The Dog Boy

At the age of 2 Max was finding the "commanding" side of his personality and enjoyed flexing it whenever he could. Our dog, Moo, is 6 months younger than Max and was also dealing with control, or lack of, issues. So Moo and Max would play together pushing and shoving and making up the rules as they went along. Sometimes this struggle would end with crying or yelping and they would both go off into their separate corners to lick their wounds.

We use to take Max to the dog park with us and it had become such a frequent occurrence that the other patrons of the park called Max, Dog Boy. Now some might think it was "just so sweet" but I actually started to get annoyed when I would take Max to the park and all of these people would yell "DOG BOY!" at the same time. It was weird. One dog park person actually compared Max running around with the dogs to those who ran naked with caribou in Alaska to be one with the natural world. OK, I will give them the animals and the running are similar but after that I really think it is more a kid running around who either has a ball or smells like treats and the dogs doing whatever they can to get what they want. I think that a better comparison could have been made using a backpacker running through the woods with meat strapped to his backside and being chased by a dozen hungry bears...I would have agreed wholeheartedly with that one.

We use to practice with Max so that he could have some control over Moo and not become the dog's subordinate. We had him feed the dog, brush the dog, try to get the dog to do tricks for treats, and Max gave it all he had. Unfortunately, Moo was a bit more experienced and wise, what with that 7-1 ratio for dog years, and he pretty consistently was able to overpower Max and get whatever it was that he wanted.

On this day at the park, Max got a hold of the toy that Moo was playing with and the power struggle began. "SSSIIIIIIITTTTTTTT!!!!!!! Max would yell while pointing at the ground, "SSSSSSSSSIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!! Yell, yell, yell, point, point, point. This was a true battle, with neither backing down or giving in to the threats of the other.

The photos show the "command" the "obey command" and the "reward", but just like any entertainment media source there has been some editing. There are no pictures showing Moo barking at Max trying to get him to throw the ball, no stop motion of other dogs sneaking up from behind to nab the toy, or shots that catch Moo rushing Max to steal the ball. Max stood his ground, fended off all rivals, and did it all by himself, against ridiculous odds, eventually, Moo and the other dogs capitulated to the perseverance of this feisty 2 year old.

The reward was that Moo got to chase the toy that Max got to throw because the dog now brought the ball to him. Bravo, my boy, Bravo!