Olio: Dogs, Pledges and Christmas

On the Things You Don't Expect

Today, things got real.

It was supposed to be an “intervention”. That’s what the dog-behavioral-psychologist who was coming for an in-home consult called it. Given what I know about the use of the term in counseling and care, I couldn’t agree more.

The situation with our puppy, Aurelius, a 10-mo old German Shepherd, was spiraling out of control. After months of books, advice, more books, more advice, weeks of obedience training, more advice, we were still completely unable to resolve his aggression towards our children. Worse, he was becoming aggressive toward us as well.

To make matters weird, the behavior was almost exclusively when he was already in his kennel. But that, too, was changing.

So “intervention” went on the calendar, right along with “biggest blizzard of the season.”

Thankfully, our local guy did give us two hours on the phone and some “homework” to attend to over the weekend in the hopes that both we and the puppy can build some good-old-fashioned man’s-best-friend trust again.

If you’re truly interested in how all this turns out, stay tuned. I’m sure I’ll feel compelled to write about it again.

But between this and fending of the flu on Monday and Tuesday, all the time I’d hoped to spend writing on Proverbs and/or the Problem of Sin the last few days slipped away.

Yet, it’s the nights before Christmas, so you’re probably not too hard up for more online content. Then again, at least one of you has already signed up for the new (to me?) substack “pledge” system. This is where substack encourages me to encourage you to encourage me to create a paywall for my writing by you pledging to pay for it once I do.

Truly, I’m honored that one of you thinks my writing is worth supporting financially. That said, here is my pledge to you:

1. I do not intend to monetize this platform at all. I like doing this. I like that you’re reading it. No amount of money is worth it to me to create a system of haves and have nots in this meager corner of the internet. I understand why many sites need that kind of model to operate, but this is not one of them.

2. Someday soon, MadPxM.com may be such a place. At that time, you’d not only be getting an entirely different set of daily content from me, but from many other valued authors as well. Monetization there would go to them, not me, as I see Mad Mondays as a place where I can use my online presence to give others a foothold and lift them up. “A rising tide lifts all ships.”

3. But! You can already support me by clicking on the “support” menu above. That will take you to Subscribestar where you can say thank you for all the work I do with Stop the White Noise, a Brief History of Power, Mad Christian Mondays, as well as the writing that is now making its way out here. On that level, we can’t do it without you.

4. So, if you want to help me pay for my dog-behavioral-specialist training, please sign up.

Meanwhile, it’s negative three degrees outside and my puppy needs another walk to wear his little over-active brain out and help create a calmer atmosphere in my home. Adventures in real life ownership reboots now.

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