One of the last CERT classes had a bomb sniffing dog, which was pretty sweet. When we walked in, we were “investigated” by him until he was satisfied we weren’t holding. Unfortunately, it did have the effect of renewing my interest in owning a dog.I decided to research owning a dog again. For a long while I’ve put it off because my backyard fence is rotting. After going to my friend’s house, I realized that his dogs actually didn’t spend that much time in the yard. Also realizing that my ex-brother-in-law has the sweetest doberman (also an inside dog), there was a glimmer of hope. Throughout the years, our family really only managed to mainly have cats. My father always claims he was a “dog person” more than a “cat person” which is true. Throughout the years, I’ve aimlessly consdered having another dog, but until I had my house really didn’t seriously consider that option. In my childhood, we did have two dogs, but none after that.
The first was “Scotty”, a Scottish Terrier.
I didn’t find out until right before my father passed that his side of the family (East Coasters) were somehow involved in breeding them – which is why I think we ended up with him. All I remember of him is that he was old and had skin, eye, and hearing problems. He also had that old, slow, puttering dog walk. Scotty never bit me (that I recall) but since my age was about six, it’s hard to recall everything. In the end, due to his age, we had to put him down. After my father passed, I considered getting a Scottish Terrier, but their thick fur and sensitivity to heat are not well suited to Texas.
The second was “Tracker”, a black lab. I’m pretty sure I considered her “my” dog even though she really was the family dog. She was home the night the house got robbed. My mother (to this day) will swear that I caused the dog to run away. Her supposition was that because I walked the dog one day before school, that I made Tracker too excited the following days – and didn’t walk her again, and then she got over-anxious and ran away. After reading a bunch of dog psychology books (which inherently sounds goofy), I have a much better understanding of where we went wrong with Tracker. Of course, this being something like 1980, we didn’t have the unlimited resources of the internet to help us train our animals.
