Good dogs, bad decisions and great stories

Every pet owner has favorite stories, especially the funny ones. I have a few that are veterinarian stories, pet owner stories or my own stories.

Hopefully, you’ll have a good laugh. You’ll have to visualize the descriptions to fully appreciate the humor and, sometimes, the frustration.

This first story is mine, and I may have written about it before, but it still engenders smiles and laughter. Years ago, when I was dating the man who would become my husband, I introduced him to my two Newfoundlands, who had lived with me and my first husband. The two dogs were not crazy about him, and he wasn’t so sure about them.

This particular incident involved my Newfoundland, Godfrey. He was very sweet but not too bright. He was also phobic about many things in his surroundings. One thing, though, remained steadfast: his compulsion for water. If he saw water, he would do anything to get to it.

We were walking on a bluff above Long Island Sound in Connecticut when Godfrey spotted the water below us. The bluff was covered with ballast stones from early trading ships that came to New England. Godfrey started down the uneven, 30-foot-high stone bluff, heading for the water. He would not come back when called.

My husband-to-be had to climb down the treacherous bluff, get hold of him and bring the 145-pound dog back up. Well, going down was one thing, but Godfrey refused to climb back up. I thought for sure this would be our last date! But he persevered and dragged that goofy Newfie all the way back to the top.

The next story is about my best friend, who is a veterinarian. She had performed dental and oral treatment on Mabel, a 10-foot, 80-pound boa constrictor. Once the snake’s treatment was completed, she and the owner realized Mabel had wrapped herself several times around the examination table. Boa constrictors are pure muscle and incredibly strong.

The two of them spent the next 20 minutes trying to unwrap her from the examination table, all the while laughing. Every time they freed one part of her body, she wrapped another section around the table. I love the visual of that!

A local client of mine was working in his backyard while one of his dogs was with him in the unfenced yard. After a while, the dog took off, and the owner called and searched for him. As he returned to the backyard, preparing to get into his car and drive around the neighborhood, the dog suddenly appeared, running straight into the back door of the house.

When the owner got inside, he noticed the dog was carrying something in his mouth. It was a large raw steak that someone had been preparing to grill outside. He quickly closed the back door and hid, hoping no one would come looking for the chewed piece of meat because it was too late, and he was too embarrassing, to return it.

The last story is about my husband’s Australian shepherd. The breed isn’t necessarily known for swimming, but Australian shepherds love both physical and mental challenges.
We were swimming at the lake with the two Newfoundlands, and he was intrigued.

Having never seen a lake before, he wasn’t sure what to make of it. The Newfies were out in the middle of the water, and it was as if he thought, “Hey, if they can do that, so can I!”
He ran down the long dock, not realizing it ended, and kept running right off the raised dock. Then he ran out of dock.. He looked like the Road Runner cartoon character, legs still running in midair before his body dropped straight down into the lake.

Every dog owner has stories like these. I, for one, never tire of hearing them.

Abby Bird is the owner of Alphadog Training Academy. AlphadogTrainingAcademy@gmail.com.