pupu1
This has been a bit of a tough week as I've been sick. It's made me realize that my stress level is way way too high. So I've been thinking of things to drop from my life and it feels great.
One of the things I've decided to drop is any and all frustration with regard to Kody. I now know that the vast majority of my readers will luckily never know what its like to own a dog like Kody. They will never need to know and understand complex training methods just to make it through breakfast. I was taking Kody on a walk last night and without warning he barked loudly in alarm. Not at anything in particular, just his usual barking at nothing. In my bliss of feeling better for the moment I realized that it's just not that big of a deal compared to constant stabbing pain in my neck. In fact, it's comparatively pleasant.
Kody is who he is. He's a crazy dog that was badly bred who is afraid of everything except giving me kisses... and food. We can and have worked on many issues successfully but there's one issue I can't fix: Kody is crazy.
At this point I can, at the very least, gracefully handle any worst case scenario we get ourselves into. And the truth is those just don't happen very often anymore. But if a nice stranger tries to talk to me, Kody will sometimes let them know who's boss despite the fact that he should know by now that strangers mean treats. He is the approver! If some is doing something he hasn't approved he will let them know. In turn, they will often run, which I'm sure is just what Kody wanted.
There's no point in trying to explain or apologize or lamenting the loss of pleasant conversation. The best thing to do is to quickly get us to a place where both of us can enjoy our day. Just let it go, because that's life with Kody.