Persistence defined: Our Labrador finally achieves goal, could teach me a thing or two

There probably is a lesson in almost everything you do if you think about it.

That occurred to me the other day as my wife and I were building a shelter in the peacock pen at the farm. We were inside, the peacocks were squawking their shrill cries at our intrusion and outside the fence sat Hank, a yellow Labrador retriever, intently watching.

Hank came to us last year. He had to stay tied up at his former home so he was always eager to be out and around people. Combined with his natural exuberance, he could be a pest. But Buster, the black lab mix who has ruled the farm for 10 years now, taught Hank some manners and Hank pretty much follows what Buster, the boss, does.

When he first got here, Hank had an annoying habit of running around the peacock pen to try and get the birds excited. He would race and bark and the birds would squawk and flutter. It was quite exciting, for Hank, at least. To us and the birds it was irritating.

Eventually the peacocks figured out he was harmless and couldn’t get to them and they quit reacting. Hank, however, keeps trying just in case. It is that patience — the ability to do the same thing over and over in perpetual hope there might be a positive outcome — that is interesting.

As we worked, Hank sat and carefully watched. Now and then he would get up and make a circuit of the pen, just checking to see if there might possibly be some entrance or opening he had missed during his other thousand trips around the pen.

We laughed and ignored him, thinking that it was silly for the dog to do that. Suddenly my wife looked around and he was sitting inside the pen, watching us. His patience had paid off. He didn’t know what to do once he got inside of course, and he was rapidly escorted back outside, but his persistence had paid off. The one time there was a little gap in the gate, he was there to take advantage of it.

I wonder if he felt a sense of satisfaction or if that was the imagination of humans who always try to see human characteristics in animal behavior. Anyway, he continues to follow us closely as Labrador retrievers often do. Maybe looking for something to retrieve. Probably he is waiting for some food to drop as often happens.

And he continues to be lovable, as labs are. I could learn that, and a little patience from him.

This story was originally published August 6, 2022 at 7:00 AM.