Life with Dhugal

It happened when I wasn't looking. I woke up one morning and Dhugal, my perpetually youthful Airedale Terrier, was an old dog. This is a dog that is full of enthusiasm, living every moment to its fullest. I was aware of his chronological age; I just didn't think he'd ever act it.

Dhugal is pretty healthy except for a significant heart murmur. He used to practically turn cartwheels when it was time for his daily run around the hayfield, but now I find that on these hot days he would rather find a cool spot in the house where he can lie down and meditate. He's also lost his old rock-hard physique and put on a bit of weight, but haven't we all.

One thing that annoys the heck out of me is the hysterical fit he has whenever he spots a cat or other animal from the sunroom windows. The biggest insult to his terrier sensibilities is seeing a great blue heron on the pond. Ever the hunting dog, even if it's all in his mind, he isn't going to let these giant birds go unannounced. Lately I've actually seen him choose to ignore at least the less exciting visiting critters.

Dhugal has always been the dominant dog in the household, but second-in-rank Barney the Shih Tzu has been intensifying his efforts to take over as alpha dog recently. That's just not going to happen while my good old Goobie Dog is still here. Dhugal has always been pretty tolerant of my two Shih Tzu boys and my Lab mix. But Barney may push him a bit too hard some day, so I have to keep a close eye on their interactions.

Dhugal came to me as a surprise gift 10 years ago. Friends and I flew up to Edmonton to see and evaluate his litter. My friends owned the sire of the puppies, and I was accompanying them to do puppy aptitude testing. They made the show picks, and I ran a series of tests on all of the pups determining which would be likely to excel in hunting, obedience trials, agility or other performance fields. Dhugal was my personal favorite. That was a memorable time for both good and horrible reasons. The good was obvious — Dhugal. The bad was the timing. Our flight to Canada had been scheduled for Sept. 12, 2001. The terrible events of Sept. 11 made that impossible. We were finally able to fly up to Canada a week later. In fact, we were on the first flight out of Cincinnati airport after the skies had been reopened. The tragic events brought out the best in many people. Airport workers and the flight crew treated the few passengers on that flight like first-class royalty. The Canadians greeted us with heartfelt sorrow over the terrorist attacks and a warm welcome.

A month later Dhugal was sent to me and our life together began. He took to obedience and field training easily, but after a while he began to show signs of gunshyness. That ended his future as a hunting Airedale, but that was OK with me. His retriever training has been put to good use — he loves to pick up and carry plastic water bottles to my recycling bins and to retrieve socks from the floor and things from the pond. Whenever he caught rabbits that stupidly wandered into range, he would promptly retrieve them to me. Not my idea of a great gift, but it was sure better than having him run off to crunch on the things! Dhugal was also considered to be one of the picks for a career as a show dog, but his curled tail, reminiscent of the tail on an Elsie the Cow creamer, kept him out of the show ring. That was OK, too. Nobody will ever be able to convince me he isn't an extremely handsome dog.

I used to fantasize about Dhugal acting more mature and about how much easier things would be in my home if he were a bit more sedate, but now that he's settled into the role of canine senior citizen I don't think I'm ready for him to be on the downhill side of life. I'll continue to treasure my time with him and try to be patient with his occasional outbursts of over-enthusiasm because I know how much I'll miss him when he's gone.

You're a good boy, Goobie.

Dorothy Miner is a long-time dog trainer, obedience and tracking instructor and judge of canine events. She is a published author and contributes regular columns to several dog publications. Dorothy currently teaches at the Hollowell Academy of Dog Training and, along with Diane Laratta, teaches weekly classes for the Allen Correctional Institution's PETS Program.