A Dog's Best Friend

I am a proud dog owner and lover. I must concede though that by choice and circumstance, I am not my dogs’ best friend – it’s their nanny. I am positive this declaration will trigger protests or puzzlement from avid dog lovers. I can be both master and best friend if I want to, but at the moment, the best friend role is the nanny’s and I harbor no envy. I am like a parent, and as a parent, I recognize that my kids will have their best friend.

In doggie speak, I am the alpha male to my dogs. I am the provider, I lay the rules and impose discipline. I decide who gets to mate with whom. At my discretion, I let down my guard and play with them. I decide when the next doggie walk, adventure or show will be. On the other hand, the nanny is like the senior dog – an authority figure like me, but more accessible and nurturing. The nanny feeds, bathes and releases the dogs into the run for their regular play. The nanny is a constant presence – like a good friend.

I recognize that the nanny is my dogs’ best friend so I treat the nanny well. More than giving her adequate pay, I give her the dignity and respect due her as member of human society and as a high-ranking pack member in the dog hierarchy.

Our nanny did not come from a special background. Like many of her kind, she hails from the less fortunate sector of society – a 19-year old teener born to a poor family in Palompon, Leyte. Her only ticket to her current employment is her experience with dogs. She took care of her former employer’s dogs in the province. And so from a maid agency we got her to be foremost a nanny to my dogs and secondarily, an all-around househelp.

Having grown up with a coterie of relatives but no employed househelp, I am very much independent. I can tolerate an unmade bed and not being personally served, but I will not let the nanny ran away with forgetting to replenish my puppy’s water bowl. I can get things for myself but my dogs cannot. Without raising my voice and with quiet strength, I imprint in the nanny’s consciousness that the incident is not acceptable – in a certain way probably cruel – even if the act is a result of momentary forgetfulness and not malice.

The incident above will probably cause many to go ballistic. I am a pragmatic man though. I know that I will never let that incident happen if the dogs are in my direct watch. But they are not and I am partially dependent on others to take care of my dogs. I continuously remind myself that the maid is not me. Try as I may to explain things to her and impart my passion for dogs, she is not me. If she is, she will probably be an officer in a bank like me. While we are equals in the eyes of God, we have different circumstances and experience. At best, I can only patiently explain why things have to be done in certain ways and teach by example. When I see her now examining the water bottles and bowls before sleeping, my confidence in innate human goodness is reinforced.

That our nanny now knows how to professionally groom is a triumph of human spirit – that everyone is capable of teaching and learning. That vocational education can be a passport to higher pay and better employment prospects. I have also exposed our nanny to the unique world of dog shows. Currently I am teaching our nanny the ABCs of canine reproduction – why some of our dogs are bleeding and why we have to separate our male dog. If our home-based grooming business or our breeding endeavor expands, I may move our nanny up the salon/kennel ladder. At some point she has to move – within our household or business or to another adventure all her own. For my dogs’ best friend, I only wish the best. That includes a subsidized plane fare for her annual leave to Leyte.

Read more...