There’s Rollo right above your post.
There’s Greyfriar’s Bobby and most recently, the loyal GSD who sat for *months* in a truck with her master’s rotting corpse after the selfish bastard took her with him into the desert where he blew his brains out.
[there’s a FR thread about it, somewhere]
In 1993, my first Ibizan refused to eat, drink or move from the chair that faced the front door after I’d been taken to the hospital ER for double pneumonia.
On the third day, when I was told was going on with her, I pulled out my tubes and went home.
I knew she would grieve herself to death if I did not return.
“Those stories” are true.
I am a romantic dog lover *and* a realistic dog respecter.
One need not be mutually exclusive of the other.
Unfortunately, in this country, too many people are mere lovers, and don’t truly nurture The Dog.
I think it stems from the fact we never much used dogs as a culture for real work, outside some hunting dogs. What do you think of herding cows? Cowboys and their horses, not dogs. People didn’t use dogs in this country as other countries did. Not until police started using K9; there’s no background.
We think dogs are playtoys and not real separate beings (from humans) capable of real work and seriousness.