No one likes a tattletale. Even so, I owe Jana, a golden retriever, an apology, so I am making a very public one in the hope of sparing other dogs the pain of being unfairly accused. In multi-dog households, I am sure that this happens often.
Here’s the story. Deni and I had taken our dogs to play in the Bay, which means walking across the street to Lassing Park and splashing around in some very shallow, warm water for a while. When we got home, we rinsed the sand and saltwater off of the dogs and put them in our home office, at the back of the house, to dry. We were getting ourselves some iced tea, throwing the dog towels into the wash, and straightening up, so we didn’t join them immediately.
Jana started barking. This is not an unusual occurrence; Jana loves to bark. Often, when she is confined behind a baby gate, as was the case, she loudly announces her displeasure. We assumed this to be the case and scolded her. She barked some more. I scolded her with greater annoyance and started back toward the office to quiet her.
Then, Wylie, the German shepherd, appeared! He had knocked over a wastebasket that was blocking the dog door and let himself out. He had walked around to the side of the house, found an open door to the master bedroom, and had re-entered the house that way. Oriel, our other golden, had followed him, but, being older and wiser, she had settled quietly onto a dog bed rather than announce her presence (and her misdeed) to us.
Jana, the good dog, had stayed where we put her, even though she, too, could have escaped. She was either tattling on her siblings or voicing her frustration at the injustice of it all, I can’t really be sure which. But the fact remains that she was doing what we’d asked and the others were not. And the inescapable fact remains that I misjudged her and scolded her unfairly, for which I apologize.
