“My dog will fall asleep on sofa beside me in the evening and if he’s well settled and you put out a hand to gently stroke him he will give low growl and even bring his head round to snap. I know the proverb says to let sleeping dogs lie…is this what I should do? He’s 3 years old and behaves like a grumpy old man! ” asked a client this week.
Hmm. Let’s imagine you are curled up, dozing happily in your comfiest chair having a short nap, dreaming of Daniel Craig taking you out for a romantic dinner (or is that just me?…) — when suddenly you feel someone touching you. Would you:
- Open your eyes, smile and welcome the interruption?
- Ignore them?
- Leap ten feet in the air and lash out?
- Snarl “get off” and squirm away as you try to work out what’s going on?
I’d bet you would either respond c) or d). No-one likes being disturbed from a snooze – and neither do dogs.
Absolutely let sleeping dogs lie.
It’s a well-known saying and I wondered where it had come from.
One source suggested: ‘Let sleeping dogs lie’ derives from the long-standing observation that dogs are often unpredictable when they are suddenly disturbed. Geoffrey Chaucer was one of the first to put this notion into print, in Troilus and Criseyde, circa 1380, although the belief itself may well be much older: “It is nought good a slepyng hound to wake.”
The cautionary phrase was well enough known by the 16th century for it to have been included as a proverb in John Heywood’s definitive A Dialogue Prouerbes English Tongue, 1546: “It is euill wakyng of the slepyng dog.”
The current wording of the proverb comes from the 19th century. In December 1822 The London Magazine published a fanciful mariner’s yarn entitled The Second Tale of Allan Lorburne, which included:”Let sleeping dogs lie, said the daft man, when he saw the dead hound before him.” The story is, to current sensibilities, pretty much bonkers. ‘Daft’ seems to be used to mean ‘insane’ and the ‘hound’ apparently alludes to a stricken sailing ship. Nevertheless, the citation does appear to be the first use of the proverb ‘let sleeping dogs lie’ in print.
But back to our client.
What I suggested was that if you want to pet your dog when he’s comfortably settled and resting or asleep, always call him first. Wait for him to turn or come to you, so you know for sure that he’s heard you and he’s awake, then you should be able to pet him without worry.
Keep training,
Carol