emma and company - Sheila Hocken Read online

  if we'd rather see the house or the kennels first.

  i 'Kennels!' i said, without hesitation. 'Anyway, we might

  as well get wet all at once while we're out here.'

  She went back inside to fetch some wellington boots and a

  raincoat. i could tell from one look at her she wasn't what i

  would call a doggie person. She was.too clean-looking for a

  start. If you're looking after dogs and cats you don't look

  clean at the end of the day, or even half-way through it. But

  never mind, i wasn't judging her as a kennel owner. i

  wanted to buy the place.

  'I'll take you through the first block here, where the

  kitchen is,' she told us. 'The first row of kennels is through

  here.'

  It took me quite a while before my eyes could adjust to the

  darkness from the kitchen into the kennel block. This is one

  thing that horrifies me about places for boarding animals.

  They don't seem to think dogs or cats need to see. So many of

  them are dark. i had to feel my way along until my eyes

  became adjusted. The compartments for the dogs were

  small, not very clean, and in a lot of them i could see cracks

  in the brickwork. Outside the runs were no better - far too

  small even for a breed like a dachshund or a corgi. Dogs need

  exercise, need something to occupy their minds especially

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  when their owners have left them, but they wouldn't get it

  here. We were greeted by quite a few excited barks, as we

  went along looking in each kennel, from dogs who were

  obviously very friendly and were hoping we were taking

  them out for a walk. Others sat in the corners moping, with

  sad eyes and longing expressions, thinking, I'm sure, that

  their owners were never going to reclaim them from this dark

  prison. My feeling on leaving the kennel blocks was one of

  terrible depression. And of hope, too, for at least if we did

  buy this place we'd change it and make the boarders who

  came to stay with us a lot happier. The cats' accommodation

  was no better, not in my view. An old shed converted into

  little pens for cats who could only spend their time stalking

  around a couple of feet of space.

  i tried to make pleasant conversation as i went round, to

  stop me thinking of how really horrible it was. 'Do you have

  special feeding times?' i asked.

  'Oh yes, about four o'clock we start feeding.'

  i looked at my watch. It was four o'clock and some of the

  cages didn't seem to have feeding bowls in them. Mrs Wood

  obviously noticed.

  'Oh, these cats have onlyjust come in. We never feed dogs

  and cats for a day or so when they first arrive. It wastes too

  much food if i do that.'

  The thought of leaving either my dogs or cats somewhere

  they're not going to get fed for a day or two was a shocking

  thought. The house was better. At least it didn't remind me

  of prison cells. Not that I was worried about living accommodation

  at all for I'm sure that once i had the kennels to

  run I'd only sleep in the house anyway, so i knew that i

  wanted it. When we got back in the car we sat for a while.

  Don didn't start up the engine.

  'What do you think, petal?' He knew exactly what i

  thought, i didn't have to voice any opinions.

  'Well, at least we can change it,' i told him. 'Make the

  kennels much bigger by knocking two into one for a start.

  'And build bigger runs on the outside.'

  'A good lick of paint would make it look a darn sight

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  lighter inside,' Don added, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

  'And if we could put some windows inside those kennels, that

  would make it better.'

  We had it all planned. He started the engine and we

  turned back down Barton Hill. Don hummed carefully to

  himself. i know that when he hums it means he's thinking

  hard.

  'What is it?' i asked.

  'Money!'

  'Yes, there is that. Do you think we'll get enough? A

  mortgage, i mean?'

  'They're asking a lot of money for it. We might. We'll keep

  our fingers crossed anyway. You'll have to do that in the

  morning as I've got quite a few patients to see. You ring

  round and have a word with the mortgage companies. just

  sound them out a bit, you know, before we start applying

  anywhere in particular.'

  We both knew it was no good going to a building society

  because they weren't interested in mortgages for businesses,

  so we had to rely on commercial banks. Sadly, our own local

  bank wasn't even considering mortgages at that time - or

  things might have turned out a lot different. That very

  evening Don started to draw maps of the new kennel blocks

  he'd build and how he'd change the old ones. He was

  completely taken up with this new idea and new vocation in

  life and i was mentally working out how many tins of dog

  food, cat food and pounds of beef we'd need every week to

  feed a hundred dogs and eighty cats.

  The next morning, at the start of office hours, i sat beside

  the telephone, the Yellow Pages in my hand, ringing round

  the commercial bankers. i was lucky for i found one that was

  interested almost immediately. During the next few weeks

  we were busy organizing valuations on the kennels, and we

  had lots of mortgage forms to fill in. Both Don and i were

  beginning to feel really confident that this was it. i was so

  confident, in fact, that i decided to splash out and buy Don

  something really fantastic for his birthday. i didn't like the

  thought of buying the same old thing for him - aftershave or

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  socks - and he'd always had a yearning for a German

  shorthaired pointer. They are not at all like Labradors.

