My choice of quotation last Monday was taken from E. F. Schumacher: “Infinite growth of material consumption in a finite world is an impossibility.”
Deciding on what should be my second selection turned out to be more difficult. Simply because there were so many buzzing around my head.
In the end I chose this:
Never underestimate the power of unintended consequences!
Despite a web search, that brought up numerous articles concerning unintended consequences across many fields of the human experience, I was unable to find a source for the quote and therefore cannot attribute it to the original author.
Nevertheless, it strikes me as one of the core aspects of human behaviour!
As offered on Monday, here are my nominations for today:
The rules of this challenge are: post a quote on three days, each time nominating three other blogs to pick up the challenge. Or — in the spirit of wu wei — not, as you see fit 🙂
This wonderful guest post from Zara Lewis adds real weight to the title.
There is no doubt in my mind that hundreds of you good people out there love and care for dogs that were first seen in a dog shelter or rescue centre.
But at the same time, inevitably, there are those who want to learn more about adopting a dog.
Zara Lewis has written another guest post that is a real help to those who are uncertain as to how to care for a newly-adopted dog.
ooOOoo
Five Tips on Making Your Adopted Dog Feel at Home
by Zara Lewis, May 24th, 2018
Adopting a dog is one of the noblest and most rewarding decisions you can make. With dog shelters filled to the brim with pooches in need of a loving home, there is really no reason to support the inhumane ways of the puppy mill industry; instead, welcoming a shelter dog into your family will save not one, but two lives.
However, sometimes welcoming an adopted dog into your home can seem like a daunting task. How do you banish their fears of abandonment, their anxiety, and the instilled behavioral patterns that define them yet are unsuited for domesticated life? How do you truly make them feel at home, loved, and most importantly, safe? Here to answer these questions are the five tips that will make this transition as pleasant and rewarding as possible.
Set the stage for the pooch
First things first, there’s a lot to be done before your pooch actually arrives at what will be their new, loving home. You want to make sure you have covered all the basics, from deciding where the dog will sleep and eat, all the way to buying a sizable crate and all of the necessities your new furry friend might need.
This includes getting in touch with a trusted veterinarian and making an appointment for the following day. You can never be too careful, no matter how trustworthy the shelter staff are. For the time being, you will want to roll up all of your carpets so that the dog gets used to walking around the house (they tend to stick to carpets when confronted by sleek surfaces), and don’t forget to buy a leash, plenty of toys, and most importantly, dog treats for those long training sessions ahead.
Let them explore the place one day at a time
One of the biggest mistakes new dog owners inadvertently make is letting their new companion explore the new surroundings freely the minute they bring them home. Although completely understandable and very nice of you to want to make your new dog feel welcome, this is a common mistake that will result in plenty of pee stains on the floor you’ll have to scrub out.
Moreover, you might even frighten the pooch, so you want to let them familiarize themselves with the surroundings gradually. It’s always an excellent idea to buy a crate so that they can have their “safe space”, and explore the household one day at a time.
Banish anxiety and set some ground rules
Being adopted is a thrilling, wonderful, joyous experience for a dog, but it’s also a traumatic one. More often than not, your new pooch will come with some emotional baggage you will want to eliminate as soon as possible to avoid behavioral issues induced by anxiety, stress, and fear. It’s also never a bad idea to let a professional lend a helping hand. In Australia, for instance, dog training is sort of a must among homeowners.
In the Land Down Under, adopting a dog is a serious matter involving thorough preparation and planning, and professional dog training in Sydney and across the country is readily available to all homeowners looking to instill positive habits in their new dog, and banish their fears. Remember, dogs ,above all, require firm but loving guidance in order to find their place in the pack, and feel like a part of the family.
Let them have their personal space
It often seems as if dogs haven’t the faintest idea what personal space is, as attested to by thousands of pet videos circling the web; but in fact, they do. And they cherish their personal space very much. Your new furry compadre needs time to heal, to reflect on their past experiences, and take in this new scenario they’re in. Needless to say, this is a stressful time for them and although they require plenty of time and attention, it’s important to recognize the moments when peace and quiet are all they need.
Make your dog feel loved and safe
Finally, this is not the time to be going through other important chapters in your life. This is the time you want to devote solely to the upbringing of your new pooch, so if you’re having personal issues you need to resolve, do it before you get a dog. Remember that they need your undivided attention and lots of it.
You will be spending plenty of time quietly stroking their back to make them feel safe, playing with them to develop a trusting bond, and plenty of time teaching them to behave. This requires patience and positivity, so make sure you’re ready and willing to take on this beautiful responsibility.
There is an ideal dog out there for you. And while a purebred dog would make an amazing lifelong companion as well, there is not quite a feeling as magnificent and rewarding as adopting a shelter dog. With these essential tips, you will have no problem making your new best friend feel right at home.
1. The General Data Protection Regulation gives the European Union the power to hold businesses and organizations accountable for how they collect and handle personal data — your data.
