What a dog retrieves?

 

This post explores some ideas and themes a couple of my other articles: 'why do dogs chew what they chew' ?  and the experience of my dogs and me in a new relationship.

Archie is a Labrador retriever.  He is from a working blood-line and is always picking things up and carrying them round in his mouth.  After considering why my dogs choose what to chew, I got to wondering what makes them to decide what to carry around.

A Labrador's choices

Archie has a habit of delving into my handbag and picking out something to carry round in his mouth.  There's quite a lot in my handbag.  What he chooses to take out of my handbag is limited to one of  a number of  things which I describe below. He never takes out any books, cheque books, maps.  I started to wonder, is there some sort of connection between the different choices?  Could it be related to some sort of emotional or energetic charge on the items?  I have mentioned in a previous post that our dogs are drawn to chew things that we have conflicting feelings towards.  Could this apply to things they choose to put in their mouths and carry?

The Items

• Tennis ball - If there's a tennis ball, that will always get first priority. For sure there's a charge on that - he's a retriever, its like a drug.
• My  purse - this is a good second, demonstrated by the teeth marks on one of my credit cards.  Perhaps is carries the conflict of wanting to spend money but worrying about being broke?
• Paper tissues  - if there's a packet in my bag he tends to grab them.  But tissues are also a favourite in other areas.  I visit a counsellor, sometimes with Archie, where there is quite often used tissues in  the wastepaper basket.   It has become something of a standing joke, will the counsellor remember to empty the bin before Archie does it for him.   Could the tears shed into a tissue during a counselling session hold an emotional charge that dogs are attracted to?
•  Gloves? -Gloves are worn on our hands.  In my training as an energy therapist the hands are the main instrument used for  sending healing and manipulating the aura - energy tools connected to the therapist's heart.  Hands are used in a lot of artistic creation -  expressing the heart of the artist.
• The dog collar? I rarely use it and I don't like it.  I definitely have conflicting feelings towards this, as a form of restraint.  Or maybe its his conflicting feelings towards the restraint?
• The box of tampax?  Read on for a little more on this one.

So not scientifically  conclusive evidence but it gave me food for thought.  Which leads me on to the second part of my musings.

A further example

After my recent short-lived foray into a relationship, I was wondering what it was all about.  In my world everything has to be for a reason.

I had to admit to myself that something hadn't felt quite right from the beginning.  I was surprised, although flattered, by the unexpected attention.  On my first visit my friend had told me that he only ever dated younger women.  As he said it I wondered at his sheepish look.  Had he remembered that I was 4 years older than him , but he had known this before he had asked me out?

When the relationship quickly came to an end,  my friend's descriptions of my shortcomings didn’t seem to stack up either.   They had seemed to come out of nowhere but targeted for maximum impact, to get rid of me.

My friend had reportedly come out of a long-term relationship 12 months previously and was living on his own, a single man.   With the benefit of hindsight I started to wonder whether this man was actually seeing someone else.  There had been some clues to this.

However, perhaps the strongest and earliest indication that something was not as it seemed (and the reason for this post) had happened on my first visit.  My Labrador had foraged around the house that first evening, checking out all the nooks and crannies, returning within minutes from my friend's bedroom with a box of TAMPAX in his mouth (and they weren't mine)!!

My Take Home

So, in truth, I don’t really understand what it was all about except maybe a lesson in trusting my intuition.  Maybe I should pay attention more to my dog's '6th sense'.

I hope sharing this story isn't going to deter any future romantic interests but I will get suspicious if they ask me to leave my Labrador at home!