It wasn't so very long ago that my attitude toward dogs and cats was "Cats Rule, Dogs Drool." I've always had a cat or two, my entire life, and only one vague memory of a dog we had when I was only 4 or 5 years old named Boliver Shagnasty (for the life of me, I don't know where that name came from....) who bit me.
Then just three and a half years ago, fate stepped in and provided....dogs. Honey and Freckles arrived first (with another sister, who is now living on Lake Ft. Worth), just wandered up one day, and we thought we should take care of them and find homes for them ("I'm a cat person"). A couple of weeks later, little baby Gator was found at a nearby gas station -- just barely big enough to be a handful. He liked to chew things. Time passed, I got attached, and the rest is history. I can't image life without them! Dogs DO drool....but's it's very cool, and big dogs rock!
Gator was the first to graduate from Obedience School, and the first to repeat as well. We returned a couple of times for socialization more than obedience skills -- he's not big on making new doggie friends. He's great with people, and I hope he might be a certified therapy dog some day. True to his namesake, he loves to submerge in the doggie pool on hot summer days, with just his head above water...waiting...
Freckles and I have attended one obedience class so far (last summer) and we start again on Jan. 15, with the same intended results: socialization and dimenished aggressive behavior -- she thinks she's the pack leader when I'm not around, and this is giving Gator heartburn. I don't have a 'balanced pack." (This might be due, in part, to the human pack leader herself being a little imbalanced?). I've learned much about dog psychology in the last year.
Watch for Gator's very OWN blog -- "GatorTude" -- to appear soon !
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