I Shed a Tear (A Dog Story)

This is a not so simple story about a puppy named Dice.  I brought Dice home from the local pet shop after, what else; my family saw the movie “101 Dalmatians.”  This dog was the biggest puppy they had out of all the Dal’s and I thought he would be older then the others and cheaper but as it turned out he was the same age as the rest.  He was about two feet long and weighed at least twenty five pounds at the ripe old age of two months.

The pup enters my home at five PM and starts terrorizing us at five fifteen.  This devil dog was so hyper, he never took a break.  He chewed the floors and had a paper fetish.  If it was made of paper then he tore it to shreds well, if it was made of anything he tore it to shreds. 

My daughter, who was eight at the time, was ravaged by the dog and he held her at bay every day when she would arrive home from school. He would love to play but liked it rough.  He took his playing very seriously showing all his teeth to anyone excepting his challenge.

Now five months old and weighing in at seventy pounds and gaining, the dog decides he was going to be the boss, the alpha dog in a house he thought was filled with dogs, not humans.  My wife comes home and gave a command and he attacked her biting her ripping some flesh.  Someone told us that neutering him will calm him down so off to the vet we went.

This vet was recommended to us by everyone and anyone who was anyone.  He was supposed to be the top vet in the world.  He had two huge men pick up the dog and place him on a table and proceeded to take his pointer finger and thumb and squeeze the dog’s abdomen causing the dog to snap at him.  He looks at me and tells me the dog is vicious and should be put down.  Needless to say, the dog was now a part of our family and we would never consider that and besides, if the doctor squeezed me like he squeezed the dog, I would have snipped to or at the least punched him in the mouth.  The dog was neutered, and no he never missed a beat and was as hyper as ever. 

A friend of mine told me that training would help so I bought books on the subject.  One expert had me hanging the dog until he was almost passing out.  Another had me putting the dog in time out.  All of these methods were great except the dog seemed to laugh at me whenever I took charge.  He pulled us down the street when he was walked.  I would personally walk him for five miles and then he would run in a opened field for ten minutes.  When we got back home he would run figure eights in our eighteen by fifteen living room for at least twenty minutes and finally he would fall asleep and do it all again tomorrow. 

I took the dog to Russ Wilson, trainer extraordinaire.  Russ took off the dogs collar, the same dog who had just pulled us into the training stable was now fitted with a choker collar.  One tug from Russ and the dog ran to his side and sat down and waited.  This was insane.  Was this the same crazy devil dog that was terrorizing us all these months?  After one month of training which I did personally under the strict orders of Russ, the dog was now mans best friend.  No more horror from this now one hundred and ten pound dog.  The dog was actually starting to learn many things like tapping his water dish when his mouth ran dry or actually opening the fridge when he wanted a snack.  We kept a twenty five pound bag of carrots for snacks in there and the dog would take one or two is he thought he was extra good that day.  This was now the dream dog.

Dice was amazing.  He knew how to wave bye, bye without a command.  He would do it when we were leaving the house as if he was human.  He would bark one time when he needed to go out and bark only once when he wanted in.  He, now the gentle giant was one hundred and twenty five pounds and when he stood on his hind legs he was five feet nine inches tall.  He loved his walks and was calm and mature.  He knew he had it made with our family as all of our dogs knew.  He learned many new tricks like crawling on his belly.  He even decided that ringing the doorbell was a better way to get in the house then even his single bark.  He somehow learned how to open the gate of the back yard and walked around the neighborhood for a while then came home and couldn’t get back in the spring loaded gate so he decided to go to the front door and ring that doorbell.  This dog did everything but talk.  Training a dog must be done right.  Imagine if I listened to the top vet in the world this dog would have never been. 

My family and I decided to travel for a few years and Dice was right there with us.  We moved to Vermont for a while then Florida and then North Carolina.  He was with us all the way.  He slept with the wife and I every night and loved his home.  One night we were all asleep.  Dice walked over to me and licked my face until I woke up.  Very sleepy, I looked at him blurry eyed.  He licked me on the nose ad seemed to smile as if he was saying thank you for a great life.  I patted the bed and said “come on up boy.”  He looked at me and collapsed to the floor and died.  He was twelve years old and I was told by my vet, that he was way over the age for a dog his size and it was all due to the way of life he lived and most likely cherished.  Training is the key and it is not easy.  It took one hour a day for several weeks using a new method every week but the dog learned and new his place and I will always remember him. Dice, good boy and a job well done.