Horses and Dogs

Have you ever noticed the differences in the way people perceive horses and dogs? People expect that if they get a horse it is going to require training in order to be a good pet. In order to safely interact with them you have to not only have them trained you need to train yourself. However any idiot will get a dog with little or no experience or research. They also seem to expect that the animal will magically understand house rules and obey all commands whether the dog has ever heard the commands before or not.

It is like that in the movies. In dog movies you have these intelligent dogs, behaving perfectly and saving lives with no evidence of either prior or ongoing training. Meanwhile all horse movies start off with some wild and dangerous horse that with a lot of time and training becomes a champion of something or other.

I know that horses aren't as common as dogs and their very size makes them dangerous in a way that dogs can't be. A dog can hurt you accidentally, a horse can kill you accidentally. But it seems that it is more than that. Is it money? I know a lot of horses that are less than I paid for Vivre. But then there are a lot of crappy horses in this area.

Regardless, why is it so hard to understand that you have to train a dog to get a trained dog? Of course there are probably some people who have met Vivre who are struck speechless right now. She has trained behaviors, but no real manners. Schutzhund people love her while everyone else is horrified by her behavior.

Don't ask what brought this rant on. It is one of my weird monkey mind things that brought me here. On the Vivre front, after a couple of weeks of staying inside because of cold temps and food toys Vivre has put on a little weight. Not too much, but enough that I noticed. She was really a little too thin before now she looks about perfect. Of course if she keeps bouncing off Yoda's head the way she is then she will end up losing it again.