Where Do Dog Lovers Come From?

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Have you ever asked yourself if dog lovers are born that way or are taught to love dogs by the people surrounding them?  I really don’t know the answer, but I suspect you are born a dog lover.  My mom was actually afraid of dogs and I never remember my dad mentioning a dog one way or another, but my earliest memories are of me wanting a dog. My two sisters weren’t dippy over dogs and my one sister has never owned a dog, yet I am sure we had the same parents. We had a neighbor who kept his dog in a kennel with a big shed like doghouse that he cooled in the summer and heated in the winter, but I still felt sorry for that dog.  Even at a young age, I felt it was wrong to have a dog and keep it separate from the household.  I never liked that neighbor and I have no real memory of him other than I didn’t like how he treated his dog.  I was warned to stay away from the dog, but like most things my mother told me not to do, it just made it that much more enticing.  I would sneak over and talk to the dog and always hoped it would run away to find a better home. 

 

When I started having kids I was too busy for a dog and really didn’t want to add one more thing to the household that I had to take care of and nurture.  I never said to my kids I wanted a dog. Yet, my oldest daughter came out of the womb wanting a dog and although I made no baby books or kept any notes about when she did what, I am sure her first word was probably dog, followed closely by I want.  She didn’t stop saying it until she got her dog at age ten, although she did add, “I don’t want to walk the dog anymore, I don’t want to pick up the dog’s poop again, and I don’t want to get up early and let the dog out,” shortly after Hershey came home. I do have to say for every hypothesis there has to be a slight margin for error, which may explain why my youngest was terrified of dogs, but became a diehard dog lover after we got Hershey.  Before that, if she saw a dog approaching, even the lovable Lab that lived in our neighborhood, she would call forth the most horrible ear splitting screams that could stop traffic.  She was another reason I balked at getting a dog for the oldest because I just couldn’t see myself living with a puppy and a child who had conniption fits every time the puppy took a step in her direction. With my luck I would end up with a puppy with a nervous tic that thought “Knock it off, Hayley,” was her name.

 

Genetics is a funny thing.  I know people who are not dog lovers, but gave birth to dog lovers. How can you explain it, other than to say someone was born a dog lover?  How can it be a nurture thing when no one is nurturing a love of dogs?  There are just so many things unexplained in the world of parents and children and I, myself, a certified shopper extraordinaire gave birth to a child who hates to shop.  I would also like to add I did my best to turn this child into a shopper and did everything short of dropping twenty-dollar bills on the way into the store to give her a little incentive to get with the program.  Nothing worked.  She does two things upon entering a store.  Either she gloms onto to me like a suction cup to impair my ability to move quickly in and out of the aisles or she asks, “Can we go get something to eat?” I can point to the clearance rack and tell her to take a look for something new and all she does is turn her face up in disdain like she just smelled something foul and says, “I don’t see anything I like, but I would like to go to lunch now.” Meanwhile, my other daughter and I have already mapped out the store, divvied up our shopping list for the best possible outcome, scouted out the sales, promised to alert each other to anything good, set up a future meet up place to go over our loot, and high fived for good luck, all in the time it takes the non-shopper to realize lunch will be delayed. 

 

I think Lady Gaga has it right in her song where she sings, “I was born this way,” although, there is hope for some people not born dog lovers.  My son-in-law was one of them, but luckily for him, he married the right gal who picked out the right dog that worked his doggie magic and the rest as they say, “is history.”  I think we dog lovers can turn some of these people around and I think the right dog, if given half a chance, could turn some others.  I also think dogs have so much to teach us and help us live better lives and I feel very lucky to have known that my entire life.  Now, if I could just turn that non-shopper around, life would be good.

[Jay, Lola and Colonel Esau]

Remember the opening passage of Where the Red Fern Grows?  

I SUPPOSE THERE'S A TIME IN PRACTICALLY EVERY YOUNG boy's life when he's affected by that wonderful disease of puppy love. I don't mean the kind a boy has for the pretty little girl that lives down the road. I mean the real kind, the kind that has four small feet and a wiggly tail, and sharp little teeth that can gnaw on a boy's finger; the kind a boy can romp and play with, even eat and sleep with.

I was ten years old when I first became infected with this terrible disease. I'm sure no boy in the world had it worse than I did. It's not easy for a young boy to want a dog and not be able to have one. It starts gnawing on his heart, and gets all mixed up in his dreams. It gets worse and worse, until finally it becomes almost unbearable."

I still remember what that felt like.

[Jay, Lola and Colonel Esau]

I have always loved dogs, as long as I can remember.  I have very fond memories of being about 10 or 11 years old and having my mom drop me and my beagle puppy Serin off at obedience classes, where everyone else was a grown up.  There was so much less information back then.  I had a big orange book called How to Train Your Dog, everyone word of which is permanently committed to memory, I read it so much.  I remember begging my parents to buy Eukanaba, my lawyer-to-be brain doing its best to come up with arguments as to why we should get such an expensive, premium dog food.  LOL, times change I guess.

