I am pretty confident that this was earlier on in Laika's leash-training, because she was wearing a Halti head collar to stop her from pulling so much. It also allowed me to control her from running into the street when she would get excited. This was not a muzzle, but had a strap that went over the bridge of her nose to help guide her on walks. The strap always seemed a bit rough, so I always made sure to sew some soft felt or other material over it to make it more comfortable for her. Laika never had a specific problem with it aside from once in a while trying to pull and leap at the same time, which would cause her to do a somersault; this both confused and amused her on the off chance that it would happen. Laika was smart, though, so after a few months she figured out how to lock her neck and pull really hard anyway. At that point, I switched to a regular harness because I didn't want to injure her. Regardless, this story took place during the month or two that she was fine with the Halti.
It was my dinner break and I decided to take Laika for a walk down Liberty Avenue, the main street closest to our Gross Street apartment. She had been relatively chill on leash at that time, so, armed with treats, we ventured forth on a quick walk. Since it was only around 4 pm, there weren't too many people or dogs out for their walks. A perfect time to give Laika some different sights and smells than on our usual walks.
At that time, the neighborhood that we lived in had a lot of elderly residents that had immigrated from various places in Europe during the mid-20th century. A lot of my high school friends from there were of Italian-descent and their grandparents still lived in the area. Also, when I would walk Laika, I would usually talk to people that wanted to comment about Laika's beautiful brindle coat, her (sometimes) very good behavior or ask if she was going to have puppies anytime. Mostly, it would be elderly people sitting outside in the park or others waiting for buses or walking near the hospital. I like to talk to people, so this was usually a welcomed and expected addition to the walk.
On on walk, Laika was being very good; paying attention to me and not pulling too much. However, at one point when we were nearing an intersection she saw something that she wanted to get to on the other side of the street and tried to lunge into the road! The leash got taut and the Halti did its job by stopping her in quickly. Just as I had told her to sit and offered her a treat, I heard a heavily-accented voice say, "Don't oppress the baby!" I was a bit startled and turned to see an elderly woman standing close-by that had just crossed the street toward us. I hadn't noticed her approaching because my mind was focused on keeping Laika safely out of the road.
"What do you mean?" I asked the lady.
"Don't oppress the baby." She said again, pointing to Laika calmly sitting on the sidewalk.
"Oh, I am trying to train her so she doesn't run into the street." I answered.
"Babies, puppies, children, they are the same. Don't oppress them." She said again.
"Oh, yes. I would never do that, but Laika needs to be safe." I tried to explain. Laika started wagging her tail harder, as she knew we were talking about her.
"Yes, but don't oppress the baby." The lady said again and nodded as if that was the end of it and walked away.
"Thank you." Was all I could manage, I was a bit confused by the whole exchange.
Laika and I continued on our walk without any further instances of me needing to make her sit. She had actually gotten pretty good at stopping at crosswalks on her own, which made me proud of her, but, obviously, there were exceptions. Still, I couldn't stop thinking about the short conversation with the elderly woman. I mean, she made a very good point: oppression is horrible, especially of the young. I was just trying to figure out what in her experience caused her to share this bit of wisdom with me. From her accent, I assumed that she had immigrate from somewhere else and I wish I had been able to get more of a background story on her choice of phrase.
Like many times in life, we sometimes receive a little part of a lesson or a bit of knowledge that seems out of place but at the same time exposes a higher truth. I think this was one of them. The woman wanted to share something from her experience with me and Laika was the motivation for her to tell me. Although initially confused, I was happy to have received the message. From that point forward, when Laika would get into mischief, I tried my best to not "oppress the baby" by imposing discipline that was unnecessary or wasn't positive reinforcement. I can thank Laika for inspiring this chance conversation that led to true wisdom.
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