With mine and Ella's tenth anniversary today, the 29 april 2019, I am starting this blog which will be about my life with Ella, but perhaps even more about how we humans communicate with our dogs, how we treat and manage them and how we create favorable relationships with them.
But first – She! ♥
Ten years ago I dragged up a box containing an eight-week-old puppy and her starter kit from the Armed Forces' dog breeding station. It was time for me to become a forager, and I have probably never been as happy as in the car on the way home with Ella sleeping in my arms.
The first hon did when she got down on the floor was to start chasing the cats. Ten years later, she has not given up the ugly habit. At the time, however, she was so small that she was actually slightly smaller than at least the biggest cat (I've always had two, but it is not the same now as then).
It took several months to get her room clean – Oh my God, we ran up the stairs (lives on the third floor without elevator). Besides, she had energy and even then, small as she was, a willingness to work and learn new things. For me who didn't have a dog before (I'm not counting the dog we had when I was still living with my parents) it was actually hard to keep up with her.
And so have still there. It has always been difficult to keep up with my dog. She rushes through life and wants to experience and do everything – preferably at the same time. She automatically becomes besties with every single person she meets and she expects attention accordingly.
Ten years old she has calmed down a bit. She still gets hysterically happy when we meet people she knows, but she can no longer demand attention and mischief for as long as before. Her joints give out, which I've known ever since we got the results from the X-ray of the hips and elbows before she did the fitness test.
Together with Ella, I have had a life that for obvious reasons I would not have had without her. I live with mental illness (bipolar disease) and besides that, I'm quite lazy and comfortable. Ella's presence has forced me outside the door even when I didn't want to.
She has too forced me to take a hard look at myself when it comes to how I want to relate to dogs. For me, leadership and dominance are not negatively charged words, although I know that is the case for many others. For me, it is nothing more than being a clear guide who gives structure and direction to the dog's existence. The strategies and techniques for this vary among most people who live with dogs, but I can only speak for myself when I say that (for me) is about knowing who I am and daring to claim my space.
Despite the fact that our common life in the last ten years has not always been a bed of roses, I am so incredibly grateful that I had the opportunity to live together with Ella. I will not get another feed dog from the Armed Forces, and it is also not something I recommend to a private person – but the fact remains; my experience with a dog bred for the armed forces is that they are incredibly fierce dogs. I don't think I will ever again live with a dog that has the same psyche as Ella.
The Defense Forces' Ella is one of the greatest loves of my life. She will always be in my heart. I can't believe how lucky we have been, She and I., who, despite being so different, have worked so well together.
#mattesjackejunge