saw a man telling his dog charlie to shut up and stop being a dickhead. i did my shopping and charlie was barking as i walked out of the supermarket. the dude was not happy. he had on a big hat that was probably oversized and his jacket was also probably too big for him. he looked upset with charlie the dog and at the very end of his tether. when he told the dog to stop being a dickhead i wondered if this usually worked. perhaps he swore so much that the charlie now recognised the word dickhead as a command to stop. but charlie seemed more irate and continued barking, presumably out of spite.

the man gave up and looked close to tears and i wondered what specific investment he had in the dog’s barking. it was annoying, obviously, but it wouldn’t make me cry unless he did it for days on end. perhaps charlie had been barking for days on end. i would call a dog a dickhead if it was barking for days on end. i’d probably call a dog a dickhead if it was barking for about 10 minutes, but i don’t like dogs. presumably this guy liked dogs, because he had one. maybe it wasn’t his dog and that’s why he was so upset about the whole thing. it would be understandable to get mad if he was minding somebody else’s dog as a special favour and the dog was giving him nothing but grief.