It’s sad to say but there are many dogs who are basically racist, or perhaps to be more accurate ‘breedist’. From talking to the nice man at the kennels yesterday it turns out that dogs can be unpleasant to any dog that looks different to the ones they are used to. I jumped up and down with excitement before I was restrained again. “See,” I said, “It’s not just my imagination that dogs in England haven’t been very nice to me.” Of course it hasn’t been all dogs, but I have found that in the village, even dogs that everyone says are nice and friendly have been horrible to me. The boxers up the road are supposed to be as soft as anything, but it didn’t stop one of them giving me a nasty scratch on my chest.
Having learnt this important fact I suppose it falls on me to try to change their attitudes. I’m going to have to be on my best behaviour and try to show them that although I’m Belgium and my Breed comes from Switzerland, underneath I am basically just the same basic wolf in sheep’s clothing that they are.
Why are animals, humans included, so wary of anyone who’s a little different to them? It makes you start to understand why I had to go through such an extensive socialisation programme when I was small. Perhaps this idea should be extended to people as well as puppies. I had to meet lots of different types of people and go into many different situations that I wasn’t very comfortable with, to get me used to them. I had to deal with loud noises and traffic, bicycles and lots of small children. The only one I think my Mistress forgot was joggers and I do have a bit of a tendency to get excited when I see one!