Obviously we all adore our dogs and think them the best in the world. Lalee gives me so many reasons to believe INDogs are the best breed, and that she is the best INDog ever (okay okay, don’t beat me up - I know there are hundreds of equally great ones out there)!
Lalee
What is really special about her is that WITHOUT any training she has absolutely beautiful manners and can be taken out anywhere. I can rely on her never to embarrass me by fighting with another dog or growling at a child, for instance. She has frequently been to dinner parties with me (to dog lovers’ homes of course), and even a café allowed her in once.
Her intelligence and loyalty would match any purebred dog. When we go to our seaside home near Alibagh, she absolutely refuses to go the beach without me – even if my husband is taking her! One time I sneaked off without her to explore a wooded area near the beach. After about twenty minutes I looked behind me – there, some distance away, was this very familiar doughnut-shaped tail. I wondered how a dog so similar to Lalee had suddenly turned up there. Then I realized it really was Lalee, sniffing the ground and tracking me down! I am planning to test her sniffing and tracking abilities by sneaking off again on my next trip there. I am trying to persuade my husband to bring her out on a leash some time later and see where she goes.
Of course like most INDogs she is a very good watchdog, though she sometimes overdoes it a bit – like trying to chase away the man who brings the gas cylinders - but she can always be called to order with a reprimand.
I never taught Lalee any of the usual tricks, and people who ask her to “sit” or “shake hands” are met with a surprised stare. But she has been taught the most important thing, much more important than doing cute things to amuse guests, and that is coming back to me whenever she is called. At one time I thought she would never learn this. Lalee was born in a golf course and has a great love of wide open spaces. Once unleashed on the beach she would run far away until she was just a speck in the distance. I would shout myself hoarse but for all the attention she paid me I might as well not have existed. The usual trick of “walk away and she will follow” simply did not work. I walked and walked, but turning back I saw Lalee becoming a smaller and smaller dot on the horizon, until I could no longer tell whether she was a dog at all. Each and every walk would end with me grumpily going all the way back to catch her. Then I read somewhere that dogs obey a deep voice because they associate it with a big animal. So I unleashed her, let her run a short distance, managed to say “Lalee!” in a pretty good baritone, and she instantly switched to docile submissive body language and came back to me! Now she knows that whenever I use That Voice she must do as she is told, so there are no more obedience problems.
I’m always amazed at the way she changes her behaviour to suit me. She is always looking at me to figure out my likes and dislikes, to judge what she can get away with and what is going to get her scolded or smacked (yes, she does get the odd smack on the rump on rare occasions). For instance, left to herself she would definitely chase or even injure cats. But right now I have two cats in the house (Tabby and MiniPini from the WSD kennel, both recovering from leg injuries). And Lalee is completely ignoring them as they wander around in front of her. Of course I lock the cats in another room when I am not at home, I’m not sure I could trust her out of my sight.
She is really and truly my kind of dog - extremely independent, not very demanding or attention-seeking, not too clingy, but at the same time very very affectionate. I have a feeling that if I became a dog, I would be Lalee. So you see, we are obviously perfect for each other.
