As the time approached for the Hypoborean Wanderer to make his entrance into this world, I began to get uneasy about how the dog would respond to a new baby. And of course, timing being the secret of good comedy, there were a number of reports in the Stars & Stripes about German Shepherds mauling small children...even family members.
Fortunately for us, we were in Germany where dogs are considered people. We expressed our concern to one of the nurses at the OB-Gyn clinic. She was a shepherd owner and understood our uneasiness. She told us that most of the time when dogs attack newborns it is because of jealousy or just bad training or a combination of both. She told us that when we brought the baby into the house for the first time we should lay him down and let the dog sniff hiim up real good and not act scared or show any hesitation. Sounded good on paper...
On the day we raced to the hospital, we left Golf at home with out any indication of how long we would be gone, a violation of the agreement we had reached with him. The labor went on all night and early in the morning the meds told me to go home, get some rest, Mom was really not moving along right now, any way. I realized that Golf was probably in need of some relief (he had taught himself to pee in the tub if we stayed gone too long...but he needed dancing room to make a deuce and the tub didn't provide the space he needed.).
I got home and he was glad to see me, we talked about what was going on as we did our stroll down to the end of Columbusstrasse where he loved to run and romp. Got back to the apartment and went to bed for a couple of hours before returning to the dad's waiting room in Heidelberg. I woke up feeling strange...it dawned on me that someone was in the bed with me and Mom was in Heidelberg. I rolled over to find Golf stretched our in Mom's place, head on her pillow...about the same weight, too. He was a little concerned about her not being around, I guess.
Anyway, I drift...a few days later we bring the new child home and the plan that looked so reasonable on paper suddenly look pretty scary. I mean, HBW was so little and Golf...he was so big. He stood there as we came into the house...cocking his big head to one side, pointedly looking at the bundly in Mom's arms...cocking his head the other way at the little sounds coming from the bundle. I almost couldn't do it. We took the baby into the bedroom and laid him on our bed, uncovered him and introduced him to Golf. The dog sniffed around HBW's neck,,,his tiny, little neck...then licked him behind the ear...stuck his nose under the baby's side and sort of lifted him just a little...the whole while Mom and I are sweating bullets and trying to act like it was all okay.
Then that was it. Baby inspected and accepted. Golf looked at me and gave me his "let's get outside" look and acted as if new babies were daily occurance. And as evidenced by the picture in a previous article, the rest was history. Golf not only accepted the boy, but as time went on he seemed to shift his primary protection duties from Mom to the boy. Golf taught HBW to play games...like "Grab this foot...no...Now this foot...no...Now this foot" and others involving his tongue and his tail.
At about age 8 or 9 months, HBW started a strange habit. He would move his arm across his chest, kind of bent at the elbow, while making a noise kind of like, "HmmHum....HmmHum..." He didn't do it all the time and we had a heck of a time trying to figure out what it meant. One evening while preparing Golf's dinner, HBW started his little routine. I made Golf sit down and stay out of the way while I worked on his dinner dish...sometimes he would get anxious and stand up and I would sit him back down. On this particular evening I notice that when ever Golf stood up, the little arm action would start and when Golf sat down...the arm stopped. I was an easy connection after that. I watched the dog when ever the arm would go and there it was....whenever Golf wagged his tail...HBW wagged his arm. After a while, it would work either way...which ever was in the good mood would get the other one to join in the wag.
Golf was never jealous of the baby...but sometimes I was jealous of the dog.