I just wish dogs could be advertised and dealt with in a bit more mature way. I seem to always be speaking for yesteryear, but I know that many years ago people did not adopt because a dog was ‘bouncy.’ I never actually met a bouncy dog in anyone’s home until long after the 50′s, when dogs were treated far more frivolously than earlier. Here we have ‘bouncy,’ and ‘couch’ in the same ad. Dogs shouldn’t come into your home primed to expect to share your couch, that should be highly optional, especially because in the long run it means nothing much to the dog.
Adopting a dog is a serious business. You do not really want a ‘bouncy’ dog, but never fear – if you’re a mature person, you will discourage crap like that fast. Commands are easy to teach and mean nothing. You have to be calm, patient, ready to walk or run the dog every day, and very, very consistent to make a success out of teaching your dog good manners in your home.

Hi there, I have to say I completely understand your very thoughtful and kind response to my points. I agree the Berkeley City Shelter is a wonderful program and place, although I myself had an unfortunate experience with it a few years ago. 

To digress, we were caring for a collie for out-of-town friends, when a friend of my daughter’s came over who we didn’t know well, and purposely let the dog out. She did this twice and the first time we were lucky enough to find the dog quickly, but the second time, we located the lost dog in the shelter, after much frantic searching and calling. When we got to the shelter, the staff, who was quite nice really, telegraphed lots of judgements of us that I did not want to respond to in front of my daughter. I told them I was sorry the dog had gotten loose and that it would never happen again, but that didn’t really stop them from looking worried and doubtful about us the whole time we were there. This, I guess, stuck in my mind along with the issue of ‘bouncy.’

I’m not the oldest of old people, just 66, but it’s still hard  to communicate the past with younger people sometimes. So much of the past I would just say good riddance to. But one thing that I cherished, was the relationship of people to dogs. People had been through a lot. Even getting enough food for themselves was tough sometimes (in the south.) There was the KKK, and more lynching in my town than in any other area of the states at that time. Poverty, poor diets, and violence were everywhere, yet people simply knew a great deal about nature, and so their own diets, their own quality of life, their own wants and needs, were put second to animals. There was a reverence for animal life in general and especially dogs. The rolled up newspaper was used at times, and was understood to be, as it is, a fine tool of giving a gentle message that was followed up by a calm demeanor, thus instant and simple learning on the part of the dog. I never in my whole childhood saw a dog beaten, neglected, kicked, or left to fend for itself. I never saw a dog cry out in pain from any discipline. Dogs knew no commands but none were needed. No one ever heard of a leash and I never saw a leash in use, yet dogs we met while playing outside all day were always calm and safe. 

Now the rolled up newspaper is reviled and misunderstood. Long class attendance is required. Homes are checked. Background checks are applied. Few people I knew as a child would pass these tests, but at the same time, they were so much more sensible and reverent about animal life I would put any animal in their care long before I would trust most people today. I rarely meet dogs now as deeply loving, and integrated into the human family, as they were in my youth.  I respect what you’re doing because you probably do it well, but if you travel the states and analyze what’s going on, you’ll see a profound ignorance concerning animal life, and all the precautions you mention abused and turned into more tools of oppression, while accomplishing little more than the abandonment of a huge number of dogs.

I do want to apologize for my first reply. I’m sure whatever it is you believe in, you’re doing it well and not poorly. That’s what’s important. No, we cannot turn back the spiritual clock on dogs and nature in general. No we will probably never have the deep understanding between dogs and people that existed in a past world that’s gone now, but I agree the good folks of Berkeley are probably making the most of what we have today. Thanks, Susan Solomon