Barking dogs 08.24.15

 

                As I was walking this morning, I began pondering why, “when one dog barks all dog see a need to bark”.

                Some of our neighbors have dogs, and a couple of these dogs like to announce my presence, as I saunter past their fence. (Do you like that word saunter, it may be the first time I have keyed it into an article! Being from Missouri, I have mispronounced it all my life. I thought the word was sonder.)

                The first dog starts barking, obviously warning me that I should not attempt to enter their yard. Then every dog that is close enough to hear the first dog will begin to bark. Why do they do this?

                I have a theory about this phenomenon, it may be similar to what happens when one human type person smiles at another human type person. Surely, you have heard the statement, “you can’t give a smile away”!  Come on now, everyone should know that you can’t give a smile away!  When you see someone smiling, “like a possum eating briars”, you just can’t resist smiling back. 

                Think about it, if you walk up to someone and smile, they will smile back at you, thus, you can’t give a smile away.

Note: if you smile at someone and they don’t smile back, they are either secret service or terrorist, you should move away quickly.

Before you ask, yes I have encountered a secret service person in the past.

                Possibly, a dog barking is somewhat like giving someone a smile. You know, it is an involuntary reaction to the person’s smile when you return one, and it is probably an involuntary reaction to the first dogs bark, that the rest of the dogs start barking.

                What? You want to know when I encountered a secret service person! That is what you got out of this more than well written article?

I was on a business trip for DIB we were staying in a hotel in the Carolinas, President Bush (I believe it was the first one) arrived at the same hotel. There were secret service men in the elevators to make sure you didn’t get off on the wrong floor. They had dark glasses even though they were inside and they did not smile. 

 

Give someone a smile today, you will get one back!

 

Don Ford