Creating Close Relationships Before College

Photos by Catherine Esery

Suki is the kind of dog that makes it hard to be a dog person.

I risk hypothermia on a monthly basis trying to get him to come inside and stop waking the neighbors at midnight. Every morning when I have to remake my lunch because he has jumped up on the counter and eaten my blueberry, I can’t wait to get out of the house and stop looking at his obnoxiously cute face. Carrying him up the stairs is always met with an eye roll — he tripped down them one time and now can’t find the guts to face walking up.

But I’m leaving for college soon and now is the time to start building impactful, positive relationships. This will be the last time for a long time that I will be constantly surrounded by my friends and family. If I build those connections now, I’ll have something solid and familiar to come home to and memories to hold me over until I do.

And I’ve decided to start by working on my relationship with my dog.

I’m already getting sentimental realizing I won’t be able to take him with me on my outdoor adventures when I’m living states away. There won’t always be a cute furry face looking up at me waiting for a belly rub. But maybe if I make those memories now, I won’t feel as bad leaving, and know we can make more when I get home.

When we first got him, Suki was the cute, innocent fluff-ball of a puppy. Now, while he’s still the cutest, he’s not all innocent.

Instead, he’s proven to be a handful — partly because he’s so smart that I’m convinced he would get a 36 on a dog version of the ACT and partly because he makes the new Bella Thorne look tame.

The smarty pants learned how to open our back gate, which now has to be locked at all times, for Christ’s sake.

But all his quirks and bad habits disappear at my dad’s 41 acres up north in Hamilton, Mo. Our family calls it “The Land” — fields to run through, ponds to jump in and sticks to chew. A dog paradise.

The Land is where Suki and I get along, so that’s where we need to be to build our relationship.

It’s the perfect place for him to get out all of his excess energy that keeps him antsy at home. Whenever I roll my eyes at him running around the house jumping on guests, my mom takes a second to point out that he is a border collie. They’re made to round up sheep and have all kinds of energy. Since we’re lacking in th sheep department, he always has pent up energy that he doesn’t know what to do with.

Any opportunity to roam the neighborhood Suki takes and our family is left to drop everything we are doing and go out and catch him before he runs out to the busy street.

But at The Land it’s different. He’s constantly by my side when I call to go on hikes and his tail doesn’t stop wagging until we get home. He is the perfect sidekick at those times when it’s 12 in the morning and I need water but am too scared to venture out of the tent in the pitch black by myself.

The Land is where he seems to forget his fears of stairs and becomes daring enough to slip across the thin frozen lake, chase frogs into the ponds and race down the slippery ditch to walk with me in the creek. And most of the time he’s leading the way.

That’s why I need to spend more time with him there, a place where we can build a better relationship to take home with us.

No matter how many times I’ve had to run around the neighborhood in a panic to catch him, I still love him. He’s my dog and a part of the family. I can’t go to college with us on rocky terms or regrets.

I can’t change the fact that he goes nuts on walks when he sees a dog — believe me, we tried with obedience classes but had to stop going because he wouldn’t stop barking at the other dogs. I have no power over the fact that if I leave something on the kitchen table he’ll eat it before I can even yell “SUKI.”

But I do have control over making positive memories with him by spending time with him where we are happiest. I could always use a few more trips up to The Land. Or go outside and play fetch on a nice day to catch a break from calc homework.

I have 11 months to give Suki all the belly rubs he might not deserve and I plan on using my time for just that. And on our especially bad days, we can take a road trip to The Land and hike until I forget about his quirky stair fears.