For the Love of a Dog by Patricia McConnell Ph.D.

Author:Patricia McConnell, Ph.D.,
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780307420572
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2006-02-06T05:00:00+00:00

FRIEND OR FOE?

Not long ago, I heard a ruckus in my farmyard at two in the morning and I padded downstairs to find out what was going on. As I stepped out of the house onto my porch, an agitated, scruffy-looking man appeared from the dark shade of my willow tree and began to run full tilt toward me. Immediately my amygdala began to signal some chemical version of Uh-oh! while my hippocampus was comparing what I was seeing with my recorded memory of what is and isn’t dangerous. (“There’s an unfamiliar, strange-looking man running fast toward a solitary woman standing in her nightgown in the middle of nowhere at two in the morning. This is not good.”) All I remember is being very, very scared, and opening the door to let Tulip out of the house in the hope that just the sight of her would slow him down.

Just as the approaching man lengthened his stride to leap up onto the porch, I said, in the lowest, calmest voice I could muster, “Stop right there.” (Did I really say that? It sounds like a bad movie script, which, on reflection, is probably where I got it from.) The guy came to a screeching halt, his eyes glued on my barking hundred-pound dog and proceeded to ask, ever so politely, whether it would be okay if he left his motorcycle under my willow tree for the night because it had broken down in front of the farm and a friend had come to give him a ride home and he’d return in the morning for the bike, that is, if I didn’t mind. I tried to explain that it was fine to leave his cycle in my yard, but that he might want to rethink his policy of running like a madman toward a solitary woman in a farmhouse in the middle of the night.

The man may have been a bit dense, but he obviously had good intentions. However, neither Tulip nor I knew that as he dashed toward us at two o’clock in the morning, and you can’t blame either one of us for being alarmed. This was a dog bite waiting to happen, and I bring it up now because I suspect that’s what would have happened if Tulip hadn’t been conditioned to associate visitors of all descriptions with treats and ball play. She was barking and I have no doubt she’d have tried to protect me if the man had attacked, but Tulip has learned over the years to associate people coming to the house with feeling good rather than feeling fearful. That was enough to balance her concerns, and avoid a brief incident turning into a serious problem.

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