Each dog, big or small, has its own perspective

CMI Columnist

Some days I think my two dogs swapped bodies somewhere along the line.

Let me explain that I own one dog, Ranger, who is about 80 pounds and is most likely a mix of Labrador retriever, pit bull and maybe some German shepherd, and another one, Maggie, who is 8 pounds soaking wet and is a cross between a Yorkie and a sewer rat.

Little Maggie is unafraid and ready to take on anything. Service people coming to the door don’t faze her.

People coming into her house either get barked at or made up to immediately. Most people she befriends quickly. She knows how to endear herself to the human race. Landing in our home as a stray is a perfect example.

Ranger will use his big bark if someone comes to the door, but if he has a chance to get past that person and out the front door and down the street, that is preferable to making a new friend. If he doesn’t get away, he barks and carries on nervously while the visitor is around.

Maggie doesn’t seem to notice size in another animal when she begins barking at that animal. It doesn’t matter if they are 10 times as big and it doesn’t matter if there are two or three of the interlopers; she lets them know immediately she’s ready to take all comers.

If her plan is for big brother to fight her fights she has another thing coming. Ranger isn’t interested in picking a fight with another dog. He’s generally not all that interested in even interacting with another dog.

Maggie’s not afraid, especially if there is a 6-foot fence between her and the other dog. She terrorizes the bigger neighbor dog continually, running up and down the fence and barking her yappy bark to let him know she’ll be over that fence and in the middle of kibble any second.

The idea of a small lap dog around the house was actually pretty appealing. Unobtrusive, quiet and calm, a little dog would be great at night. Instead the little dog tends to use my lap as a launching pad to other furniture while in a tear around the room.

You guessed it, it’s the 80-pound beast that thinks he’s a lap dog. He can’t wait for me to arrange the recliner so he can get in the chair with me. He lays his chin across my arm and will sleep there for hours or whenever my leg goes to sleep and cramps.

His ability to dominate my attention in this fashion infuriates his furry little partner. She stands in the middle of the floor and cusses us out in yappy dog language.

The big dog is kind and gentle with the little one, almost to a fault, letting her climb all over him and chew ears and neck incessantly.

The one place he draws the line is with the toys. They belong to him and he doesn’t have a problem snatching them away. It doesn’t stop her from stealing the toys or making a play for them when we’re playing fetch.

She may think she’s a big dog, but since she can’t even get a tennis ball in her mouth it’s hard to get much respect.

Karl Terry, a former publisher of the Quay County Sun, writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]