Free My Best Friends Have Hairy Legs by Cierra Rantoul Page A

duties, knowing that his attention would then turn to stalking her. If you’ve ever seen a picture of a very large person trying to hide behind a very small tree, you have some idea of what Tink looked like trying to hide behind a few weeds!
    Whenever Tink had to spend a night at the vet’s for a test or procedure, Trooper wouldn’t be able to sleep or rest. He would pace the house, going from room to room, door to door trying to figure out where she was. It was touching to see how much he cared for her.

C HAPTER 8

    Positive Affirmations

    After our conversation with the animal intuitive, I had to start thinking of what kind of training I could get for Trooper that would help to restore his confidence. Obedience training seemed like a logical option, but really rather redundant since we had such a good rapport that he already knew most of the commands and was pretty good at obeying them. Plus that really wouldn’t get him a job anywhere.
    A few years earlier I had seen a news clip one morning about a kennel in Virginia that was sending toys and treats to the Military Working Dogs (MWD) that were deployed for the war. It seemed that the dogs were starting to have neurotic behavioral issues because of the constant stress and negativity of the war, especially those that were used to find bodies. As a result, some of the dogs were being sent home early because they were unable to perform their jobs. The toys and treats gave not only the dogs but their handlers an outlet for their stress. That Halloween, Marc and I threw a costume party and asked everyone to bring a toy or a box of treats to ship over to three units of MWD and their handlers. I had gotten an address for the unit deployed from the local Air Force base, and also addresses sent to me by two friends who were deployed for two Army MWD teams that were on the bases they were at. We had such an outpouring of toys and treats from the party that I was able to ship six large boxes in early November. The next year we had the same themed costume party, and I was able to ship four boxes to the unit deployed from the local Air Force base.
    I started thinking about the training the police and military dogs get, and wondered if that might be the right type of training for Trooper. Not to that extent, of course, but just a condensed version. I wanted him to be confident and assertive, but not aggressive. I contacted a local guard dog trainer and arranged for two sessions for Trooper. For the first session, the trainer came to the house and worked with us. I had told Trooper that he would be coming to the house and that this was going to be the training that he wanted. I explained to him that he was going to learn to be a guard dog because his job was going to be to protect Tink and the house.
    The trainer tried to come and stand between Trooper and me to see how Trooper reacted. Initially when he came into the house, Trooper did his bark, run, bark, run to the top of the stairs, and bark routine. But when he started to move between Trooper and me, he immediately came downstairs and stood between us. He wasn’t aggressive, but instead was leaning into me, pushing me away from the trainer. Trooper continued to push me farther away from him but did not bark or run. I could tell he was uncomfortable with the situation, but was doing his best to overcome his fears in his desire to protect me.
    The next session was done one night at their office in a fenced in yard. I was to walk Trooper on his lead back and forth in the front of the building. The trainer put on a baseball hat, a scarf across his face, protective arm wraps, and came from behind the building cracking a small whip and yelling at us. I didn’t know what to expect from Trooper, but he immediately dropped all of his fears and charged towards the “attacker,” hackles raised and barking in a defensive tone I had never heard before. He was actually scary sounding! It was all I could do to hold him back on the lead. The