I have a dog

I am a bit suspicious of blogs generally, and I have not kept a diary since I was twelve. I also disapprove on general pronciples of people who go on about their pets. However, I got a puppy in December and I thought, since he has no way of objecting, it might be worth recording a few impressions about the business of having a new dog.

I live on my own, out of town, and this dog and I are spending most of our days together. One thing I am interested in establishing is which of us needs the other more. On the first day he arrived home I felt all the excitement you might expect of a boy with a new puppy. I wanted to show him around the garden and have him curl up on my lap. Freddie (the name he came with, but it suits him) was having none of it and I was left on my own on a Saturday night watching television from the sofa while the dog kept his distance and wondering if I was more needy than a four month old puppy. This was kind of humiliating but interesting too and as Freddie and I get to know each other better I am constantly intrigued and entertained by the battle of will and wits that goes on between myself and this young animal.

I will describe him briefly and maybe put up a picture or two, although I really don't want this blog to become a record of vaccinations and bowel movements, cute and all as those are. To begin with, when he came (from Dogs in Distress, a fine organisation run very nice people who would not, I think, object to being described as "dog people") he was described as a terrier cross. I think there is a bit of dachsund in him; the shape of his head and the way it curves into his very slightly elongated body make me think this. Also the way he flings flowerpots around, shaking them fiercely and jerking his head in a way that suggests that somewhere in his ancestry was a dog bred for killing rats. I think the other part of him is probably Jack Russell or something. Anyway, all that is to say is that he is a small handsome dog, and I think a clever one, although I am no expert when it comes to gauging the intelligence of dogs. (I may just want him to be clever, because since I first began thinking of getting a dog my ideal was to have a small, smart dog, businesslike and with a rich inner life...) He is lively, calm when he needs to be, affectionate to the point of sluttishness and more or less perfect for me.

The thing is, though, that I feel my response to this dog says a lot about me. When I say that his smallness and smartness and affection are perfect for me, I suspect that what I mean is that I have chosen a dog that reflects what I would like to see in myself. I assume that it is normal to project my own personality onto the dog; how far the dog succeeds in avoiding my projections will be, I think, a measure of his own strength of character. As an adult human I have the advantage in terms of physical power over the dog, and I imagine that over time, Freddie will adopt certain character traits of mine that I am not even aware of, but he also has his small strong hereditary animal will which it is my job to adapt to, and I am interested to see if this negotiation between man and dog will be something worth recording.

Anyway, the hope it that in observing my reactions to Freddie and his to me I'll end up with an interesting record of our first year together. I think it'll be interesting to me, anyway. So why publish it as a blog? Dunno. Just what you do, isn't it...?