emma and company - Sheila Hocken Read online

  when she's out is look for birds or anything that she can

  chase ... rabbits, rats, mice. She's so fast that she can almost

  catch a bird in flight. She hasn't quite caught one yet, just a

  few tail feathers. She did catch a squirrel in the woods one

  day and I'm sure would have killed it if it hadn't turned

  round and given her a sharp bite on her nose.

  Out of the two breeds, i must be perfectly honest and say

  that i favour Labradors. They're very gentle and very

  affectionate but they don't go to extremes. Teak does. Teak

  is affectionate, but she is so demonstrative in her aftection.

  She's not happy unless she's sitting on someone's knee,

  which was fine when she was a puppy but as an adult dog is

  rather ridiculous. She still insists on her nightly knee-sit with

  Don.

  With five dogs in the house it was more important than

  ever to have law and order among the pack, as that is what

  they had become and i felt i was their leader. My weekly

  visits on a Wednesday night to our local Dog Training Club

  became even more important to me. Buttons, Mocha and

  Bracken had all gone to the Beginners' Class and been

  promoted to the more advanced. The night i turned up with

  Teak, i was greeted with surprise.

  'Good heavens! What's happened to that poor Labrador?'

  the trainer asked me.

  i laughed. 'This isn't a Labrador, it's a German shorthaired

  pointer.' She was surprised. Teak, i hasten to add, is

  the same colour as the chocolate Labradors, and although

  it's referred to as 'liver' i much prefer to call her chocolate.

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  The trainer looked at me again ... and Teak. 'Yes, i see

  now, she is very different in the face from a Labrador. A

  German shorthaired pointer - what are you doing with one

  ofthose?'

  i explained that she was really my husband's dog but I felt

  i should bring her to the Training Club to get her socialized.

  If you can get your puppy to obey you in a room full of

  thirty dogs, then you can get her to obey you anywhere. This

  is what i call socializing. A dog must get used to meeting

  strange dogs and strange people. i think i am more aware of

  socializing a puppy than most pet owners as i realize this is

  the foundation of training a guide-dog in the puppy-walking

  period. i have also planned my walks so that my dogs get

  variety and are accustomed, at an early age, to all the

  things they might meet in later life. My regular walk in the

  morning to the park (not the kind with swings and children's

  play facilities) takes me across a main road and up quite a

  few side streets where children are playing on the pavement.

  The main road gets them used to heavy traffic and there are

  usually a lot of people in the park so they become

  accustomed to mixing at an early age.

  The training of the dogs became quite a challenge to me. I

  tried to make sure that each time i went to the Training Club

  my dogs had improved. They'd stay a little longer, they'd do

  better heel work or I'd teach them to retrieve. Bracken was

  by far the easiest dog to train and enjoyed working so much

  that it was a pleasure to take him. Mocha, as I've said before,

  couldn't be disobedient but i found it hard to teach her new

  exercises, like the retrieve for instance. She'd fetch the

  dumb-bell and bring it back to me with pleasure, but that's

  only if she knew where it was. i tried to teach her to sit and

  mark where I'd thrown it but I was up against an impossible

  task: I'd throw the dumb~bell out for Mocha and tell her to

  fetch it. She'd look at me with those lovely big brown eyes: Of

  course I'll fetch it. Why don't you throw it first though?

  'It's out there, Mocha. Look for it!'

  She'd make the eftort of going out and searching round a

  little. It's not there, she'd say. Then she'd lose total interest

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  7

  in what i was teaching her and stand staring into the

  distance at some mirage that she could see and I couldn't. i

  decided that as long as Mocha was reasonably obedient,

  came back to me when called, did all the necessary things sit,

  stay and lie down - i was quite happy to leave it at that.

  But Bracken was a difterent matter. Bracken and i were

  going to go to the obedience shows and we were going to win.

  i had visions of us in the big ring at Crufts. i might add that

  to qualify for Crufts with an obedience dog, i would have to

  win the top honours but i felt sure that Bracken could do this

  in no time at all. i was very much mistaken.

  i should have realized from Emma's attitude to Bracken's

  obedience training that i was flogging a dead horse.

  Originally i took Emma with me every week to the Dog

  Training Club, for despite the fact that she wasn't keen on

  going I just hated leaving her at home. As the floors at the

  Club were wooden i always took a blanket for Emma to lie

  on. The minute i walked into the Club with Emma and one

  or two of the other dogs a set expression came on to her face

  and I knew what it meant. What a load of rubbish this is,

  she'd be saying to herself. I've never seen anything so stupid.

  People running up and down with their dogs and shouting

  commands at them. Can't they think of anything better to do

  with their evenings? She would sit on her blanket and look at

  the dogs and then back at me, and give a snort. What's it all

  for? her expression would read plainly. What do they hope to

  achieve? Why don't they do something useful? Then she'd lie

  down and close her eyes until the tea-break. Emma never

  missed a tea-break in her life, at the office or anywhere else

  for that matter. She would always sit up, bright and alert,

  waiting for the teacups and biscuits to come round, and

  although I'd never given Emma tit-bits as a young dog and

  certainly not to the other dogs in the household, i felt that it

  was Emma's special treat to have a biscuit or two when she

  went to the Training Club with me.

  Bracken was always looking to Emma for reassurance,

  and whenever i stood up to take him on to the floor to do one

  of his exercises he would give her a quick lick as if to say, Sit

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  up and watch me do this, and oin rreturn he'd give her the

  same lick, bouncing round her. Vaisn't i clever? What did

  you think of that retrieve?

