Ein is an adventure dog. R has made it so. We love hiking and getting dirty, and Ein likes hiking and eating dead things. It all evens out. We went on a new trail in the Canyon on Saturday that ran alongside a river. Ein lost his mind. He's never been in quickly moving water before so, like kind and understanding dog parents, R and I threw him in. It was shallow enough for him to stand so after frantic paddling for no reason, he stood up and then would not come out.
He is, however, terrified of bridges. It's understandable, he's got 2 inch legs and each of the planks have about a 2 inch gap between them. It'd look like crossing over hell, if I was a corgi. So like kind and understanding parents, R and I made him cross them. All of them. He laid his ears back and sat on majestic corgi butt and made us drag him to the very edge every time. Once he realized we weren't yanking him across it, he pattered on over. Strange puppy.
It's easy to forget sometimes that he is still a baby and things that he doesn't understand still frighten him. I'm not necessarily a 'tough love' kind of mom, but I do want a well-rounded dog that is not afraid of (or worse, becomes aggressive towards) things he doesn't understand. That's why I make him do what he doesn't want to when I know it won't impact his safety. It also helps him know that R and I will be there to protect him, and he can trust us. It's beneficial all the way around.
I feel bad, sometimes, making him overcome fears, but that's a difficult part of being a parent. When he gets across that bridge and licks my ankles to let me know he's okay, the trust and concern he shows me makes up for the fact that I had to drag his thirty-pound butt in the first place.
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