Okay, how do I put this…I freakin hate dogs!!!  Not your dog, of course, the other bad dogs.  I mentioned at the start that this blog would be about my attempt to juggle my day job (doggy daycare), my scholarly research and my writing.  There’s no sense is contributing to the image of the perfect working woman, effortlessly managing each curveball thrown her way.  We all know that’s the stuff of television (well, ‘70’s television).  The truth is that managing a pack of 20+ dogs for 11 hours a day six days a week is no easy task.  As a general rule, well behaved dogs seldom come to daycare (although we have our share).  It is usually the naughty ones or the anxious ones that need our services.  It is our job to manage the pack and make sure they don’t kill each other or chew the place out from underneath us.  For most dogs a few training sessions in the early days of their arrival are all it takes to mend their mischievous ways.  However, there are always a few who require drastic measures (I have been known to wrestle a dog to the ground and bite back!) and still others, although few in number, who simply are not candidates for daycare.  It is a tough decision to expel a dog, and not one I take lightly.  The few times I have had to do so, the dog required more training than is manageable at doggy daycare.  We deal with a large pack of dogs every day and reasonably can’t provide intense training for behaviors like aggression and severe anxiety without sacrificing the quality of care for the rest of the pack. 

               

So, the reason I hate dogs (today) is that I have a dog whose anxiety is too severe to manage in a large pack of playful pups.  It manifests itself as incessant barking, sometimes for hours on end.  This is a problem for several reasons. First, the dog is obviously uncomfortable with the situation and is unhappy (we like the dogs to be comfortable and happy and all of our usual training methods have not improved this particular pooch’s disposition).  Second, that level of anxiety puts the dog at risk of aggression from other dogs.  Dogs, unlike people (or is it like people?), tend to be intolerant of such behavior.  Finally, that anxious whining, barking and howling for hours on end disturbs the staff and the neighbors (the neighbors also tend to be intolerant of such behavior).  By the end of the day, we are all on edge and in need of a drink!!  Most of my writing or research occurs either during my two hour break during the day or after work.  Some days there is no two hour break during the day because the dogs won’t settle down enough for me to sneak into my office and let the very capable staff handle things (our anxious friend heightens the energy level in the pack, which increases the activity level as the other dogs find it difficult to settle down).   Much like a group of over excited children, the energy can take a turn for the worse if not carefully managed.  After work I am only capable only of sitting in front of the television, whiskey in hand, watching re-runs of the Big Bang Theory.  Several days like this is a row leave me frustrated as the amount of work I have to do grows and the time I have to do it in decreases.  I once read an article in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal in 1843 which listed “Decrepitude and Exhaustion” as a cause of death.  At the end of days like these, it seems reasonable to assume those three words will someday be written on my death certificate, with the secondary cause listed as “Killed in dog stampede”.