Camera Phobic Daisy

Poor Daisy! She is our second dog-we have had Frankie since May 1997, when he was about four months old. When we decided to move from our old city- where John still works-he commutes twice a week and stays over there two nights, working here at home one day-anyway, we had the naive idea that if we had two dogs, one would stay in the new place with me and the other would commute with him. Well, of course, they both stay here-even Frankie, the ultimate zen dog would find the commuting life stressful. He is 9 plus years old as well.
Anyway, on January 15 2005, we drove to Detroit and adopted Daisy -we found her on line on Pet-finder. She was advertised as a lab/chow cross, very good with all other dogs but they didn't know how she would be with cats or children.
She lay absolutely still for the hours-long drive home in the car, came into the house and kissed one of the cats on the nose (!)- the two cats are very dog savvy-and that was that- they, all four of them, cats Sophie and Kokor, and the dogs, all pal around, sleep together, groom each other- it is the peaceable kingdom, really.
And, Daisy is GREAT with little kids- she likes to come into the studio and get petted and fussed over by the students and the siblings waiting for them- rolls on her back, kisses them , the whole thing. So THAT is ok.
But dogs? (Other dogs besides Frankie, that is, who she adores?) Well, she tolerates Pippa, our second daughter's dog fairly well, despite the fact that once Pippa bit her when Daisy wanted to check out Pippa's empty food bowl. And Hudson, the lab, who we often meet in the little park in front of our house....
But she HATES all other dogs-we think that perhaps now that she finally has her own pack-she was a stray on the cold Detroit streets, remember-that she feels that she MUST defend us. We have had a lot of trouble with this- the two vet bills that we paid for the schnauzer up the way, even though that dog was illegally off leash both times, the (high) cost of an animal behaviorist who was a total waste of money- not his fault, really. Daisy is her own self, and despite all his suggestions, continues to act like, well, Daisy. So in the end, we have all adjusted to the situation- Daisy stays on leash ALL the time except at the off leash dog park, which is huge , in a conservation area with miles of trails and open fields and woods. But there she wears a muzzle.

One thing we have not made any progress with though, is her unbelievably strong phobia about cameras. The sight of one , the click of the shutter- the flash of course- and she heads for the farthest point in the house. When we go to her she is shaking like a leaf- all over, the way some dogs act in thunderstorms-herself included, but the camera is worse. Yesterday I wanted to take some pics of the house to take on our up-coming trip. When, clicking away, I reached the farthest bathroom, there she was. Guiltily, I took her picture- we have so few of her due to the camera phobia-put away the camera and gave her many treats and lots of love etc- it took many minutes for her to settle down, still.


Here she is, in the bathtub. This may be one of the only pictures we ever get of her!