TRAVEL-AT 2AM I COULD SEE ALL SORTS OF PARALELS BETWEEN BEING A PUPPY here
20 11 16
This could be tough to explain--- but to get back to the beginning I spent my 3rd year in college at the University of Edinburgh where I found OUT Scottish University students graduated from high school with the knowledge I hadn't yet found out in college and then they went on to college or University . so I spent a great deal of time trying to understand even the name of the course I was taking ---matrices – 300 students ---11 AM a professor would appear and talk for 50 minutes and then disappear . nobody cared whether you were there or not there late early or whether you understood what was happening the whole thing was here it is get it on your own totally unlike Colby college where there were only four math majors .. and a lot of handholding . that was 1957 ..
in this math Department and MY DIGS ( ROOMINGHOUSE) was also my dig mate. NOTHER GWEN… She was exceedingly bright very funny and a member of the Edinburgh University physical society .. so I ended up going there with her where I was awarded permanent membership which sounds wonderful .. except if the truth be known there were all these exceedingly bright people and I was a relic . each meeting of this society had to be prefaced by setting out the relics which was an odd collection of things pertaining to the adventures of the physical society .. a sizable rock a bucket with a hole in the bottom a few other things and me . it was aN INTELLECTUALLY wild bunch .. that could have parties where everyone just sat and talked ---- no liquor no smoking and it was funny .. or they decide to have a meeting on the top of some Hill or another outside Edinburgh at 2:00 o'clock in the morning and they'd all be there .. it was fun .. IT WAS ALSO WHERE I learned that in Scotland when you climb a Hill you're supposed to take a Pebble or rock from the bottom and put it up on top of the Hill I guess as some sort of way of repairing the damage your feet did by pushing dirt down the Hill at any rate there was always a CAIRN ?? at top of the Hill and we always put a rock on IT.
Moving on---- many years like maybe 30 of them ----as I got involved with great Danes and realized it would be good to import some from Europe I contacted Gwen to see whether she would like to go with me and a dog buying trip .. I got the German equivalent of the AKC to give me a list of Great Dane breeders in Germany and it was listed by zip code . I figured that's all we needed so GWEN AND I met in Frankfurt immediately went to the train station .. where there was a very pretty train… not understanding anything we got on it .. because we really didn't care where we went as long as it's ON the zip code list .
Now the Germans are so organized that their trains are listed on the ABfart board with hours minutes and two more numbers which were the SECONDS and that's the way their trains ran --
I nto this exceedingly organized situation WE LANDED…. ONLY to confront the conductor with our zip code list but apparently not knowing where we were going and not speaking German
he had trouble understanding WHY two women will get on his train and not know where they were going .. with difficulty we made our way around Germany and the worst situation was when we asked someone in a town when the last train came .. and the person told us 9 TRAIN… .. so 5 minutes of nine Gwen and I were standing on the platform waiting for the 9:00 o'clock train .. that's when we discovered let the sound 9 TRAIN meant no more TRAIN… …
It was an education for me to be in a situation where everyone spoke some other language and I was the odd man out .. I did have a very slight success trying to speak sign language with a group of deaf people -- but for the most part I couldn't communicate successfully .
There is no equivalent in the United States for traveling say 100 miles down route 95 and find out the entire population only speaks Rhode Island .
AND THEN……
Yesterday Haley came out of the barn all excited with a puppy because the puppy had just figured out what “down” meant
it was delighted to do it I”like yay I got it “
Figuring out that someone's is making a noise that means something is really a huge step forward the training of these puppies .. so apparently some are getting it .
it's like the water moment in that great movie miracle worker … where Helen Keller as a child finally figures out that the movement of Anne Sullivan's hand means water .
that one connection opened the world to her . prior to that she was basically a wild animal . same wih puppies they have to learn to communicate.. that goes both ways we have to learn their language too to some degree
when i have 3 dogs in the car - and land somewhere .. i open th e back coor and let them out... very often sizzle will just look at me and say
"i'd rather stay here" so i let her--- unless i need to have her come with me.. i which opoint i insist and she comes along... but she had told me her thoughts
handlers have to listen to that direction of communication also... it is not all one way.
one other dog mind to ponder…
Bentley—and his relationship to the yuppy puppy which sits in my door. He knows how to use it.. and so does jiminey ( and caprii) but he diesw not like jiminey to use it… so he guards it by pying next to it on a skinney mattress which is not as comfortable as his bed six feet away. Last night he wandereda and wandered arouns in an d out the door Till I finally realized he just didn't want Gemini using that treat dispenser so I got out of bed and put the laundry tub over top of the treat dispenser .
at which point Bentley took one look at it and went over and got on the comfortable bed and fell asleep .. he was prepared to stay up all night make sure jiminy didn't get any treats . even from 6 feet away kenos and a Gemini gets within three feet of that treat dispenser there will be a low growl and Jimmy will back out .. so much for dogs talking to each other .
