Bennett Sewell Art

I have many songs in my heart, but this little one brings me so much joy. 

 

Little Grundy, my puppy, just rode his tricycle off the front steps, and I’m teaching him how to handle the hurt.  I’ll hold him tight, and tell him how much I love him and that I know he’s hurtin’ and that he’ll be alright.  When he quiets down a little, I’ll talk with him about what happened and why.  And then when he quiets down a little bit more I’ll say to him, “I’m so proud of you, I bet you want to go outside and play.”

 

These are my four principles of how to handle a hurt; acceptance, self-confidence, analysis, and then moving on.  It’s a package, leave one out and usually repetitive behavior results.  Denial shorts circuits the whole process.  Lack of confidence leads to lack of action.  The cause and effect, the what and the why is the most difficult for us to understand, especially when dealing with other dogs.  As you can imagine, this is not the first time Little Grundy and I have gone through this and it won’t be the last.

 

Now I’ve got to handle my own hurt since when Little Grundy gets hurt I feel it.  I can’t hold him too tight for too long and I can’t turn him totally loose.  Life is life, he’s got to learn to take care of himself as he gets out there and gets with it.