Let me be the person my dog thinks I am

I recently thought about my relationship with Watson, the most adorable dog in the universe, and realized that he thinks I’m perfect except when I sleep in. I’m sure anyone who has ever had a dog is aware that their dog adores them. I only hope to live up to his expectations. When I observe dogs and the way they behave to other dogs, I think humans can learn a lot about how to behave civilly in an increasingly rude world.

Dogs have understood rules for play behavior. Because dogs are pack animals, they must learn the rules or be expelled from the pack. They follow four rules to maintain harmony.

Communicate clearly: Dogs bow to each other by crouching on their front legs while standing on their hind legs. This is known as the play bow, and it indicates that the dog wants to romp.

Mind your manners: Animals consider their play partners’ abilities and engage in self-handicapping and role reversing to create and maintain equal footing. This is easy to see when an adult dog is playing with a pup or a big dog with a tiny one. The dominant dog will take turns letting the other dog win.

Admit when you are wrong: When a dog misbehaves, he apologizes. After an intense bite, he bows sending the message, “Sorry I bit you so hard, I was just playing, I’ll play fair.”

Be honest: Apologies must be sincere. If a dog continues to play unfairly, they will be ostracized. This has grave consequences as an individual alone in the wild will perish quickly.

If humans would communicate clearly, mind their manners, admit when they are wrong and be honest, we could become the person that our dogs think we are.

IN NEED OF

CAPS is presently looking for an Executive Director who will oversee operations at CAPS. You must love animals! This is a 30-hour/week job. Please call 775-423-7500 for details and ask for Pauline. You may also email your résumé to caps@cccomm.net with “Attention Pauline” in the subject line.

Aluminum cans; if you have cans to pick up, give us a call (775-423-7500), and we will come get them.

SHOUT OUT TO

The executive board of CAPS who donate endless hours. The folks on the board are: Pauline Friedrich, Kim Lamb, Diane Peters, Brenda Utterback, Ken Wiley, Janis Wood and Kathleen Williams-Miller. A Four Paw Salute to you!

COME SEE US

CAPS will be at Walmart Saturday with the Kissin’ Booth and a puckered-up pooch. Come by to get your pooch smooch. We have CAPS Calendars for 2019, hoodies, shirts and hats. Be sure to check out our merchandise after you’ve hugged our pup.

DON’T FORGET

December Pet Holiday: National Cat Herders Day. OK, I’ve never heard of that, so no pun intended.

CAPS 2019 calendars are available for purchase at CAPS or 3-Dimension Shipping.

To register in the AmazonSmile program, a website operated by Amazon. Customers enjoy same selection of products, low prices and shopping features as on Amazon.com. The only difference is that, when you shop on AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com), the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5 percent of the price of eligible purchases to the charitable organization selected by you.

Flower Tree Nursery will again be raffling a 20-gallon blue spruce on Dec. 15, and the winner doesn’t have to be present to win. The raffle tickets are available at Flower Tree, and they are $1 for one ticket and $5 for six tickets.

CONTACT CAPS

CAPS’ mailing address is P.O. Box 5128, Fallon, NV 89407. CAPS’ phone number is 775-423-7500. CAPS’ email address is caps@cccomm.net. Please visit the CAPS website (www.capsnevada.com) and Facebook page (Churchill Animal Protection Society). Be sure to “Like” CAPS on Facebook because we are really likeable.

CAPS is open to the public on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Kathleen Williams-Miller is a CAPS volunteer. Contact me, jkwmil@outlook.com.