  They're sleek and close coated with long cars, a long nose

  and no tail, and have the elegance and speed of a gazelle.

  Don had seen some once at a dog show we'd been to and

  gazed at them longingly. Then, as if by magic, in the week of

  his birthday there were some advertised for sale in our local

  paper. They are a very rare breed so i felt extremely lucky.

  Teak, as Don called her, was received with great excitement,

  especially as I'm sure Don thought he was going to get yet

  another bottle of aftershave or pair of socks.

  Teak was to teach me even more about dog behaviour,

  and about difterent techniques of training. At eleven weeks

  old, she looked like a little fawn - all legs and head - as she

  gambolled round our back garden. The other three dogs

  were astounded. They knew she wasn't a Labrador and tried

  to work out what she really was but she was too fast for them

  and they couldn't catch up with her. Emma couldn't have

  cared less whether it was a mouse or a baby elephant. Emma

  was always the same about other dogs: she could take them

  or leave them. She would always play with them if she found

  them in the park and they were friendly, but she was never

  all that keen on making real friends. It was as if she reserved

  herself for me. She took a s
niff at Teak - in one of Teak's

  fleeting moments as she streaked by - decided she wasn't at

  all interested and ambled offinto the lounge. i always made

  sure that Emma never felt pushed out and her days were

  spent wherever she pleased, in the lounge, or hall, or kitchen,

  but all our other dogs were restricted and they weren't

  allowed to run through the house in the day. They were

  either out walking, in the garden or in the dog room. The

  only time the other dogs were allowed in was in the evening,

  when Emma had chosen her place to sleep or had gone off to

  bed upstairs. i also fed Emma separately. Not that the others

  would have had a chance to steal any of her food (they

  wouldn't have dared and anyway the meat disappeared from

  her bowl almost before it touched the ground), but Emma

  always had to come first. i knew she didn't want to go for

  7i

  long walks, butjust a trot down to the local shop with a collar

  and lead on made all the diflerence to her day. She loved

  going to the local shop. There were so many smells and there

  was always the hope that someone behind the counter would

  take pity on her and pass her a biscuit or two. i never mind

  tying any of my other dogs up outside a shop that has a notice

  NO DOGS' but i never did that with Emma. If no dogs were

  allowed in the shop then neither of us would pass the

  threshold. But I'm pleased to say our local shop has never

  needed to put up a notice of this kind and I'm sure the

  owners have never had any problems with dogs being a

  nuisance.

  Teak immediately tried to assert her authority, for even at

  that tender age she decided that she was going to be the boss.

  Once in her bed, no canine was allowed to go near her and

  she would emit a deep-throated growl of warning that would

  befit a fully grown great Dane. So far, Bracken had always

  been boss - after Emma, that is - although Buttons had

  never admitted it. Mocha wasjust a born follower, when she

  remembered who she was following, and both Don and i

  realized immediately that we'd have to get the upper hand

  with Teak from the start. Dogs, as far as i can see, fall into

  two dillerent categories - the leaders and the followers. It

  goes back to long before they were domesticated and they

  lived in packs. They always had a pack leader and any dog

  that wanted leadership had to fight for it. If he won he took

  over, if he didn't he went back to being a follower. These

  instincts, i find, are still very prevalent in our domesticated

  dog. If you have a follower, he's going to be very easy to

  train, very placid and eager to please. If you have a leader,

  you've got a totally difterent dog. i like to think of it this way:

  the leader dogs are the type that would be good at police

  work, the follower dogs are the type that would be good as

  guide-dogs. Buttons and Teak are definitely leaders. We

  didn't have Buttons until she was a year old, so she was able

  to form her character before coming to live with us and, of

  course, a dog with Buttons' temperament felt she had to

  assert her authority when moving into a new home. She

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  didn't try to assert authority over Emma, but over us. At

  this point, i must say that a lot of pet owners don't realize

  what is the basis of their dog's temperament, and they fail

  to see how they could cure an aggressive dog.

