Ever wonder what made the person that came up with this wonderful thing think of it in the first place? I mean really, lets think about it. People in general love the thrill of competition. Lots of people go to auctions, and basically, like the guy says on the movie "Robots"....."see a need, fill a need". That pretty much sums it up. And eBay has been around for what, maybe 10 years more or less?
Anyway, the premis behind all of this is that I finally got Greg to auction some things off on eBay. Things like our old grips/pegs, pipes, and other things that we used to collect, but are no longer "in to". Like antiques....I used to collect enamelware. Now I have quite a bit of it, and decided it was just taking up too much space...Greg has some really old matchbooks, those are up for sale....just stuff like that. I figure, if all sells for just the asking price, we'll have about $400....take out the fees, and guessing HIGH, we'll still have over $350. Not bad if you ask me.
Beyond that, not much to report. We went on a ride today....about 100 miles. It was soooooo nice to get out, and the weather was near perfect.
Before I forget....for those of you that know about the "boy" (he is 19) who usually takes care of the dogs when we are gone....he purchased a Great Dane from the animal shelter in Macomb. Yes, I said PURCHASED. The reason I say that is because they charged him $75 for a 6 year old dog they confiscated from someone's house where she was abused and used as a brood bitch (so the story goes). Anyway, she is not spayed, nor was there a contract requiring him to get her spayed. No documentation proving she had been vaccinated, nothing. Just a receipt out of a book, bought at WalMart no doubt, stating he had paid the fee. That's it. I was in shock. I kept telling him I didn't believe him, that shelters don't operate that way, until he pulled out the receipt. Then later, after looking over the dog (she is a blue merle, nice, but petite)Greg reminded me that we had gone there once, and they tried to get us to PURCHASE a black GSD with no contract. No wonder I didn't get her. So tonight, the topic of this dog came up again, and how this boy and his girl won't be able to handle this dog, etc. (she is too much temperment-wise for them)and how we will probably have the dog here by Thanksgiving. It wouldn't suprise me. She needs a strong person. She tried to fence fight with Elite, tried to eat Max, and growled at Ben. I took the leash from him, and as soon as she went to Elite's pen and her hair started to go up, I stood between them and made her sit. I was firm, but not loud. After about 3 times, she was able to walk by the pen with no fuss. When she tried to eat Max, the boy didn't know what to do. I grabbed her collar and booted Max out of the way, then made her sit again. She was a quick study and didn't mess with him anymore. She then would come to me and immediately sit and wait to be rubbed....good girl. But the boy isn't that firm, and neither is his girlfriend. They already have 2 dogs at their house, and I tried to really explain to him the need for crates, and the full run down on how to introduce the new dog to avoid a fight. I even sent him home with a medium and an extra large crate. Sad thing is, we rode by their house today on our way home....they were at a flea market (which we knew they were going to) and going to be gone for at least 12 hours, and they had the Dane chained up in the yard to a tree. The chain was similar to what you put on your tires in the winter....big links. ugh, even Greg commented on it, saying he couldn't believe they had her chained up like that. As I said, she'll probably be here by Thanksgiving. Although, the boy said if she shows aggression to him or his girl, or even bites them, he is going to shoot her. :( I told him not to put her in a situation where she would, but he can't read dogs anymore than the man on the moon, so you can imagine what will happen in the next week or so.
Thats my "holy shit what an idiot" story for the week. I'm sure there will be more to come, as his time with this dog progresses. You can see me rolling my eyes, shaking my head, and muttering under my breath. So until next time...try to make a difference, hopefully someone will listen.
4 comments:
Early congrats on you new dog. I have a good detector dog story for you. I was running a training problem on Friday. The building we were in is from WWII and isn't being used now so we have the whole building to ourselfs. A lot of the offices led into another office and so on. The place is a small maze and is easy to get lost in. I had put 50 feet of Det. Cord on the wall of an office where you could tell that a door had been at one time but had been remodeled sometime in the past. Because the room was dark it was hard for the handlers to tell that there had once been a door there. All 5 of the dogs that were doing training that day found the Det. Cord without a problem. A couple of them even got it from out side the room. 15 to 20 mintues in the problem the dogs were to search a blank room. Of course the handlers didn't know it was a blank room. Ace, the 2nd dog to run the problem, showed interest on a wall between two fuse boxes but walked away. As soon as Ace got a chance he ran back to the spot where he had shown interest, bracketed the wall and then sat. Before the handler could reward I told him "No". He but Ace back to work and finished the search. Here comes Zachi. She was the 3rd dog to run the problem. She did almost the same thing as Ace. While she was showing interest on the wall I told the handler that there was nothing there but Ace had been all over the wall. He put Zachi back to work and finished the problem. Yale, the 4th dog of the day had started to do the same thing his two counterparts had done when it dawned on me what was on the other side of the wall with the two fuse boxes. I ran (O.K. I walked really fast)down the hall, around the coner, into the office that led into the office with the Det. Cord, knocked on the wall and sure enough the Det. Cord and the fuse boxes were on the same spot on the wall just on different sides. I love it when a dog lets me know just how good their nose is. I keep telling the new handlers to "Trust you dog". Now I guess I have to trust their dogs also.
You wanted a Dane, right!!
Oh dear. You're preaching to the choir hun. But, what must be remembered are that there are good homes, good owners, good trainers, good people out there, and sometimes they're just being hidden by some hang ups, lack of knowledge, experience, etc. and they need a person just like you to bring out the good!
Awesome story handler...
I was thinking the conclusion to the story was that some old det cord was in the fuse box and no one had removed it from WWII... LOL! But your ending is even better!
My dog found a lost Smokeless Powder training aid one time. No one knew it was there until he said it was. I had set up the training problem so I knew (or thought I knew) there was nothing there. After he sat I looked where he was sniffing (looked but didn't touch anything) That is when I saw the training aid. We have do idea how long the aid had been there or who put it there.
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