Black Beauty blog

The edition I had as a child

Initially, I thought I had remembered reading this story and remembered it as a really happy fairy-tale... Now, reading it again, it is actually quite sad. It makes me feel guilty for how we have trained our pet dogs in the past. Not that we were cruel to them, but we (as a family) had a pretty short temper towards our loving pets. I forgot the great deal of loss they suffered and were still suffering, from the loss of their family to the loss of their liberty. Like Black Beauty said, "What more could I want? Why, Liberty! (Sewell, 24)." I didn't think to give the puppy the same amount of patience and respect that I would to a person suffering such great losses. I reacted differently to the animals actions, I simply did not understand. I thought that obedience was sort of innately ingrained in domesticated animals, and that if they acted up they were doing so out of a sense of defiance not out of self defense or fear.
Never thinking to blame myself for confusing my pet, always faulting the animal, "[I] did not wish to be too hard, and I am glad [to] see it was only ignorance (Sewell, 75)."

 We never physically abused our dogs, and never will, but I am sure they were quite confused with some of the odd methods we were taught by a dog trainer, and especially by our inconsistency. Also, as odd as this sounds, it often slipped my mind that the dog was still an animal, and a young one at that, so clearly it would have animalistic tendencies (that we, in fact, have as well). Just as explained in Black Beauty, there is a sort of discrepancy of understanding between some masters and their animals, "Spirited horses, when not exercised, are often called skittish, when it is only play; and some grooms will punish them (Sewell, 25)." Just like those horses, we often misread or misunderstand the intent of the animals compared to our preconceived notions.