“My
cookie! Gimme!” My two-year-old granddaughter, Ashley fought the German
Shepherd dog for the cookie he tried snatching from her hand. She got half, he
got half. She was angry and yelled at him. He just looked at her like, “Hey,
what did I do? Your hand was near my mouth.” For the next two weeks, it was a
constant battle between them.
Rocky was a German Shepard given
to us when we lived in Ohio. One of our friend’s daughters couldn’t keep him
anymore.Not only was the dog a cookie
thief, but he had no manners. We’d put him out to use the bathroom, and if
someone was taking a walk by the house he’d run down the long driveway and bark
and scare them. We tried keeping him in the house, but he’d want to go out to
romp, which was fine as long as one of us was with him. After all, he had ten
acres to run on. So why did he have to run the several hundred feet to the road
to scare people? He really wasn’t all that brave.
I read in the paper there was a dog
obedience class starting soon, so I signed him up. I think I was more excited
about going to them than Rocky was. The first night of class, I drove my
husband’s Chevy S-10, which is a pretty small vehicle. Rocky sat beside me and
was behaving. When we arrived at our destination, there were a lot of dogs.
Our first assignment was to get
in a line and walk in a large circle. One wall was lined with mirrors. We would
walk, then told to have the dogs sit. Most of the time Rocky would sit, but
while the others dogs ignored the “doggie in the mirror” Rocky fell in love
with himself. It wasn’t easy to get him up and moving again. I swear if he
could’ve talked he would have said, “Look at that handsome dog in the mirror. I
think I’m in love.”
At the end of the night, the
instructor told us repeatedly to make sure we praised our dogs on the way home
and when we got home. We get into the truck and Rocky decided he wanted to sit
almost on my lap. I kept pushing him over, but again, he wanted to be close. So
I told him, “You were such a good dog. And you are going to learn to have
manners.”
It was about a fifteen minute
drive to our house. I turned onto the street where he lived, again assuring
Rocky he was a good dog, but I’d like him more if he quit trying to get into my
lap. Nearly to our house, Rocky laid his head in my lap and threw up. A lot.
All over my legs.
I pulled into the garage and told
him he really wasn’t a good dog for doing that. I walked into the family room
and my daughter, Michelle, and my husband, Larry, took one look at me and
started to laugh.I told them I was
supposedto tell Rocky he was a good
dog, but right now I didn’t think he was.
Six weeks later we were finished
with obedience school. But Rocky still didn’t listen when I called him and he
still swiped cookies out of Ashley’s hands.
Then my husband was transferred
from OH to FL and we had to find a home for Rocky. We were having a house built
and had to rent an apartment until it was finished. I took Rocky to the vet for
his checkup and asked if he could help me find him a good home. The next day I
got a phone call from a young woman who was recommended by our vet. She was
really excited and came to visit him. They fell in love instantly.
Rocky went to live with her and
her roommate. They had someone try breaking into their house and wanted a big
dog to protect them. She took him home and called me the following week to
report in.
“He is absolutely wonderful,” she
said. “My roommate has a little girl and they get along well. But the best part
is that I work for my dad and he lets me bring Rocky to work with me every day.
We all really love him.”
I was so happy to hear that. I
hated having to give him up, in spite of his bad habits.
Oh, did I mention after the
vomiting episode I didn’t feed him dinner before we left for class?No more vomiting on the way home!
