The most important part of any relationship...

Jin and I sometimes have communication issues. I would really, really like him to understand, “walk with me,” or “ignore the squirrel,” or “a dog walking past our apartment does not count as being on your territory,” or to realize that “get busy” means “do number 2 so I can take you running with me because I am not about to carry a full biodegradable doggie bag if I’m doing 8-minute miles.” We struggle with this communication barrier, Jin and I.

But there have been successes as well, some of them entirely unintentional. For example, I realized a week or so ago that when I say, “bye-bye!” Jin interprets that as, “I’m leaving and you’re not coming with me.” I guess I always say, “bye-bye!” when I leave him at home, and now when he hears the words, his tail stops wagging, and he sits down in the living room and watches sadly as I pack my things and head to the door. Now that I have realized what he understands, I take full advantage of it. If he starts getting excited when I’m about to leave for work or school or errands, all I do is say, “bye-bye!” and I no longer have a dog circling about my feet.

Also, I realized today that, “out of the kitchen!” to Jin does not mean “get out of the kitchen,” as any English-speaking human would know. In dogspeak, apparently, it means “go lay down a few feet away from where I am.” I learned this because he was nuzzling me while I was trying to do schoolwork and we were in tight quarters by the kitchen table, so when I told him “down,” he didn’t really have room to do so (he’s usually quite good at this command). So on a whim I decided to try, “out of the kitchen!” and sure enough, he stepped away a few feet, turned around, and lay down, exactly what I’d wanted him to do in the first place.

Seeing these things gives me some hope that patience and consistency will eventually pay off. Someday, I am certain, Jin and I will know each other so well and have such good communication skills that we will be able to exchange looks that mean a thousand words, and understand what the other wants without even asking, and finish each others' sentences.... Um, yeah. Actually, I'll be happy enough for a lifetime if he can just master, "ignore the squirrel!"