'Dog Whistles' 5 Minute Freewrite

Today's prompt is "Dog Whistles":

It was a beautiful day as Sandra and July entered the gated dog park. July gently pulled on her leash, eager to join her canine friends. With a smile, Sandra unhooked the spaniel, who bounded off towards the others. She was surprised by the sight of her own friend on a nearby bench, though they looked a bit frazzled.

“Hey Denise, I didn’t expect to see you here so soon,” Sandra greeted.

“Oh, hi Sandra. I heard it was good for puppies to socialize while they’re young.”

“It’s true,” she agreed, while sitting down next to Denise. “You just have to keep an eye on them. Puppies can be troublemakers.” Denise let out an exasperated laugh.

“You can say that again,” she said, pointing to a young Labrador, running nearby. “Poltie here never runs out of non-toy things to chew. I never realized how many shoes and socks and just random things I had strewn about. No matter how much I clean up, he always finds them. I even caught him trying to take a bite out of the wall. Don’t get me wrong, I love him with all my heart, but he’s kinda a little monster.”

“July used to go after socks, too,” Sandra fondly remembered. “But she outgrew it eventually, and we make sure to take her on walks. That and a little training.”

“Hmm, we’ve been trying that. I think he knows his name is Poltie, and that ‘come’ means ‘get over here please,’ but he has trouble with ‘no’ and everything else. Even using the dog whistles, he just seems confused.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I thought I’d try communicating with a dog whistle. You know, maybe he’d understand something meant to speak to him. But instead he’d glance over and then ignore me. So I tried a few different ones and it was always the same.” Sandra shifted uncomfortably.

“Denise…you know the whistles don’t say words to the dogs, right?”

Denise briefly responded with a quizzical expression, before getting distracted. Poltie was determinedly chewing the base of a tree.

“Poltie, no!” Denise jumped up and ran towards the playful pup, who took one more nip before happily leaping away.

---

I've been really wanting a dog lately. Well, more like years, but sadly it's not something that'll happen anytime soon. One day.

Picture source