THis story is not about one of my kids, but about a little boy I observed at dog trainnig.
He was about 8-9 and he was there with his mother training their large St. Bernard. That dog was a lot to handle. They were taking their obedience test to advance to the next level, and Mom was handling the dog. She really wanted to get out of the basic class and didn’t trust the little boy to be able to take Brutus through his paces.
Brutus was not cooperating that night. He was a big, lumbering puppy and had a hard time with the “finish” command where he had to circle close around the handler’s legs and then sit right next to the handler’s left foot and wait for a command.
The mom and the dog tried it over and over and finally were eliminated from the exercise. She brought the dog over to where the little boy was waiting. I was within earshot when the boy said, “Mom, just spit in your hand and hold it down, and he’ll follow you anywhere!”
Next round, she did, he did, and they passed!
That is way cool! A lot of kids do have a special understanding with pets We flunked out of dog training with Lilly, our Golden. She had a spring in her ass. But, her saving grace was that she had a tiny speck of doberman in her.
I was on the beach, early before the kids and dad were up and about. Lilly and I went for a walk and then I put my towel for a sun tan and nap. Well, a man came up to my feet and stood over me staring in a not so polite way. I felt his presense with my eyes closed and, startled, I opened my eyes to see him. Well, Ms. crazy Lilly caught a drift of the energy and started growling...and the perv’s eyes moved from me to her. She locked death eyes with him and he decided to move along...but not fast enough! LOL
The only one who could consistently get her to roll over, shake hands and stay was our son. He also was in charge of giving her pills and creams when she had a problem.