And in this case, that’s a good thing.
This morning I took Jade outside with me to let the horses out. Parker trailed behind on the sidewalk, considering his options. There had been rain the previous day, and we were experiencing the kind of Missouri morning that doesn’t occur very often now. The weather had been cool the day before, and with the rain and the dew, the grass was very wet.
When Parker goes out in the mornings, he likes to navigate around wet grass to the extent possible. Sometimes he will decide to wait for a while before going out. Wet grass is different than a lake or a river full of water. Jade doesn’t flinch. She plows through all of the wet grass at high speed, scattering the droplets in a spray around her feet. The humidity that was so familiar when I was younger was so unfamiliar this morning that it seemed odd.
After I closed the gate, I turned to find myself greeted by a young Newf who wanted to play, and she wanted to play rowdy! She was pulling her Quarter Horse maneuvers and Ninja boxing, spinning and swinging and watching me with the hope that I would engage her. Wow! That’s spring-loaded momentum! Not even in my most athletic phase would I want to be a part of that! At the same time, I don’t want to discourage her happiness, and I am relieved that she isn’t looking toward Parker for that kind of play. At 10.5 years, he is still a puppy at heart, but not able to participate in rough play, even when he wants to. I use hand signals to redirect Jade’s sprints, then circle her and redirect again, and applaud her antics as well as her following my signals. After a little while, I started talking about breakfast to gently turn their interest toward going inside. It had been an early morning at work, and I was only home briefly before leaving for an errand, followed by an appointment.
As I drove to Joplin, I thought about how important it is at times to throw off the shackles of discipline and have fun.
Each Newfoundland has its uniqueness, and it is my goal to find the uniqueness, rather than discourage it, and to teach them to listen, to be respectful and to follow my requests without compromising their ability to think creatively and independently. It’s nice to be invited to play, even if it isn’t quite your game.
Then I realized that it was Friday! I wonder if Happy Friday is rubbing off on Jade!
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