If I Could Talk To The Animals
Aug. 29th, 2025 11:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
msconductMy best friend and housemate T, although a cat person to the core, used to own and race a five-husky sled team. (It's a long story.)
The thing about having a big bunch of dogs is that as well as picking up a humungous amount of poo, you also get to learn a lot about how dogs relate to other dogs. And T got very, very good at this. So much so that she learned to speak some pretty fluent dog.
Today a dog with golden curls (goldendoodle, I think) came racing into my garden and starting having a good nose round. It was a pretty cute dog, but we'll be getting kittens next year so I don't want to encourage any dog to think I'm OK with it coming into the garden. It really wasn't that keen to leave, but it was a lot faster than me so I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to encourage it to go home.
So T talked to it. The conversation went like this:
T: Bark!
Dog: Bark?
T: BARK!
Dog: ...bark...
And then, from halfway across the garden, it turned tail and raced out of the garden and away down the drive.
When I'd picked my jaw up off the floor and also stopped laughing, I asked T to translate. Apparently this was the conversation:
T: This is mine, get out.
Dog: Seriously?
T: SERIOUSLY.
Dog: Oh, all right...
Honestly, this was MASSIVELY impressive. I've seen T talk to dogs before: if neighbouring dogs are barking repeatedly or howling, she barks back and they always stop. And it's kinda nice that she's comforting them by convincing them there's another dog close by, especially when dogs are clearly at home alone during the day and lonely. But this was in a whole other league.
The thing about having a big bunch of dogs is that as well as picking up a humungous amount of poo, you also get to learn a lot about how dogs relate to other dogs. And T got very, very good at this. So much so that she learned to speak some pretty fluent dog.
Today a dog with golden curls (goldendoodle, I think) came racing into my garden and starting having a good nose round. It was a pretty cute dog, but we'll be getting kittens next year so I don't want to encourage any dog to think I'm OK with it coming into the garden. It really wasn't that keen to leave, but it was a lot faster than me so I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to encourage it to go home.
So T talked to it. The conversation went like this:
T: Bark!
Dog: Bark?
T: BARK!
Dog: ...bark...
And then, from halfway across the garden, it turned tail and raced out of the garden and away down the drive.
When I'd picked my jaw up off the floor and also stopped laughing, I asked T to translate. Apparently this was the conversation:
T: This is mine, get out.
Dog: Seriously?
T: SERIOUSLY.
Dog: Oh, all right...
Honestly, this was MASSIVELY impressive. I've seen T talk to dogs before: if neighbouring dogs are barking repeatedly or howling, she barks back and they always stop. And it's kinda nice that she's comforting them by convincing them there's another dog close by, especially when dogs are clearly at home alone during the day and lonely. But this was in a whole other league.
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Date: 2025-08-29 12:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-29 01:14 pm (UTC)