I am Ms. Serious... all the time.
This is Shayne. She is Ms. Serious.
Everything about her is no-nonsense. She likes to play, but even her play is work. She is generally quite stoic and observant. She does not let herself loose to be silly and crazy (unlike Rio who embodies “silly”).
This is not to say that she isn’t a happy dog. I do think she is largely a happy dog who likes to play and be comforted (though she is also a very anxious dog at times). She is just very subtle in her expression of how she feels. I am an avid photographer… I take thousands and thousand of photographs of the dogs… in the last year, I can count probably 20 awesome photographs of Rio smiling like a fool. In the last 4.5 years with Shayne… I can think of maybe 10.
She is just genuinely a soulful character who is very… refined.
With all that in mind… I cannot stop smiling when I watch video of her playing disc. She absolutely lights up. Part of it is simply her drive but there is something so joyful about her when she’s playing disc. It really does bring tears to my eyes sometimes as I watch her let loose a little bit…to be so flamboyant in her happiness. The only other time she shows this type of crazy silly happiness is when we are clicker training…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_H70k6zgUk]
Her tail never stops, she is smiling and wiggly the whole time… there is no inhibition just a passion/joy/drive for playing with me and this little plastic saucer. I LOVE seeing her like this… I only wonder if she had had a better start to life… would she be like this all the time? Would she have this uninhibited joy for life had she not been tied to a tree, starved and neglected? Would she be less burdened by her anxiety/fears or is she just naturally a subdued and serious dog?
All I do know is that I LOVE that she is so happy to play frisbee. I LOVE that she becomes a completely different dog when we play. Some people may play and compete in frisbee events for the ribbons, trophies, and bragging rights…but I play because she loves it so much. It really does make my day to see my anxious, fearful, serious dog let loose and have fun playing, being silly, and crazy–without a care, fear, or anxious feeling in the world.