This is what happens when you marry a history nerd

Everyone has their idiosyncrasies. Some of us, perhaps, have more than others and they can range from the minute to the all out weird. Myself, I may be borderline OCD in a couple of respects (my music library, for example), and just plain determined on several other fronts. To the latter, I can add the convergence of historical ideas to present a scenario that drives my wife batty at times.


We already have a dog. He's a rescue and somewhere down the line before we got him he must have undergone some sort of traumatic experience because he's about as jumpy as a dog can be. He's settled down in the past couple of years, but he's still pretty high energy, something that is made worse by the fact that we live in a small apartment. Given these pre-conditions, we are quite a ways away from getting a second dog, but when the time comes I'm dead set on what type of dog I want. A vizsla (pron. Vee-shlah).

Sambuca, our current pet, is afraid of the camera.

My quest for a Vizsla.


Now you may be asking yourself, what's the big deal about a vizsla? Well, for starters, they are just really cool looking dog's. They're really intelligent and very trainable. While they are a high energy breed, they're also very good at just lazing around. The fact that they don't shed much is a bonus too. Usually, that's enough for someone to want a dog, right? Ok, here comes the geeky historian justification as to why this is the perfect dog.

How could anyone saw no to this face?

The vizsla is a hungarian hunting dog. In 1904, Arthur Griffith, an Irish politician, wrote a treatise called The Resurrection of Hungary. This served as a model for the first Sinn Fein political platform, something that would change in later years, but nevertheless, Griffith drew the connection between Ireland and Hungary, using Hungary as a model for political change. So I can justify to myself having an historically hungarian dog for this reason (not that one has to justify why they want a dog, but just let me have my idiosyncrasies).



To show how much I've thought this out, I've already picked out a name for my future dog. It has to be a male dog for the name to work, and again this harkens back to Irish history. The vizsla is a red dog, and looks like a hound (if you ask me, I don't know if there is an actual hound family, and if there is, if the vizsla is a member, but it looks the part to me). In Irish mythology the hero of Ulster (Cu Chulainn) is known as the hound of Ulster. The symbol for Ulster is a red hand. Combine those two things and what do you get? A red hound. Good enough for me. So obviously the dog's name has to be Cu Chulainn.

A good looking dog if I ever saw one.

Of course I tell all of this to my wife, and I get all geeked up while she can't do much but shake her head.

People and their dogs

I am a dog owner. Like most dog owners, I love my dog despite all of his quirks and bad tendencies. One of our neighbors in our building have a pug that has been inciting my dog into a barking and growling frenzy for a while now. Yesterday, when this occurred once again, I decided to try to speak with the pug owner to see if there was something they might be willing to do to prevent the distracting exchange between our pets. First, a quick description of the problem:

Our dog is a mutt and he is very protective of our apartment. My neighbors dog is a young pug that is a very playful dog, according to its owner. Now the main hallway in our building runs north/south, with the elevator that leads to the main lobby at the south end of the building. The pug neighbors live north of us down the hall and must pass by our door when taking their dog outside. There are plenty of dogs on our floor, and the issue of dogs passing by in the hallway is usually a minor one. Our dog might run to the door and bark once, perhaps sniffing around for good measure, but that's about the extent of it. The pug owners routinely take their dog out and either a) neglect to leash him while in the building, or b) give his lead so much slack that he can go wherever he wants. Well, being a dog the pug knows that another dog lives behind our door. So often times when going outside, because he basically has free roam of the hallway, the pug runs directly to our door and begins sniffing under it. This incites our dog and he barks and growls violently at the door until the pug moves away. There is a direct cause and effect relationship going on here:

P + D = N

Where P=the pug with free reign, D=our apartment door, and N=the noise frenzy from our dog. There is at least one other dog on our floor that used to incite growling and the like from our dog, but it's owner wised up and keeps it under control when walking past our apartment.

So back to last night. When our dog went into a frenzy last night, I stepped out in the hall and politely asked my neighbor if she wouldn't mind leashing her dog when walking by our apartment. Apparently, she took this as a reproach and to keep things succinct absolved herself and her dog of any blame. She came back a few minutes later and we had a civilized conversation about the situation. In hindsight, I can see how my approach may have been seen as confrontational, and I duly apologized as that was not my intent. However, no matter how I tried to explain the above cause/effect relationship it did not sink in. I explained to her several times that if she would simply keep her dog leashed and on the other side of the hallway away from our door when walking down the hall, my dog would not go into such a violent sounding fit. Apparently this logic was too complicated because today the pug ran by our door and my dog was growling and barking again.

What she failed and continues to fail to understand is that using your dog's "personality" to support is a poor argument. Dogs are animals and it is up to their handlers to keep them from misbehaving. Since her dog is the antagonist, it is up to her to correct her dogs animal instinct and keep it away from our door. You may be thinking - why don't you just train your dog not to bark at the door? Well, the rest of the time, it's not a problem. Only when my dog feels that this other dog is impinging on his territory does he get so defensive. Since this is an isolated situation with a simple solution (i.e. keeping the pug away from our door) the onus really falls on the pug owner to simply control and leash their dog (which is building policy).

I have a feeling that despite our conversation, which ended amicably, will not be productive in the end because my arguments were based on logic and reason, her's were simply based on her feelings toward her dog, the breed's natural traits, and the typical American perspective that I can do what I want, when I want, because it's my right. Apparently, being considerate of all her neighbors isn't a priority, so her dog will continue to annoy ours, and in turn, the rest of the floor.

If I'm way off base, tell me in the comments.