[Dailydrool] Blood pressure & the Clueless MomPerson

[Pamela McQuade]

Oh, Bev, you had me howling at your blood pressure story. I have often wondered who decided dogs lower blood pressure. Do they check on therapy dogs and their patients? While lying in a bed, being visited by one well-trained and unthreatened dog, I might have lower BP too. But more often I too have been separating two dogs who are at each other's throats, dragging a dangerous object from a hound's mouth, or making sure that each ravenous dog is being fed in a different room. Then there was the time when one of our fosters ran away and headed up our hill....
 
The times when I sit or lie down, calmly petting, are much rarer. Even then I have challenges. Holly the foster was obviously starved for affection in her former home. When I lie down on the couch, she immediately positions herself next to me and noses me until I give her pets. If I am terribly tired, it doesn't matter. I must pet her constantly or be reminded of my failure to do so. The couch is not large enough to engineer an escape.
 
It's my opinion that I love I dogs, but I don't count on their blood-pressure-lowering abilities. Maybe the love calms some aggravation or maybe it makes me more tolerant of basset indiscretions, but I don't think the doctors can prove that it does much for my diastolic/systolic. Blood pressure is a wonderful thing, and so are the hounds, but I wouldn't connect them together and expect anything in double digits.
 
To Clueless MomPerson:
I have found that Snoopy's behavior is typical of a scared dog who has found security. Who cares what the neighbors think? Snoopy's is a wonderful story--he's come to trust you to be fair with food, and it's a great honor to be trusted by a dog in that way. We had similar success with our Belvedere who came here food aggressive and learned that he'd always get food because we loved him.
 
Oh, and recently one of our neighbors, whom I was certain thought I was absolutely crazy to take in fosters, got a dog. We had our first dog conversation last week, and for the first time we were actually on the same page. Maybe someday she'll be taking in a foster and have another neighbor who wonders if she's sane.
Pam, food slave to the Dashing Bassets
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