Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Torturing the Dog
For some reason, my daughter asked Santa for a Jack-in-the-Box for Christmas. Lucky for "Santa", he knew she had seen them at Cracker Barrel so he knew where to send the elves! She was glad to get it, but other toys have won out as favorites. The Fairytopia dolls really won out, as did two new sets of markers (if you can believe that... she loves to color). But anyway, last night as my daughter and I colored in her playroom, the Great Dane plodded in. The Jack-in-the-Box just so happened to be sitting right next to me. I couldn't resist. Somehow, even before I turned the crank, I knew that it would totally freak him out. Sure enough. When the weasel popped (or the evil clown in this case), I thought the dog was going to come out of his skin. He reacted SO strongly, I thought my daughter and I were going to split our sides laughing. Of course, chasing the dog with the toy didn't help matters, either. That elicited deep guttural barks. We usually don't allow that sort of barking in the house, so we won't make a habit out of the torture...for everyone's benefit.
I don't know what it is, but Great Danes are notorious for getting freaked out by the dumbest stuff. I clearly remember one of our childhood Great Danes getting completely worked up by a stick poking up out of a creek we lived by. I'm sure he thought it was the horn of a monster that was surely lurking in the murky depths. Idiot. It's good comedy relief, though. If that's the toughest thing he has to work through, then I still think he has a pretty good life. Now if I can just keep my daughter from making the dog's life a living hell, we'll all be one big happy family for the New Year!
For some reason, my daughter asked Santa for a Jack-in-the-Box for Christmas. Lucky for "Santa", he knew she had seen them at Cracker Barrel so he knew where to send the elves! She was glad to get it, but other toys have won out as favorites. The Fairytopia dolls really won out, as did two new sets of markers (if you can believe that... she loves to color). But anyway, last night as my daughter and I colored in her playroom, the Great Dane plodded in. The Jack-in-the-Box just so happened to be sitting right next to me. I couldn't resist. Somehow, even before I turned the crank, I knew that it would totally freak him out. Sure enough. When the weasel popped (or the evil clown in this case), I thought the dog was going to come out of his skin. He reacted SO strongly, I thought my daughter and I were going to split our sides laughing. Of course, chasing the dog with the toy didn't help matters, either. That elicited deep guttural barks. We usually don't allow that sort of barking in the house, so we won't make a habit out of the torture...for everyone's benefit.
I don't know what it is, but Great Danes are notorious for getting freaked out by the dumbest stuff. I clearly remember one of our childhood Great Danes getting completely worked up by a stick poking up out of a creek we lived by. I'm sure he thought it was the horn of a monster that was surely lurking in the murky depths. Idiot. It's good comedy relief, though. If that's the toughest thing he has to work through, then I still think he has a pretty good life. Now if I can just keep my daughter from making the dog's life a living hell, we'll all be one big happy family for the New Year!
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