Chet Baker, Bamboozler

Chet Baker is a bossy dog. Demon is not. Demon is our neighbordog. And Chet's been bamboozling him since he was a galumphy pup.

Chet will now demonstrate The Stare. 

Dominant dog stares directly into subordinate dog's eyes. If the subordinate dog knows what he's doing, he looks away. Meeting The Stare is tantamount to starting a fight.

Demon doesn't want that. Even though he could eat Chet in two bites, he's completely bamboozled by the little Napoleon.

Please, please, don't beat me up. I'm backing slowly away from your magnificence.

As well you should. For I have a can of whoop-ass here and all I have to do is open it. And you don't want to know what's inside it, Demon. You don't want to know.

27 pounds. And Demon probably outweighs him by 100. It's all in the attitude, folks.

Chet Baker Won't Go!

Here's a little slice of life with Chet Baker. I love this video because it shows so many classic and sly dog avoidance behaviors. A little background first.  Chet Baker loves to run, more than almost anything. But truth be told, he really only wants to run with me. I'm his Alpha female, and whatever I'm doing is exactly what he wants to do. I wish he'd go willingly with others, but he seems to consider that cheating on me. When I'm traveling, Phoebe can very occasionally get him to run with her, but she has to trick him. She tells him we're going to go find me. And the little man gets desperate enough to believe her. Awww. And he'll do a whole run with her, but she has to watch him as they pass the end of our driveway or he will turn in and go back to check the house just one more time, to see if I've magically appeared. And there he'll stay, waiting, watching the driveway. Chet. Really. It's OK to run with other people.

So we all know that when she asks him if he wants to go for a run with her, he's going to demur. I had my iPhone ready to catch that. Watch what happens in this video.


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First, he enlists my help. Please don't let her do this, Mether. You know I can't leave you. Something might happen to you. Sorry, Bacon. I'm making a video of you, can't help you now.

Then, when carried outside and called to join Phoebe and Liam, he pretends he's seen something around on the other side of the house. Pretending is a fairly sophisticated means of deception, but it's used by all kinds of animals, from great apes to birds. Jays and magpies will pretend to bury something edible when they know they're being watched, then "palm" the item and quietly hide it elsewhere. Piping plovers and kildeer, among others, do an amazing "false brooding" behavior that's fooled me many times--settling down onto empty sand just as if they had eggs or chicks beneath them. You go to investigate, and the bird runs off, leaving an empty depression, no eggs, no chicks.

  So Chet dashes off around the corner as if there's a deer to be chased. He comes back, knowing the ruse didn't work, but decides to try it again in another direction, pretending to study something out in the meadow. Oh look. A deer or something. Will ya look at that?

Finally Phoebe tells him that they'll go look for Mether, the trick she uses when I'm traveling. This is a suggestion he clearly finds flat-out ridiculous, and he turns on his heels and trots decisively right back to me. His brisk pace, laid-back ears and head angle say it all. Can you believe this girl? You're right HERE. Stick a fork in me, I'm done.

 We're all chuckling at this point, Chet too, as he settles down to sit on the porch and watch them leave without him.

He ain't sorry. He's already done his run today. Long as Mether's with him his world is right. Is it any wonder we love our dogs so? You can fail completely at any number of human endeavors, but still be your dog's whole world. Lord, help me be the person my dog thinks I am.