My dad is a dog person, too - and it's really weird, because you'd never guess it in a million years.  He is very serious and business-like, meticulous, organized, immaculate, etc.  Only very seldom does he laugh or smile or joke around or have fun.  Yet dogs seem to bring all that out in him.  Dogs violate every single one of his rules about keeping the house clean, etc., yet somehow he doesn't get upset.  He has never be interested in dog training or obedience or anything, yet he has an incredible, intuitive knack for communicating with dogs.  He gets them and they get him.  He does not have a dog, but whenever a dog comes into his life (because I insisted on getting one when I was little, because my stepmother had a dog when he married her, etc.) he has always love him or her, and vice versa.

His mother, my grandmother, HATES dogs. It's pretty much unfathomable, but she is actually terrified of Lola.  LOLA!  I don't know how that is possible.

It has to be some kind of genetic trait, I think.  

[Bonnie and Kona]

Hilarious, Camilla! Love that dying grandfather part of the story. ;o)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

LOL, Camilla, you cracked me up! 

[Camilla and Darwin]

Sooo true Laurie! My parents both HATE animals of any kind. My Dad especially despises dogs and will not go near one with a 10 foot pole. Nobody in my extended family had or liked dogs, not even my grandparents. All I know is that by the time I was 4 or 5 I was obsessed, I had stuffed animals and a bone that I was saving for my future dog. We lived at my grandparents until I was 7 and after my Grandpa told me sternly that I could have a dog when he died, I ran around the house for weeks yelling "We get a dog when Grandpa dies!!!" 

By the time I was 7 I had a dog encyclopedia and knew every dog breed by heart. I babysat all of the neighbors dogs. My parents still hate dogs. My parents have a theory... that I love dogs because they don't, and I'm a rebel. :-)

[Lonnie & Libby Lu]

I was born a dog lover too Laurie, but I must admit when we adopted Libby that love became inmeasurable!  I loved all our other dogs very much, but Libby brought us a love we can't even explain!  Sounds crazy, but it is true!  As for shopping, whoa!!  I was defintely born to shop and I have not stopped yet!  I get a "high" when I walk into a mall, outlet stores, internet buying, etc.  and the "retail therapy" sets in and off I go:)  Luckily our three daughters and six granddaughters all have the same "gene" and when we shop together, oh my, watch out!  We can out shop the best:)  Love your blog:) 

[Cheryl and Finnegan]

Born a horse and a dog lover.  I didn't learn to walk...I "galloped." My parents told me we couldn't afford a horse for me...they had 3 children to consider - I thought my brother and sister should be rehomed LOL  No dogs either, so I became the neighborhood dog walker after school.  Three collies and a terrier mix with a black patch over one eye.  Shiner disappeared one day. The elderly couple said he was too much for them. I couldn't believe they didn't give him to me after all the hours we spent together.  Years later I found out they had offered but my parents said no. When I was 11 my mother finally relented and a cute mini-dachshund came into my life. 

Dogs have been a part of my life ever since so I do believe I was switched at birth :) I completely agree, dogs -  have so much to teach us.  Great blog!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I was born a dog lover, too. I started living with dogs in 1958, when my parents bought a toy poodle puppy because my younger sister was terrified of dogs, and that was just not acceptable to my dog-loving mother. Since then the longest I have ever been dog-less was four and a half months between my last poodle and JD. 

I think it's okay for people to not be dog lovers and not have dogs. What is much more troubling to me is when people who are not dog lovers do get dogs. That usually spells disaster for the dog. For that reason, I don't really want to try to turn these people around, just like I wouldn't want anyone to try to talk somebody into dating me, lol. The deck is stacked against you before you even get that half a chance. 

Now, trying to get your DD to like shopping is a whole other ball of wax. I just can't see the downside there. May I suggest a change of venue. You have mentioned in the past that you love Target, Walmart, T.J. Maxx, etc.  To me, trying to get your DD to like shopping in these places would be like trying to get a junk-food junkie to like vegetables by feeding them canned asparagus. Is there a Nordstrom's near you? 

[Bonnie and Kona]

OMD Laurie, an hour ago I was thinking, "I wish Laurie would write a blog." Thank you! I was a born dog lover as was my sister and my father. I don't know how you held out until your daughter was 10 to get a dog. My daughter has the dog-loving gene, too. My DH and I, my DD and my DS (who now claims he doesn't love dogs) all got dogs as adults when we were still renters... which is just nuts! Other than college I don't think I have been without a dog more than two years in my life, and I'm old.