Well, I have managed to create a happy ending to the little puppy saga and it came about through building relationship. In all the time we have been living in our house we have never really got to know one of our neighbours. She is a quiet, elderly woman that mostly keeps to herself. We actually made judgement about her many years ago when the children were small. Occasionally, they would lose a ball over the fence into her front yard and were never able to retrieve it as she would not allow it. Often, she would not even return their balls as this seemed an intrusion for her. So we accepted what we deemed her quirkiness and never really bothered about her since.
However, what we have since learned from neighbours we do have relationship with is our first dog Rusty, quite frightens her making it impossible for her to venture into her front yard. Her yard is higher than ours so we get to see head and shoulders above our fence-line, which Rusty reacts to by barking. He is of course alerting us to the fact that potentially someone is coming into our/his yard! We knew this about Rusty but always thought that he was simply doing his job and we would turn off the alert fairly quickly. What we didn’t know was the affect it had on her.
I am going to fix this situation by screening off the fence so that when she and any of her friends and family are in her front yard they won’t be visible from within our property, therefore not inciting Rusty to react. I have also known that since the renovation Rusty has been a little anxious and not behaving as well as he should (barking when anyone enters the property) so I am also bringing in the dog behaviourist to help re-adjust him. I have made this commitment to the neighbours and the local Ranger, so I now have a provisional OK to keep the third dog – what a relief!
All in all, another great learning opportunity; it is all about relationship. When we get to know people and build relationship with them, we get to understand their fears, anxieties and passions. We understand how to interact with them to get the best outcome for all concerned. Without relationship, we simply see difficult people and conflicted situations. With relationship we are more willing to understand the situation from the other’s perspective and find resolve; a win-win for everyone and gladly this is what we have achieved.
