It’s been said that pet owners often own a dog that resembles themselves, appearance wise. They are also accused of making connections that may or may not exist (he just knows when I’m… [insert whatever emotion here]. There is science that supports the notion that owners frequently choose a dog that looks like themselves. Not sure I buy that whole dark eyes similarity thing but think there are other physical traits that probably underscore the decision.

Sure there are examples everywhere of owners having dogs that look just like them. The tough looking sergeant who has a Bulldog, the thin-faced librarian with long straight hair who owns an Afghan Hound. I first became familiar with Standard Poodles back in the 70’s, after puppy-sitting a beautiful Standard with thick silver hair over a weekend. We earnestly began searching for a breeder and found our first pup shortly thereafter. Her hair was black and we were told that odds were extremely good that she would turn silver as the hair between the pads was silver-the first sign that the overall color may change. Like Dalmatians who are born without spots, silver Standards are born solid black and turn in the first few months. Mandy, as the kids named her, never did turn silver-colored, she stayed a beautiful, shiny black pup adored by her family. Back then my hair was semi-long and Mandy’s more often than not was also on the long side. We did sorta look-alike if you didn’t take into account her hair was black and mine was a blonde version of Little Orphan Annie. But the curls were similar enough and more than one person mentioned it to me. I pooh-poohed the idea but it did make me pause and wonder…do owners really look like their pets? Over the years, I’ve owned 5 different Standard Poodles. All were exceptionally fine-looking, curly haired specimens with Einstein-like smarts. Then I got Sam. Since I tend to think of myself as somewhat clever, even sweet, it seemed the similarities were now taking different paths.

It’s been noted more than once that while Sam is super sweet, he’s either stupid or extremely stubborn (the trainer said there’s a fine line between the two and thought Sam was more stubborn than dumb). Our hair coloring was fairly similar before Mother Nature decided to go south and turn silver (maybe I’m taking after Mandy now after all these years). And I have been accused of being somewhat stubborn in the past and came to the conclusion that Sam and I share that trait as well as the curls. Since returning from our California trip a few days ago, I’ve especially noticed he decided that rules are merely suggestions and therefore should be summarily ignored. Listening to the Alpha B*tch isn’t particularly necessary or welcomed. Today I took Sam with me to the Post Office to mail off a couple of packages. In the past, he would follow fairly close, sit net to me when I stop and wait for the next command. Today however, he pulled like a stevedore and could not be dissuaded from zeroing in like a laser on one particular young pregnant woman standing in line ahead of us. His look was not like anything I’d ever seen before, quite obsessive and I had to put him into a downward stay position after he tried on 3 separate occasions to lunge toward her, not in a threatening manner mind you, but more in the manner of “Hey, I want to be over THERE and you’re not going to stop me!” sort of way.” WTH??!! It was then that I realized we both are fairly stubborn. I’m steadfast in my beliefs (being recently reminded of having an irrational position of a pre-disposed opinion formulated with no benefit of any experience to the contrary). I don’t know why I do that, call it intuition, but the reminder kept gnawing at me all day long. Sam may well need to go for a refresher course on proper manners especially since we’ll be starting up our hospital therapy work soon. Oh sure, he’s still as sweet as pie, but this pulling and other naughty, stubborn behavior won’t be tolerated at the hospital no matter how cute or sweet you are. But do you think there’s a training class for uprights to un-train the stubbornness out of me?

So for now I ask, ‘mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s more stubborn than them all…him or me?’ But we’re both mostly sweet so maybe there’s hope. 😉

Live, love, bark! <3