.jpg)
Before we bought our house we used to live in a bustling development. However, I’m a bit shy so it took me some time to work up the courage to speak with our neighbors. Then I got a dog, and she did the work for me.
Others would walk up to me, say hello, and immediately kneel to pat my dog. Sure, we might strike up a stilted, if polite, conversation, but really the person was talking to my dog. I doubt I would have been approached if she wasn’t out on the walk with me.
Sometimes people talking to my dog led to amusing misunderstandings. One winter, all bundled up save for my eyes, I was mistaken by a preteen in my development for a kid his age. He asked me where I sat on the school bus and if he could sit by me. I’d been out walking the dog, and the boy had wanted to come pet her. I let him and if I hadn’t done so, we would have never talked to each other in the first place.
For the next year whenever this boy and I ran into each other in the development, he’d give a cry of “Chihiro!” and come running. While it’s cute and sweet that a neighborhood boy should have such a relationship with my dog, being recognized just for her by the adults in my development seemed even funnier.
“Oh, you’ve lived here for about a year, right?” some would say, as I’d pass by them waiting to pick up their children from the bus stop. “Because you’re dog’s bigger, she’s not a puppy anymore.” Once we’d exhausted the topic of my dog, these same adults seemed to have no further interest in conversing with me.
I admit that this is just as much my fault as theirs. I can be awkward sometimes when I first get to know people. That’s what makes pets such great ice breakers; practically no one feels as self-conscious around a clearly domesticated family dog as they do around their unknown owners. I know I felt and still feel that way, especially when I was younger and didn’t have a dog yet and was desperate for canine contact.
Maybe it’s time to be thankful that people come up to talk to my dog. I know it’s easier for me to do it that way and at least then I meet new people. Next I ought to start taking pointers from my dog and be less shy around others.
Related Articles:
A Dog’s Role in American Indian Tribes