<\/p>\n

Several years ago a dumpy, dusty, goofy, middle-aged Labrador Retriever came to live with us. (Picture the dog version of the Pigpen, the character in the Peanuts cartoon.) This goofy, obnoxious little dog came into rescue because his breeder was an irresponsible jerk. No fence. No leash — the little brown dog kept wandering. At the age of 7, after too many “come bail him out” calls from the animal control officer, he was dumped at the shelter. (I can’t imagine having a dog for seven years and giving him away, but that’s a story for another time.) He was quickly adopted by a daycare owner who, almost as quickly, returned him: apparently parents did not appreciate the enthusiastic greetings and beaver-like tail knocking down their kids like so many giggly bowling pins.<\/p>\n

[bctt tweet=”Daycare parents did not appreciate his enthusiastic Labrador greetings and beaver-like tail knocking down their kids like so many giggly bowling pins.” username=”AndreaPatten”]<\/p>\n

At the time, our favorite boarding facility also housed an all-breed animal rescue. I’m not sure where we were headed, but my husband came home from dropping the others and said, “There’s a dog I want you to meet when we get back.” So, when we returned and I was getting to know him a little, I asked him to “down.” He did — and then he rolled over. And over. I put him in the car and went in to pay his adoption fee.<\/p>\n

His adjustment to our family was not quick or easy. It wasn’t disruptive, he just didn’t seem to be “all there.” He seemed content enough\u00a0but was always in the background. Even after living happily with my husband’s Lab, I felt clueless and wondered if he was happy with us.<\/p>\n

[bctt tweet=”To say that I\u2019m not exactly a mellow, laid-back human is an understatement.” username=”AndreaPatten”]<\/p>\n

To say that I\u2019m not exactly a mellow, laid-back human is an understatement. Picture me hanging out with a Rottweiler, a Doberman, a German Shepherd or a Malinois. It makes more sense: they\u2019re driven, protective, cuddly, smart, intense, frequently under-estimated and fiercely loyal. I \u201cget\u201d them.<\/p>\n

This was my third time around with a Lab and, still, I\u00a0struggled to connect.\u00a0 A dear friend and fellow dog lover explained it.<\/p>\n

\u201cA German Shepherd brain — actually, any herding dog — is a lot like yours. They\u2019re interested in everything and just a little \u2018hair trigger\u2019 with the bark.\u00a0 Sometimes they hit the sleeve or nip one of the sheep and \u2018forget\u2019 to let go.\u00a0 They\u2019ve got a work ethic that doesn\u2019t quit. You make sense to one another. It\u2019s intuitive and natural.\u00a0 The Lab\u2019s got you stumped because you\u2019re trying too hard.\u00a0 He\u2019s really not trying to decide whether to retrieve, herd or guard…. He\u2019s only got two thoughts for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd those would be….????\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

She laughed at me before responding.\u00a0 \u201cI love you. What\u2019s to eat?\u201d<\/p>\n

So I started trying to think of him as everyone\u2019s favorite underachieving stoner cousin.\u00a0 I started calling him \u201cdude.\u201d Pictured him in a Hawaiian shirt and a recliner chair.\u00a0He started wagging his tail in his sleep and barking to let me know when he needed middle of the night attention.\u00a0 Slowly but surely we fell in love.<\/p>\n

[bctt tweet=”I started calling him \u201cdude.\u201d Pictured him in a Hawaiian shirt and a recliner chair.” username=”AndreaPatten”]<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m so glad.\u00a0 You see, he has succeeded in accomplishing something nobody else has ever managed.\u00a0 He\u2019s teaching me to be more Lab-like.<\/p>\n

All love, all the time.\u00a0 And it\u2019s just delicious.<\/p>\n

Save<\/span>Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span>Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several years ago a dumpy, dusty, goofy, middle-aged Labrador Retriever came to live with us. (Picture the dog version of the Pigpen, the character in the Peanuts cartoon.) This goofy, obnoxious little dog came into rescue because his breeder was an irresponsible jerk. No fence. No leash — the little brown dog kept wandering. At the age of 7, after too many “come bail him out” calls from the animal control officer, he was dumped at the shelter. (I can’t imagine having a dog for seven years and giving him away, but that’s a story for another time.) He was quickly adopted by a daycare owner who, almost as quickly, returned him: apparently parents did not appreciate the enthusiastic greetings and beaver-like tail knocking down their kids like so many giggly bowling pins. [bctt tweet=”Daycare parents did not appreciate his enthusiastic Labrador greetings and beaver-like tail knocking down their kids like so many giggly bowling pins.” username=”AndreaPatten”] At the time, our favorite boarding facility also housed an all-breed animal rescue. I’m not sure where we were headed, but my husband came home from dropping the others and said, “There’s a dog I want you to meet when we get back.” So, when we returned and I was getting to know him a little, I asked him to “down.” He did — and then he rolled over. And over. I put him in the car and went in to pay his adoption fee. His adjustment to our family was not quick or easy. It wasn’t disruptive, he just didn’t seem to be “all there.” He seemed content enough\u00a0but was always in the background. Even after living happily with my husband’s Lab, I felt clueless and wondered if he was happy with us. [bctt tweet=”To say that I\u2019m not exactly a mellow, laid-back human is an understatement.” username=”AndreaPatten”] To say that I\u2019m not exactly a mellow, laid-back human is an understatement. Picture me hanging out with a Rottweiler, a Doberman, a German Shepherd or a Malinois. It makes more sense: they\u2019re driven, protective, cuddly, smart, intense, frequently under-estimated and fiercely loyal. I \u201cget\u201d them. This was my third time around with a Lab and, still, I\u00a0struggled to connect.\u00a0 A dear friend and fellow dog lover explained it. \u201cA German Shepherd brain — actually, any herding dog — is a lot like yours. They\u2019re interested in everything and just a little \u2018hair trigger\u2019 with the bark.\u00a0 Sometimes they hit the sleeve or nip one of the sheep and \u2018forget\u2019 to let go.\u00a0 They\u2019ve got a work ethic that doesn\u2019t quit. You make sense to one another. It\u2019s intuitive and natural.\u00a0 The Lab\u2019s got you stumped because you\u2019re trying too hard.\u00a0 He\u2019s really not trying to decide whether to retrieve, herd or guard…. He\u2019s only got two thoughts for you.\u201d \u201cAnd those would be….????\u201d She laughed at me before responding.\u00a0 \u201cI love you. What\u2019s to eat?\u201d So I started trying to think of him as everyone\u2019s favorite underachieving stoner cousin.\u00a0 I started calling him \u201cdude.\u201d Pictured him in a Hawaiian shirt and a recliner chair.\u00a0He started wagging his tail in his sleep and barking to let me know when he needed middle of the night attention.\u00a0 Slowly but surely we fell in love. [bctt tweet=”I started calling him \u201cdude.\u201d Pictured him in a Hawaiian shirt and a recliner chair.” username=”AndreaPatten”] And I\u2019m so glad.\u00a0 You see, he has succeeded in accomplishing something nobody else has ever managed.\u00a0 He\u2019s teaching me to be more Lab-like. All love, all the time.\u00a0 And it\u2019s just delicious. SaveSave SaveSave<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-11155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-happiness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11155"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=11155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}