This morning’s walk was progressing well; I had completed 10 minutes of my targeted 30 minutes of walking. I had only seen two cars and a single pick-up truck. I had however heard the joyous sound of many birds greeting the fresh and bright morning.
Suddenly I hear the sound of a barking dog several hundred yards off to my left. This was not the sound of a dog wanting to get back into the house, nor was it the sound of a dog talking to a friend in another yard. This was the sound of a dog after something, and he was headed in my direction.
Then I saw him; a dark spotted white dog of average size was running very quickly up a long drive way. By the time he arrived, he was still running at his top speed. Without even thinking, I turned my left side towards him and braced myself for an attack.
As he ran by and then around me, I was relieved that I was not going to be bitten – and that I would not have to harm this dog in anyway. At first what he did next was a surprise to me; he went over to a large weed by the side of the road and his land to “mark his territory.”
It wasn’t until I was almost finished with my morning walk that I began to understand what the dog had done. Only one of two responses truly makes since in this event; either the dog “thought” that I was someone who had “hurt him” in the past, or the dog had been trained to “defend” the property from invaders. When the dog discovered that I was not going to be a threat, he either showed his “pride” by making plant or he had to “relieve” his inter stress.
We have all at one time or another seen human beings respond in this same way. When “surprised” or “confronted” there is an internal “fight or flight” response. But sometimes there are individuals who are stuck in the aggressive mode as a “first response.” If we can somehow understand this and give them an “extra chance,” then sometimes we can also discover that they are really very nice people. The real question might be – “What is our response to those who act this way?”
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