Businesses and organizations have had two years to get ready. This wasn’t a sneak attack by the European institutions. The GDPR went on the books in May 2016, giving anyone who collects customer data plenty of time to prepare.
2. Even though it’s driven out of Europe, the GDPR impacts the whole world.
If you live outside of Europe, you’re probably wondering what a European law has to do with you. Thanks to something called “territorial scope,” any organization that deals with data of EU residents must comply with the GDPR for those individuals, which impacts global organizations like Apple and Facebook. Even though they are not strictly required, some organizations are taking a principled (and perhaps easier) approach, providing the same set of controls and protections to non-EU residents.
3. It’s filling up in your inbox.
We’ve all been bombarded with emails about updated privacy policies and terms of service. It’s (mostly) not fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, it’s because organizations are getting their policies and practices into GDPR compliance. Bonus points: All those emails are a hint to disconnect from services you’ve forgotten about.
Now this is where it gets complicated.
For while there is a WordPress plugin that is supposed to ensure that this WordPress blog conforms, whatever that implies, to the requirements of the new law I am not able to download it without upgrading the blog to Business Plan. As I am already paying to be a Premium WordPress user I object to shelling out more money just now.
So if there is any aspect of being a subscriber to Learning from Dogs that you do not like then please unsubscribe.
As I learn how other blog authors are dealing with the issue then I will let you know if there are any changes that I need to make.
Any advice or suggestions regarding this new law would be most welcome!
We were in Reggie and Chris’s villa in the village of La Croix des Luques inland from the Cote d’Azur, Southern France.
I quickly realised that their villa was not far from the world-famous sailplaning airfield at Fayence. Or LES PLANEURS DE FAYENCE as it is known. Reggie gladly offered to take Jean and me across to the airfield.
Many years ago, when I was living and working in Colchester, Essex, I became a very keen and active pilot with the Rattlesden Gliding Club in Suffolk eventually qualifying as a gliding instructor. So when Reggie suggested that I see about getting a dual flight at the Fayence Club I didn’t need asking twice.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t accommodate my wishes before we had to leave France so that opportunity had to be let go.
Another opportunity, this time for Jeannie, was taken advantage of. Chris was a member of a local art class and while we were going to be there the class would be meeting at the villa. Would Jean like to take part?
Jean is a good amateur artist, as many of her paintings and sketches around our house attest to. So that did take place and it was a wonderful afternoon for all concerned.
oooo
Stella, Christine’s sister, working alongside my Jeannie.
Then on a subsequent day Reggie and Chris took us for a drive along the beautiful coastline that is the essence of the Cote d’Azur.
To reach the coast Reggie took a route that went down towards Frejus and Saint-Raphael and then joined the coast road just west of Le Dramont.
I found this was stirring up very old memories. For my father, a Chartered Architect, had a passion for this part of France and every summer back in the 1950s took the four of us (Mum, Dad, me and my sister Elizabeth) for a month’s holiday. Thus many of the coastal town names had echoes from over 60 years ago. (Father died in December, 1956 of cancer.)
As we drove along, I reminisced aloud to Reggie and Chris that when I was 15 my mother decided that it would be a good thing for me to do a student exchange with a French boy. It was arranged and in the early part of the summer of 1959 in to our house in Preston Road, Wembley came Philippe, whose home was in Paris.
Then in about 4 weeks it was my turn to accompany Philippe back to Paris. It was a very ornate apartment with an air of luxury living and I felt very lost in the place. Apparently, Philippe’s father was a director with Air France.
Anyway, the father announced just a couple of days after I had arrived that all the family the following day would be flying from Paris to Nice airport, (with Air France, of course!) to then spend a month at the family’s French villa in the coastal town of Antheor.
On me mentioning Antheor Reggie immediately exclaimed that we were just a few miles from going through Antheor and that we should stop there. I wondered if I would remember anything of the place.
Well I did!! To my amazement when we stopped to look down at the beaches below the level of the road I thought that we were very close to the beach in front of the villa at Antheor where I used to swim, frequently on my own, every day that I stayed there.
I told everyone to stay where they were and ran on to the next beach.
Bingo!!
It was the same beach that I now recalled so clearly.
Swimming memories from 1959!
Even more amazing for me was that the iron gate and steep stone steps down to the beach were still there, albeit no longer being used as a more modern set of steps was in place.
By this time, the others had arrived at the head of the new steps and were looking down at me as I became truly lost in days so very long ago.
I have no recollection why back then the rest of the family so rarely came down to the beach that was so close to where their villa was. Indeed, it was just a case of crossing the coast road, much quieter in those years, and descending the steps to the beach.
But for this London boy it was bliss beyond measure. Maybe at some level it reminded me of family holidays for our, as in sister Elizabeth and me, father’s death was still a painful memory.
I stood still and just looked at the beach and at the sea and was transported so very clearly back to the times when I swam around the rocks, wearing a face mask and snorkel, just lost forever in what one could see underwater.
Then it was time to return to the car and resume our delightful drive.
