You know those moments when you have and outer body experience and you see your behaviour clearly... don't you hate that! I find that I am having more and more of those moments. I don't know if that is a sign of enlightenment and emotional maturity, or if I am having a psychotic split. But one thing I do know is that dogs and teenagers are perfect mirrors of every single flaw you may posses as a human being.
I am consistently amazed how all of the dogs start acting the same after about three days here. I was thinking is was just the 'pack mentality' thing. That all of the dogs pick up energy from each other and start to act the same, emulating a pack as their wild ancestors would have. But then I started to notice a vague similarity in their behaviour to something I couldn't put my finger on right away. There was something about the dogs behaviour that I recognized. Then it dawned on me...it is my children. The dogs start to act like my teenagers. Completely expectant of total attention and excitement about whatever is important to them at that second, totally deaf to the sound of your voice until the third or fourth request to stop, or start, whatever you would like them to do, and then crushed because they think your mad at them ("why are you always yelling?"...don't be worried dog owners I am not actually yelling at your dogs I just raised my voice a little), and they are either manically excited or totally guarded and abrasive when company comes over and you never know which it will be.
It was a cruel dawning of reality that I am actually the axis of behaviour development in my world. In the past I have always been able to explain away any connection of negative behaviour between myself and those that I am in stewardship over. My own dog is a eight month old buffoon. But you see, I could blame that on the fact that we rescued him from the SPCA, so naturally he came with issues. As for my children's crazy making behaviour, it was the divorce at a young age and ultimately their father's influence that was the problem of course.
But as they say, the mirror never lies. I should be grateful for the chance to grow as a parent and person in general. So, I guess this means that I have more work to do on my journey of personal development, and need to examine what it is that I do to enable the behaviour I see develop in those that I am responsible for. On the other hand, it may just be easier start to addressing that huge need for Goldfish kenneling instead, ha ha.
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