Ego out of control....................................

I have been crabby the past few days. Crabby enough that even I am noticing. Here's a perfect example of what I am talking about.

Night before last I had some books I wanted to donate to the library so my youngest and I decided to walk them up and take Emma with us. As we are walking along, minding our own business, we approach another dog with it's owner. As we near them the lady says, "Oh! Here comes the dog that is not social." (I need to insert here that a few nights prior my youngest and Emma had met these two and had a conversation about the fact that Emma isn't fond of other dogs.) Just like a mother bear protecting her cub I got instantly defensive and replied, "Who are you to call my dog unsocial? She is VERY social with people, she just doesn't like other dogs." This woman fires back, "It's easy for dogs to be social with people. She isn't social with other dogs. Don't you want your dog to be social with other dogs?" Just like I was a bad mother or something. I began to explain to this COMPLETE AND TOTAL STRANGER that she had absolutely NO RIGHT to say something so negative to my dog when she was within hearing distance. The woman went on to try and tell me that the reason she had said that was because of her conversation with my youngest, but I was having nothing to do with her explanation. I told her she was talking to me, and she did not, in any shape manner of form, have the right to comment on my dogs social skills. Picture this... Two women standing on a public street corner having a loud "discussion," two other people walking their dog pass us, round the corner, and glance back to see if a physical fight was going to break out. I am normally not a person to make a public scene, and at the time I remember the sane part of my brain asking me what I was doing at that moment. Finally, the lady said she was sorry if she had offended me, and I spate out forgiveness, grabbed my dog's leash, and flounced off down the sidewalk.

WOW~

There really is no rational explanation for my behavior, even if I choose to believe Emma can pick up on negative energy. The energy I gave off after the comment was far more damaging to Emma's psyche than the comment of a stranger. Whether her comment was appropriate or not, my response definitely wasn't.

Having said that, the incident got me to thinking about how important it is for my dog to be a certain way. I was a very stern parent when I raised my three human children. If I said something I followed through, EVERY SINGLE TIME. That's a lot of hard work. I can be honest and say I don't care to do with my dog. The vision I get is of a Nazi dog trainer with the perfectly behaved dog that cowers when she comes near her (with a face strangely similar to the woman on the street, but I digress), but I get that that is an egoic fantasy and that I could be more consistent with my pets, I just choose not to. Honestly, I got the dog to make my youngest happy, for our enjoyment, not to work hard to make Emma a well rounded dog that is friend to man and beast. Is that wrong? As long as no other dogs are harmed in the process is there a real benefit to Emma to break the news to here she is not human and should be kind to her kind?

I guess I am going to have to do some more thinking on those things once I get my ego back under control, I get over myself, and stop being so crabby.

Wonder how long that will take?