On the sniff

“Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen.

― Orhan Pamuk

People can learn a lot from dogs, and at the '5 to 7 dog club' those well socialised puppies create a happy pack. Within this group there is no one pack leader, it fluctuates and changes moment to moment and it would be difficult to know which dog could play that role. Apparently, this is the way of things and ‘a long time ago' dogs did try to hold an ‘election’, to try to elect a dog to be their 'Leader', but it never worked out :

“I nominate the Bulldog as our Leader. He’s strong. He can fight,” said one scraggy little Terrier.

“But he can’t run,” said another dog. “what good is a fighter who can’t run? He won’t catch anybody.”

Then another dog got up and said: “I nominate the Greyhound, because he sure can run.”

But the other dogs cried: “Nawwww! He can run all right, but he can’t fight. When he catches up with someone, what happens then? He gets the hell beaten out of him, that’s what! So all he’s good for is running away.”

Then one very ugly little mutt jumped up and shouted: “I nominate that dog as Leader that smells good under his tail..!”

And immediately an equally ugly mutt jumped up and yelped: “I second that motion.”

At once all the dogs started sniffing underneath each other’s tails and a big chorus went up:

“Phew! He doesn’t smell good under his tail.”

“No, no, no... neither does this one.”

“This one sure ain’t no Leader material.”

“No, this one is no good either!”

“Pongo! This isn’t the people choice...”

“Wow! this sure ain’t my candidate!”
 

When you go out for a walk, just watch the dogs. They’re still sniffing under each other’s tails. They are looking for a good Leader, they’ve been looking since the start of time and they still haven’t found one.

The '5 to 7 dog club' is free to join and meets between 5 and 7pm on Lindfield Common most evenings – weather permitting. Please bring a dog, an acceptance of all within the group and a sense of humour.