Seeking Enlightenment: Barking at Buddha

The dogs' foster dad was working in the yard and he decided to move a Buddha statue from a somewhat hidden corner of our Japanese garden up to a corner of the deck. Many of our new foster dogs are initially pretty suspicious of old Buddha and spend some time initially barking at him until I hang out next to him for a bit and then eventually we get to having Buddha hold some dog kibble and that pretty much seals the deal that he's an okay statue.

Surprisingly, none of the girls were upset by Buddha making his move up from the patio to the deck. Chima and Salinas glanced at him once but then continued their hunting for critters. Tilly loved the warmth coming off of Buddha's concrete and actually laid down for a snooze in the sun next to him.

But Langley was quite wary and barked a bit and spent a lot of time inching up for sniffs of the tiny man sitting under the fern.

But most upset of all was Frodo. I had just got home from work and heard all this barking in the back yard. Troy said "oh he's just barking at Buddha. He's been doing it for awhile." Intrigued I went to look and there was Frodo, quite concerned that Buddha had moved onto the deck and refusing to get closer than 24" to him. I worked with him a bit and gave Buddha some kibble to meditate on and before long Frodo was able to eat kibble from the statue. He's still not too sure about him though and makes a wide arc around him when walking past. Enlightenment takes time, I guess.