because it was defying him, fought a dachshund (a dachshund!) for fifteen minutes until it submitted to him totally.
I can tell you one thing, that man would never have done it (never have dared) to do it to a Neufie, nor even a Lab. There is probably a reason why he owns a dog the size of a large cat, and no larger. I've seen other Good Christian Conservative Leaders do the same thing, to their dogs, btw. It's horrific - and even more horrific that we accepted it as normal, at the time.
My opinions on corporal punishment are...extremely nuanced. But a very abridged version is that any parent who *wants* to hit their child, and any adult who passionately, furiously, and at great length, expounds on the Divine Right of parents and their god-given mandate to not "spare the rod," is someone who should never be allowed to care for a child - or an animal. Any kind of animal, from mouse to horse.
I say that after having grown up in a strict corporal-punishment family, where I was guilted into believing and regurgitating the "I was a spoiled brat who needed to be beaten with a hairbrush," for decades, until suddenly - after working with a couple of abused horses - I rebelled, reared back and said - No. I was raised by insecure, angry-hearted people who could not stand to have any dissent or challenge and did not know how to deal with ordinary human friction save by compelling submission, and coped with their guilt afterwards by alternately giving gifts, getting maudlin and weepy, or by pushing the guilt off on us for being so bad as to deserve punishment. I was three. They were twenty-five. When my horse spooks or snaps because of my carelessness, I do not get angry at my horse - and if I do, if I cannot help it, then I must put it aside, acknowledge it and shove it away, and deal with the situation as if I were not angry.
It's all become so much of a feedback loop that I can't split out where learning to cooperate with large animals safely taught me to understand the Tao, and the Tao taught me to ride with humility and without anger, but the phrase "Be a leader, not a butcher!" is something that struck like a bell throughout. And never trying to force anything - not my horse, not myself - but to rather by as water, finding the way of least friction. (And then, fairly easily, it became clear to me why the Plains tribes called them "big dogs" :) But the Tao has lessons for parents in it there, too, I think (as someone who has raised/help raise more children than most parents ever do...)
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Not only that, he beat the dog in a total frenzy!
Date: 2005-03-01 06:42 am (UTC)I can tell you one thing, that man would never have done it (never have dared) to do it to a Neufie, nor even a Lab. There is probably a reason why he owns a dog the size of a large cat, and no larger. I've seen other Good Christian Conservative Leaders do the same thing, to their dogs, btw. It's horrific - and even more horrific that we accepted it as normal, at the time.
My opinions on corporal punishment are...extremely nuanced. But a very abridged version is that any parent who *wants* to hit their child, and any adult who passionately, furiously, and at great length, expounds on the Divine Right of parents and their god-given mandate to not "spare the rod," is someone who should never be allowed to care for a child - or an animal. Any kind of animal, from mouse to horse.
I say that after having grown up in a strict corporal-punishment family, where I was guilted into believing and regurgitating the "I was a spoiled brat who needed to be beaten with a hairbrush," for decades, until suddenly - after working with a couple of abused horses - I rebelled, reared back and said - No. I was raised by insecure, angry-hearted people who could not stand to have any dissent or challenge and did not know how to deal with ordinary human friction save by compelling submission, and coped with their guilt afterwards by alternately giving gifts, getting maudlin and weepy, or by pushing the guilt off on us for being so bad as to deserve punishment. I was three. They were twenty-five. When my horse spooks or snaps because of my carelessness, I do not get angry at my horse - and if I do, if I cannot help it, then I must put it aside, acknowledge it and shove it away, and deal with the situation as if I were not angry.
It's all become so much of a feedback loop that I can't split out where learning to cooperate with large animals safely taught me to understand the Tao, and the Tao taught me to ride with humility and without anger, but the phrase "Be a leader, not a butcher!" is something that struck like a bell throughout. And never trying to force anything - not my horse, not myself - but to rather by as water, finding the way of least friction. (And then, fairly easily, it became clear to me why the Plains tribes called them "big dogs" :) But the Tao has lessons for parents in it there, too, I think (as someone who has raised/help raise more children than most parents ever do...)