An issue has arisen with the new puppy. It involves the stairs. All dogs feel the need to rush past humans when they reach stairs. It's very important to the canine psyche to be able to race up or down a flight of stairs, and turn around and gaze at the human following them, with a look of smug accomplishment. Every puppy I've ever met had trouble with stairs, so perhaps later in life they still view them as a challenge overcome. Regardless, when it comes to stairs, Captain happens to be a “left side dog.” When he rushes by you on the stairs, he goes by you on the left side. This is no mere preference, this is the only way that this dog can pass on the stairs. On the left. If you hug the left wall, he will stumble into the backs of your legs, get underfood, bang his head into your knee or the wall, etc. He will try anything and everything to get past on the left. He will not ever entertain the idea of going right. While this is funny to watch the first few times, eventually the dog starts training his owner. At this point, when I hear the pitter patter of little paws approaching from behind, or more accurately the low rolling thunder of frantically clumsy paws, I just hug the right wall, and let the train roll by.
The new puppy, unfortunately, is a “right side dog.” What this means, is that when the dogs come storming up behind me, and I go to hug the right wall, I invariably end up steering Clyde Frog into the wall. Captain zooms past on the left, as he is accustomed to doing, but Clyde gets stepped on, or driven into the wall, or otherwise punished for his dogged determination to go right on stairs.
This is just a microcosm of the new dance that everyone has to learn now that Clyde Frog is around. Dogs like to be very close to you, especially younger ones, and this means that everyone has to learn how to maneuver around a house without anybody falling down, or getting their paws stepped on. It's an ongoing process, but luckily dogs are relatively small, and I wear shoes, so the real pressure to learn is on them. Still, altering my stride, stepping around, hopping over, all has become a regular activity for me. I seriously doubt that I've walked a straight line in my own kitchen in about a year now.