Just before we turn the corner, a woman goes jogging past with a Golden Retriever. As we continue on our way, I can hear the Doberman three houses up barking at them as they go past. The windows muffle the sound, but I can make out a bit of it. “Get offa my lawn! Gonna bite you! My lawn!<\/i>“<\/p>\n
When we reach the end of their driveway, Emmy immediately squats. The Doberman goes nuts. “My lawn! Kill you! Go away! My lawn! Kill you!<\/i>” Emmy hackles all over, all the way down to her tail, and makes little distressed noises.<\/p>\n
When we get clear of the Doberman’s yard, and the barking subsides, she stops and looks up at me. “Can I have a treat, now?”<\/p>\n
“What? No, you can’t have a treat. Why should I give you a treat?”<\/p>\n
“Did you hear what that dog said to me? It was very distressing. I need a treat.”<\/p>\n
“You peed on his lawn!”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Actually, I peed on the edge of the road. It’s not his lawn, it’s a public thoroughfare.”<\/p>\n
“Well, he certainly thinks it’s his lawn…”<\/p>\n
“That’s just silly. I have every right to pee there if I want. Anyway, he deserved it for what he said to that other dog.”<\/p>\n
“You can pee there if you like, but you don’t get to act all upset that he barked at you. Or get treats to make you feel better afterwards.”<\/p>\n
“But why not?”<\/p>\n
“Look, you peed on his lawn, or at least what he thinks of as his lawn. It’s disrespectful. You’ve got every right to do it, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.”<\/p>\n
“That’s dumb. It’s not really his lawn.”<\/p>\n
“That doesn’t really matter. What’s important is that he thinks it’s his lawn, and that means he’s going to bark. If you don’t want to get barked at, you should pee in front of a different house.”<\/p>\n
“But that’s just silly. I wouldn’t do that.”<\/p>\n
“Uh-huh. What about that terrier who sniffed at the ‘No Parking’ sign in our front yard? You barked at him.”<\/p>\n
“Yeah, but… That dog was insolent!”<\/p>\n
“Uh-huh.” <\/p>\n
“And… I barked politely!”<\/p>\n
“Uh-huh.”<\/p>\n
“And… I’m just better than that dog, all right?”<\/p>\n
“Sure.”<\/p>\n
We resume walking, quietly for a while. A couple of houses down, she says, “OK, I guess I see your point.”<\/p>\n
“Which is…?”<\/p>\n
“It’s not nice to pee on the lawns of angry dogs just to provoke them.”<\/p>\n
“That’s right. You’re a very good dog.”<\/p>\n
“I’m the best!” We walk for a while longer. “Hey,” she says, “This is a real moral breakthrough for me, isn’t it?”<\/p>\n
“That might be a little strong, but yeah, it’s progress.”<\/p>\n
“So… Doesn’t that deserve a treat?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just before we turn the corner, a woman goes jogging past with a Golden Retriever. As we continue on our way, I can hear the Doberman three houses up barking at them as they go past. The windows muffle the sound, but I can make out a bit of it. “Get offa my lawn! Gonna… Continue reading An Ethical Dialogue<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,28,30,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dog","category-politics","category-religion","category-society","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}