  While on the surface Buttons seemed quite friendly to all

  of us, underneath she was waiting for the opportunity to

  assert her leadership. It came one night. She was asleep in

  her basket and it was time for everybody to go out for their

  last walk. i told Buttons, but she ignored me. 'Come on,

  Buttons,' i said again. She still ignored me, opening one eye

  and closing it again. i went up and gave her a pat. 'Come

  on, Buttons, quickly.' She growled at me. At that point i

  realized what she was doing. i got hold of her by the scruff

  of the neck, dragged her out the basket, shook her, shouted

  at her and told her that she was a very, very bad dog, put her

  outside and closed the door. If you watch mothers with

  their puppies, you'll see that they often chastise them by

  getting hold of them round the neck and shaking them.

  This doesn't hurt a dog but it seems to humiliate them and

  certainly puts them in their place. When I opened the door

  again, Buttons was a changed dog. She'd been reasonably

  friendly before, but now she was excessively loving. She

  came round me, wagging her tail, lying on the floor, putting

  her feet in the air. That is the sign from a dog of total

  submission. i had won. i often wonder what would have

  happened if Buttons had gone to someone else who had

  backed offwhen she'd growled at them and left her alone.

  She would have probably taken over and might even have

  attacked someone.

  Teak, being only a very young puppy when she came to

  us, was very easy to handle and although she growled at the

  other dogs, she never tried it on with us because she

  realized from the start that Don and i were the leaders. i

  always feel sorry for those pet owners who come and tell me

  what troubles they have with their dogs as, naturally,

  people do want to discuss their pets with me.

  'He won't let me take a bone off him. In fact, he won't let

  me anywhere near. He growls and I'm sure he'd bite me.'

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  i

  i tell them that the best thing they can possibly do is to go

  up and take the bone off the dog. Make a fuss of him. Tell

  him what a clever dog he is for giving up his bone and give it

  him back. If he does bite, then bite him back. i don't mean

  that literally, of course, but to get hold of him and really

  reprimand him before returning his bone. You may have to

  do this quite a number of times before the dog realizes that

  you are the boss. You would be amazed how many dogs are

  the leaders of their pack and how many dog owners are

  literally afraid of their dog. i cannot stress enough how

  important it is that you should train your dog to make sure

  that he will obey you. i find it much easier to understand

  now, when i hear that dogs attack people, what's gone

  wrong. The dog just hasn't been trained to be obedient.

  Boredom, too, can make a dog aggressive or destructive.

  Dogs are like children: they need lessons, they need things of

  interest to do in the daytime. If a child wasn't sent to school

  at the age of five then he, too, would become bored and

  probably that old saying, 'The Devil makes work for idle

  hands' also goes for paws.

  74

  4

  CHAPTER TEN

  TEAK TURNED OUT to be a totally different kettle of fish

  from any of the Labradors. When i first took her for a walk in

  the fields, i let her ofr the lead and was rather shocked when

  she had gone in a flash. This had never happened to me

  before. Labradors just aren't like that. They're not fast

  enough to di
sappear in half a second, and they prefer to stay

  round their owner and keep them in sight. Especially

  Mocha. i would always be looking for Mocha and she'd be

  behind me. She never went anywhere. But Teak had gone.

  What could i do? i couldn't see her anywhere. That didn't

  mean a lot as i couldn't see far into the distance anyhow.

  Terror-stricken, i tried calling her back. She was Don's dog:

  what was I going to do when i went home without her and

  told him I'd lost her the very first time i had taken her out?

  Well, how was i to know that she was going to shoot oftlike a

  bullet out of a gun? But just as quickly she was back at my

  feet, leaping up and down with joy. Before i could pat her

  and tell her what a good girl she was, off she went again. I

  found this very unnerving at first - one minute Teak would

  be there beside me, the next she'd be miles away. You need

  to look into the breed and see what they were originally bred

  for to find out what sort of temperament your dog is going to

  have. It is no good expecting a German shorthaired pointer

  to act like a Labrador, so i had to condition myself to a

  difterent breed. Labradors were meant for retrieving pure

  and simple, they weren't meant to go out and search for birds

  or point. They were trained to stay behind their master until

  he gave them the command to retrieve a bird, to go out to it

  and to come straight back.

  The pointer, on the other hand, was bred to range, to

  range out, flush the birds out and to point. They always like

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  -. *0

  i

  to work a long way away from their owners so i had to accept

  that Teak's instinct sent her a long way ofr, but always

  brought her back. i had hours and hours of pleasure

  watching Teak. Her movement, her gait, was so different

  from Labradors. Compared to her gazelle-like gallops they

  looked like elephants trundling around. She reminds me of a

  butterfly flitting from place to place with ease and elegance.

  At her easy canter the Labradors are at a flat-out gallop to

  try and catch her. They never succeed, not unless she wants

  them to. Teak's instinct is so strong that all she wants to do