Being a Jerk

I listened to and watched a powerful message yesterday about disposition. The messenger was insistent that we are all born with one, a particular brand of me, of you. He used the example of his five grandsons, each one very different, each one displaying natural inclinations toward quiet or excitability, gregariousness or solo retreat...these appear to be opposites and yet, they are not, they are simply descriptors of some predisposition to what is naturally comfortable. During a dog walk, I met a man with a huge black bouvier. We were across the street from one another and the dogs seemed interested in meeting, I had trepidation, my dog can be a jerk sometimes.The man encouraged me to take a chance, have our dogs get to know one another. His dogs name is Teddy, my dogs name is Caesar. The meeting was tentative, Teddy has a sweet and gentle disposition and he appeared to be generous with giving Caesar time and space to get familiar. During this getting to know you phase, Teddy's owner, John, spoke dog psychology to me, telling me it's all about the owner, that dogs react to the fear they pick up from their owners~in other words, if I remained calm and relaxed, my dog would too. Yes yes, me calm and relaxed, ok. My natural disposition leans toward fearlessness, nervousness in the face of meeting new people or being in different environments is rare for me...in other words, my dog has his own way of reacting to people, places, things, and other dogs~I don't usually factor into the equation. The dogs did get along, and John spoke amiably about The Dog Whisperer and to his credit, he did tell me a story about one instance where a little dog introduced into a big dog pack just could not remain there, the dogs disposition was to terrorize the much larger I could eat you in one chomp dogs. This was a bit of foreshadowIng, as you shall see. We continued our walk together for about ten houses and there we met Zoro, a gorgeous black lab. Zoro had submission style splattered himself onto the sidewalk in eager anticipation of meeting two new dogs. This is when John got to see Caesar being a jerk. Ha, I grin as I write this! A snake is a snake is a snake, a dog is a dog is a dog. A snake acts like a snake and dogs act like dogs and HUMANS, we have our human ways too. Oh, the sweet differences though, freedom of will affords us adaptability and choice. After pulling my snarling dog away from sweet and gentle Zoro, John and I continued our walk. He was quite startled and surprised and I could not help myself from saying "you didn't believe me, did you, about Caesar?" I know my dog~he is sweet and gentle, loving and adorable, and sometimes, he can be a jerk, just like ME!