smell of fear

bee has always been the one to scold and chide sapphie whenever she breaks any rules or behaves badly. and he would always say i had spoiled her for not being strict with her. until today. you see, as a rule of thumb, i would forbid sapphie from stepping into the corridor of the house. and to be doubly sure that she does not do it, i'd place a metal grill (one side of her cage enclosure - something that she's afraid of) at the corridor entrance. and yesterday, as i opened my main door when we came home after dinner, i couldn't find sapphie anywhere in the living room. i suspected she'd committed something she shouldn't have and had gone hiding under the table. but i couldn't see her there. i looked into the corridor and true enough, she was standing there. ears dropped, tail wagging lowly. that's how she'd behave when she's feeling guilty. and this time round, i had caught her red-handed. for her to be there meant that she had jumped across the metal grill and was not able to leap back in time when i came back. this time round, i needed to correct her. i made her go into the toilet located at the end of the corridor and made her sit down. and with my cane (which was also one of her most hated object) i commanded her to "die". that was the command i'd use to make her lie on her back - a dog's total submission pose. she was totally petrified with the sternness in my command. that was when she started peeing on the floor. also, that was when she started secreting this very distinctive dog smell. the smell that she emits when she's really scared. i called it the smell of fear. and that was also the first time bee understood what dog's fear smelled like. and interestingly enough, bee got soft hearted and asked me to cool down and not scold her further. heh heh... anyway, i was not angry per se. i was just being stern and doing what i needed to do to correct her behaviour. :-)