An Afternoon of Bonding

Today, I decided - rather sporadically - to take Kisho hiking. Jesse is buried with work this weekend and we both have to work tomorrow (him due to volume and me due to saving my PTO) and I couldn't let today's weather go by without enjoying it. Last night, Christy and Eric were over and she mentioned that there was a place that Nancy talked about called "Little Yosemite" in Sunol. Nancy confirmed it this morning and I looked it up. I packed up a backpack, went to subway and got a little picnic sandwich for myself, and the two of us headed out.

Those of you who follow the situation know that Kisho and I have gotten off to a bit of a rough start. I'm certain that 99% of it is my expectations being too high and 1% is his personality. He's been a handful in the sense that he doesn't listen sometimes. This is only made more frustrating because he does listen the rest of the time so you know it's him choosing not to when he doesn't. The dog can hear a butterfly fart two houses down but he can't hear me yelling at him to drop the kleenex he just kidnapped from the garbage can. Right. Dog trainers call this phase "Sudden Deaf Syndrome". It's when a dominant breed says to himself, "Nah. Not gonna do it. Lalalalala I can't hear anything!"

His rebelliousness is hard to hold up against the last 10 plus years I had with Kuma who (and perhaps I'm guilty of revising history here a bit) was so gentle and obedient. I've been having a hard time bonding with him as a result. It's hard to bond with a creature that gives you the middle claw whenever he doesn't feel like obeying (which, incidentally, is why I'm not much of a cat person).

Today, that changed. Our hike pushed us both physically a bit. I don't mean cliff climbing or anything, but it was warm and there were hills to climb and descend and when we got to Little Yosemite, we had a bit of a steep hill to navigate down and up. Kisho got to jump around in the river (though he chickened out on swimming). We met tons of people, kids, dogs, horses, butterflies, lizards, rushing water, and on and on. I try to see the world through Kisho's eyes whenever I can and I imagine that today was full of growth for him. Plus it is impossible for someone to walk by us without someone complimenting me on how beautiful he is and "what kind of dog is he?", etc. I think I said, "Thank you. He's an Akita. He's four months. Yeah he's going to be big." about 30 times today. Throughout the day, I asked him to press on when he was tired and he trusted me to get him water and rest.

We finished the day with Kisho's first swim in the swimming pool at home. After I got him off the step, he floated in my arms and relaxed which Cesar says is the ultimate in trust. So he does trust me and I do love him. I know we bonded a little bit more today and I look forward to more days like this one. He's been passed out since. I know his doggie dreams can now include horses, hills, rivers, and other dogs now. What greater honor can one have than to impact the mental development of another creature? I'm blessed and I look forward to the many years that Kisho will have with us.