They can be the dumb, beefy watchdog type that you wouldn’t want to mix it with in the yard they are protecting.
And there are those small pesky dogs that ‘yap yap’ all day, running up and down along a fence in the vain hope something will change — but it never does. They drive the neighbours crazy.
Very occasionally, persistence can work for either canine type. The chain might break, or whatever it’s attached to gives way, and the dog can run along the street with a chain in tow. Or the collar might finally snap, or the fence might give way at a weak spot.
That’s the argument for ‘Never Give Up’. The Boss says a lot of famous people have urged persistence: Thomas Edison, who developed a workable light bulb after thousands of tries, said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up”.
And then there was the former US president, Calvin Coolidge, who said, “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent”.
That’s all very well, but a canny dog learns to look at the odds. I can bark all day, but I know it isn’t going to get me anywhere. The Boss doesn’t respond to that stuff. He’s at work anyway, or doing something more interesting than being with me. I’ve learned to save my throat for when it counts.
When he leaves me in the dog yard, I could probably dig myself out. There’s some gravel and pebbles, but the ground is pretty sandy out here on the river and, after a few hours, I might scrape out a hole big enough to slip through — but then what? I get a belting and I’m left without my dinner. Then he sinks a few star pickets in deep, to make it harder next time.
I mention all this because I noticed that group of well-meaning folks in Mooroopna stirring up an effort to get a secondary school there, which they've been pushing for for a couple of years now. They’ve had one before of course. The Boss tells me it started in 1972, and it grew to about 1000 students — but it gradually declined to a miserable few hundred before they closed it.
It became a hard school to learn in, with poorer and poorer results, so more and more parents didn’t want to risk their kids’ education there. It was a basket case. Why would they want to try it again?
Perseverance? Persistence? It seems to me a smart dog learns from what’s gone on before, although humans aren’t so good at learning from history. Like the bloke who broke his nose seven times in the same place — you'd reckon he'd stay out of that place.
The former CEO of the city council, Bill Jaboor, once told The Boss: “When the horse is dead, it’s time to get off.” And I’m with Bill. Woof!