Soon after we stopped at a small beach cafe for an afternoon drink of something cool.
Everything, well for me at least, still seemed a little unreal; a little larger than life! I think that’s what inspired me to take the photograph above of the cafe proprietor and her cat!
Then we moved on again.
In due course, to another delightful evening meal somewhere local. The French expression “en famille” says it all!
These wonderful days were going by far too quickly!
In a flash it was Tuesday and Jean and I were being driven to Nice airport for another easyJet flight. But instead of returning to Bristol we had booked an easyJet flight into Gatwick. Because the last 36-hours of our vacation were being spent with my daughter’s family.
Maija’s husband, Marius, who is employed by The Royal National Theatre, near Waterloo Bridge on the south bank of the River Thames in London, frequently is working evenings but in order to spend time with me and Jeannie he had taken a day’s holiday on the 25th.
Our last day of our vacation dawned bright and sunny. It was a school day for Morten and after he had left for school Marius and Maija suggested going for a walk along the South Downs. Perfect!
For those unfamiliar with the South Downs let me quote a little of what may be read on Wikipedia.
The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about 260 square miles (670 km2)[1] across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. The Downs are bounded on the northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose crest there are extensive views northwards across the Weald. The South Downs National Park forms a much larger area than the chalk range of the South Downs and includes large parts of the Weald.
The South Downs are characterised by rolling chalk downland with close-cropped turf and dry valleys, and are recognised as one of the most important chalk landscapes in England.[2] The range is one of the four main areas of chalkdownland in southern England.[3]
It is a beautiful place to walk.
It was a magical way of spending our last day.
Again, I was aware of stirrings in my old memory box from many years ago, possibly when I might have taken young Alex and Maija for a walk along the Downs, or something along those lines.
But today it meant so much for Jeannie and me to be with Maija and Marius for this gorgeous walk.
A couple of hours later we found a place to have a late lunch and asked the lady serving our table to take a photograph of all four of us!
Obviously, we had to be home in time for Morten’s return from school.
Those last hours of that day were focussed on keeping Morten company. What else mattered!
So the last photograph of the whole vacation is the one below. A picture taken of Morten planting some seeds that were bought while we were out that day.
We arrived back in Portland, Oregon around 6pm on the 26th and too late to drive all the way back to Merlin.
So after we had collected the car from the long-term parking we stopped off at the first motel that we saw heading though southern Portland.
Then around 11am on Friday, 27th April we pulled up in front of the house to be greeted by six very loving and contented dogs. Well done, Jana!
That evening those contented dogs demonstrating their happiness did more than anything to communicate a precious message.
Alex drove us across to Bristol airport mid-morning on the 18th April for our flight, courtesy of easyJet, from Bristol to Nice.
The days with Alex and Lisa had been so wonderful yet had gone by so very quickly. Thank goodness that Alex and Lisa had already made plans to come and see us again in Merlin sometime during August. It made the parting a little less painful.
Our flight was a good one and departed on time and quickly climbed into a beautiful Spring sky.
Looking down on the beautiful planet underneath us I tried very hard not to think of the 8,000 or so litres of aviation fuel that Alex estimated our Airbus would burn on this 90-minute flight. (Alex is a Commercial pilot flying for an airline out of Bristol.)
But no time to get too introspective about the wake we humans are leaving on the face of Planet Earth because before Jean and I had really got our heads around the fact that we would shortly be seeing Reggie and his wife, Chris, our aircraft was positioning itself over Nice in readiness for landing at Nice airport.
The metropolis that is present-day Nice.
Reggie and Christine’s house was situated at La Croix des Luques, about an hour’s drive from Nice and up in the beautiful countryside that lay inland from the Cote d’Azur; that famous coastal region to the East of Toulon that boasted such places as Cannes, St. Tropez, Monaco and, of course, Nice itself. It was glorious countryside and in some ways familiar with the forested country back in Merlin, Oregon.
By 5pm French time we were at the house and Jean and Reggie were catching up in earnest!
I had a very strong sense that the next six days were going to be very relaxing and very entertaining.
Merlin curled up on the carpet below Hugo.
Plus Reggie and Chris had two dogs; two wonderful dogs. But talk about the fickle finger of fate. For their two dogs were named Merlin and Hugo! And, I should hasten to add, named before we moved from Arizona to Oregon in 2012.
Seriously!
To put that into context for any new readers of this place, where Jean and I live in Southern Oregon is on Hugo Road, Merlin!
Tomorrow will be the last day of sharing the details with you all of our vacation.
It will cover the balance of the time that we spent with Reggie and Chris in the South of France, a most amazing ‘blast from the past’ for yours truly, our return to England and another stay, just for 36 hours this time with Maija, Marius and Morten, then on the 26th our return flight to Portland.
instructor. So when Reggie suggested that I see about getting a dual flight at the Fayence Club I didn’t need asking twice.
By this time, the others had arrived at the head of the new steps and were looking down at me as I became truly lost in days so very long ago.
km2)
Learning from Dogs 