My reasons for doing things....child of the cold war
I can't remember what conversation with
marq lead to this realization this morning, about what I've done with my life. I do have a reason for training my dogs what I train them. It isn't just " I like these things so that's what I train them for".
When I actually give my reason for why everyone in the household should herd, track, and do draft work, people look at me funny. It is the same reason I had training my first dog as a kid. Same reason that I was very survival/weapons skills oriented as a child ( well that, and the fact I was just into fighting, etc).
One of my memories related to this was a time when I was walking through an airport, I must have been 5 or 6 maybe? Maybe 7 at the most, putting it in the late 70' to 1980. There were nuclear weapons protesters, and a table with signs and probably a petition, in the airport. The image of the table, and the poster with the mushroom cloud is pretty strong, even after all these years. I'm not sure if I knew before that instant, or had it explained to me after, what it was all about. But I do know that about that time I started mistrusting the government, and figuring that nuclear war was a certain thing, the only unknown being when it would happen.
I have this suspicion that a lot of what I did as a kid was based on this assumption. It has never been all that far from my mind, all this time. It is like when we lived in San Diego, and I went to bed every night assuming that a burglar might come in and either stab me or shoot me, and I'd try to figure out what sleeping position would be safest to protect vital organs ( did that from age 13 till we moved when I graduated high school). It wasn't fear so much as ...being prepared.
So my reason for training the dogs what I'm training them, and my choice of basic skill sets for the household, is pretty much based on the assumption that the world is going to go to shit during my lifetime.
People look at me funny when I say, "well, if there were nuclear war, and martial law was declared, and everything fell apart, I can poach my neighbors livestock, manage my own, hunt food, and pack my belongings".
Really truly? That's why.
marq lead to this realization this morning, about what I've done with my life. I do have a reason for training my dogs what I train them. It isn't just " I like these things so that's what I train them for".
When I actually give my reason for why everyone in the household should herd, track, and do draft work, people look at me funny. It is the same reason I had training my first dog as a kid. Same reason that I was very survival/weapons skills oriented as a child ( well that, and the fact I was just into fighting, etc).
One of my memories related to this was a time when I was walking through an airport, I must have been 5 or 6 maybe? Maybe 7 at the most, putting it in the late 70' to 1980. There were nuclear weapons protesters, and a table with signs and probably a petition, in the airport. The image of the table, and the poster with the mushroom cloud is pretty strong, even after all these years. I'm not sure if I knew before that instant, or had it explained to me after, what it was all about. But I do know that about that time I started mistrusting the government, and figuring that nuclear war was a certain thing, the only unknown being when it would happen.
I have this suspicion that a lot of what I did as a kid was based on this assumption. It has never been all that far from my mind, all this time. It is like when we lived in San Diego, and I went to bed every night assuming that a burglar might come in and either stab me or shoot me, and I'd try to figure out what sleeping position would be safest to protect vital organs ( did that from age 13 till we moved when I graduated high school). It wasn't fear so much as ...being prepared.
So my reason for training the dogs what I'm training them, and my choice of basic skill sets for the household, is pretty much based on the assumption that the world is going to go to shit during my lifetime.
People look at me funny when I say, "well, if there were nuclear war, and martial law was declared, and everything fell apart, I can poach my neighbors livestock, manage my own, hunt food, and pack my belongings".
Really truly? That's why.