The tempo

I have heard it said that we all have our own sense of timing.  I have always tried to respect that idea, and to be aware of others' timing.  I have also read that there are some people who feel that they should always be "fashionably late" and consider that to be "on time".  Then, I have read that actual human royalty consider that they are on their own time schedule!

Since I have had Power in my family, I have had the joy of watching his bubbly personality and having him be both eager to join into my life and my schedule, and terrifically patient when he is not invited to be with me.

Previous greyhounds have been either overly anxious when they couldn't be with me, or even a bit of counter surfers and either eaten any food on the kitchen counters, or diving into the cat's litter boxes to eat kitty snacks!  The anxious ones would sometimes jump on my dinette table to see out the window and then break it with their weight, or jump onto the dash of the motorhome to watch me, and thus cause havoc with the potted plants on the dash!  The rebellious ones would eat the loaf of bread on the counter, or the leftover pizza, etc.  One hound was a paper shredder whenever I was in the next room from the hound!  I realized that the more I left these particular hounds home when I was gone, that the mess when I returned would be upsetting to me, unless I crated the hounds.  So I did that but they were also very afraid of being left in the crates!  One male hound was very destructive to the crate and himself when left in his crate..several times he tore the crate apart in order to escape the confines.  All these hounds were basically perfect except for being left!

Fleur and Val with their bassett hound friend.

Now to talk about a new development:  Hera.  She is very different from all my previous hounds, and doesn't mind being left, she is not destructive in any way, shape or form!  She does not get anxious when I am out of sight or gone from the motorhome.  HOWEVER, she is very interesting in one aspect.  The royal reputation of being "royally late" is so very solidly embedded in her DNA that it is ludicrous!  She totally enjoys standing for looong periods of time before an open door before she deigns to pass through that portal!  No matter if she is letting rain in, heat out, wind break the door, or getting Mom ill with rain wetness, frigid wind, etc.  She will not be bribed, urged, scolded, pushed, pulled, or any other ...ed!

I have figured out that if I leave the doorway and go to the bedroom in the rear of the motorhome, that I MIGHT have success in getting her to walk on up the motorhome steps and come inside.  I think maybe she wants to see where I went, or maybe she thinks that I was in her space when I was standing in the doorway holding the door open and urging her to "come on, it's too cold to keep this door open!"  Sometimes after ten minutes or more I have to step outside and grab her collar and help her get started up the steps.

Hera's tempo is the royal tempo.