Steve_Bamlett_blog

If you could make your pet understand one thing, what would it be?

We have lived with Daisy, our Staffie, since we bought her from a rescue centre about eight years ago. Yet, although she clearly loves being with us and can be deeply happy, rolling in the grass when she enjoys her walks, she is sometimes so deeply nervous that she cannot cope.

However, as she ages, she is developing or resuming tics in her behaviour that seem to be tokens of fear of the world, though who can be sure of that. She wants to walk as if pressed to a wall on the left side of any path, and has an immediate and fear-ridden response to triggers like loud, and increasingly not that loud, bangs, which make her flee or cower in the grass until she is returned home.

In the photographs above she is showing fear at being photographed on my phone. Yesterday on a walk, she went 500 yards on a walk she usually loves in the country and suddenly fled back to the car, regardless of our calls.

Since we have had a dog in the past who developed dementia I do fear that, for how do you reassure a dog that she is loved and cared for under lapses of memory where she is and who are you?

So I wish we could reassure her that she is loved and will be cared for. As I look back on the evidence, she did once have that confidence.

So send positive vibes to Daisy please. And maybe hugs 🫂 for Geoff and me.

With love

Steven