”
.[/QUOTE]

The last part of this the, " I’ve been waiting all my life for this next incredible thing that you are about to do" had me in stitches

[MelantheLLC]

[QUOTE=Rubyfree;6581638]
He has recently developed an irrational fear of ceilings, and ceilings have a disconcerting habit of being everywhere[/QUOTE]

What IS this? I’ve had two dogs now that developed this habit of looking up apprehensively. One took to it after a move to a new place–she was convinced aliens were going to land in the back yard at any moment, would glance up at the sky and refuse to go out there (HAD to be taken for a walk, uh-huh. Somehow the sky was ok as long as she was on a leash touring the neighborhood.)

Current dog has developed severe anxiety over a ceiling fan that had been hanging over his head for a year, but he just looked up one day and decided it was likely to sprout talons and carry him off. He weighs 120 lbs but you know those ceiling fans have 4 ft wingspans. :eek: He sometimes gets trapped in the room because he’s afraid to walk under it.

[Levade]

[QUOTE=wendy;6581547]
ah, well, try a malinois. He stares at me 24/7 just in case I might issue a command, or a request, or perhaps a mild desire for him to do something. Anything. Stand up and it’s WHATDOYOUWANTMETODO!!! complete with excited quivering, and sometimes excited spinning, and if looks like I might actually HAVE A REQUEST he might issue horrible shrieks of excitement before flinging himself off to accomplish it. It’s dreadfully exhausting at times.[/QUOTE]

This cracked me up, lol! What do you do to get his excitement out, a Mali must be very high-maintenance :lol:

[bits619]

Meup, i had forgotten to mention that part as well! Take a dog who has never lived indoors but who is constantly glued to your side and go to the bathroom with the door open. He was soooooo curious about what the heck i thought I was doing all of a sudden.
But then again I swear my dogs look at me oddly when I’m naked so maybe I’m just reading into things.