Yesterday it was 71 degrees and sunny, a beautiful Spring day. We opened all the windows and the dogs started barking. They will bark more or less non-stop for the next two weeks.
Opening windows lets in smells and sounds that, after the long Winter, they're not used to smelling and hearing. Unfamiliar smells and sounds are big crises in a dog's world, and their reaction is to bark. If a squirrel runs across the lawn, a pedestrian walks by on the street, or a motorcycle accelerates anywhere within about six blocks, they will stand by a window and bark until they're sure the crisis has passed. Sometimes they put their noses up, sniff a passing breeze, and bark at whatever it is that they and only they can smell.
It is, come to think of it, a lot like living with inarticulate cable television hosts. I think we should change their names to O'Reilly and Olbermann, after the newstalk hosts who spend a lot of their time barking at offenses and outrages only they can perceive.
In two weeks, our dogs will tire of barking. For a week after that, it will be funny to watch them. They'll lay on the floor, and when they hear or smell something they'll startle and then stop, thinking about whether it's worth the effort. Sometimes, they'll start a muffled, pro forma bark, but most of the time they'll just settle back down, resigned to the fact that they can't do anything about the stimuli that, a week before, would have set them off. After that, they'll ignore what goes on in the outside world, except for other dogs and the mailman.
That, in the world of dogs, counts as wisdom.