  Emma was not amused. She woujd give him a little growl

  and if he persisted in his bouncin!-g and showing off, she

  would give a small bark. That's encdugh, young man, she'd

  say. You young whippersnappers dion't know what work's

  all about! She'd put her head backd. own on her blanket with

  great deliberation and pretend to go# to sleep, but i could see

  her cars flicking backwards and foorwards, probably in the

  hope that there would be a secoiidl tea-break before home

  time.

  When Bracken had passed his intermediate test at the

  Club i decided now was the time tto enter for a dog show.

  There w
as a local one coming up and Don had promised to

  take me. The exercises in the beginn er class are quite simple:

  The dog must walk to heel on lead,:sitting when the handler

  stops; then he must do this ofrthe lead; do a recall, where the

  dog is left in a sit, the handler walks a few yards away and

  then calls the dog; a retrieve, where- the dog must retrieve a

  dumb-bell and bring it back; and t.he stays - a sit-stay of a

  minute and a down-stay of two ininutes. That was easy.

  Bracken loved the stays best of all because, basically, he's

  very idle.

  The Saturday morning of the show dawned with sunshine

  and blue sky and, as we arrived, i h ad every confidence that

  i would be bringing home a large ro!sette that had 'first' on it.

  But my conviction began to sinka little as i stood by the

  ringside watching the other begimner dogs working their

  rounds. There was something diflerent about some of them,

  something quite beautiful and stylish in the way they

  executed the heel work and retric~re. It was so precise and

  beautiful. i knew Bracken didn't loc)k at all like that. Most of

  the dogs were Border collies or working sheepdogs, and there

  weren't many Labradors around. But i stepped into the ring

  with high hopes.

  .Now the one thing that i hadin't thought about was my

  lack of sight, and this created a lot of problems for me. The

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  rings are usually, on playing fields or in parks where they're

  allowed to hold obedience shows and the ring size is roughly

  ten yards by ten yards, roped offwith stakes at the corners.

  The ropes, to me, are almost impossible to see, they merge in

  with the grass and unless the stakes are white, I'm lost. i

  always like to think that i have perfect sight, just like

  everyone else, or that my lack of sight isn't going to stop me

  doing anything. That is how i felt when i was blind, though

  of course it did stop me doing a lot of things. But i didn't

  acknowledge it then and i still feel the same: i don't want to

  acknowledge that i can't do anything because of lack of

  sight. i suppose, if I'm really honest, my sight is extremely

  limited compared to that of a sighted person. i have a very

  narrow field of vision and i can't see distance or detail, but i

  never like to admit defeat. i know that often friends must

  think I'm rather strange. Sometimes I'll be quite friendly

  with them and the next time I'll walk straight past them only

  because i didn't see them. i don't have a recollection for

  faces and even if i know what somebody looks like i don't

  seem to be able to recognize them next time round.

  I wasn't going to be defeated this time. i was going to do

  that obedience test. i stood in the ring, thejudge watching,

  the steward giving commands for right, left, forward, etc. At

  his command to go forward, i marched briskly ofT with

  Bracken, telling him to stay at heel. That was fine.

  'Right turn!' the steward shouted.

  But i couldn't have turned the right way because i got

  entangled in the ropes. Bracken sat back and grinned. 'You

  horrible dog,' I said to him - i knew he was laughing at me.

  He thought this whole obedience idea was a bigjoke and now

  look what a mess I'd got myself into! i was determined to

  carry on and i did. Despite the fact that Bracken could do

  beautiful heel work he decided he wasn't going to show how

  clever he was in the ring and followed a few paces behind me

  instead of at my side. Every time i stopped and looked at

  him, he thre.,~,, his head into the air and gave me a flash of his

  eyes and a big grin of his teeth. When it came to the retrieve,

  he'd thought something up for that too. The steward was

  8o

  stood on my right giving me the commands to throw the bell,

  and the judge was a little further in front of me. Well, it

  wasn't my fault i hit thejudge, she should have moved out of

  the way faster. Never mind, that would teach her in future.

  As if to add insult to injury, Bracken rushed out, picked his

  dumb-bell up and threw it about fifty feet into the air, then

  he raced round in ever-diminishing circles to see if he could

  catch it before it hit the ground. He couldn't. It landed in the

  next ring. But Bracken hadn't read the rule that states, 'Any

  dog leaving the ring while working would be disqualified'.

  He shot into the next ring, picked his dumb-bell up and

  brought it back.

  'So much for Bracken being an obedience champion,' i

  said to thejudge on my way out.

  'I thought you said he was going to win!' was Don's only

  comment when i got outside the ring.

  'He might have done,' i said, 'but it's just one of his off

  days.'

  Regardless of the fact that I'd made such an awful mess of

  my first ever obedience show, i was bitten by the bug. I

  longed to be able to walk into the ring and have a beautifully

  trained dog at my heels. I was so used to having Emma and

  having a close relationship with her that i had the need to

  work with another dog and have the same sort of feeling of

  partnership between us. That's when i decided that five

  dogs weren't enough.

  8i

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  i KNEW DON Was going to take a lot of persuading to

  convince him that a sixth dog was an absolute necessity as

  far as i was concerned. So, before i started my persuasion, I

  decided to get a few facts to convince him. And, as luck

  would have it, the commercial bank we were dealing with for

  the kennels rang up.

  'Ah, your mortœralye has been passed by our local branch,'

  the man informed me.

  'That's fantastic,' i said, leaping up and down in excitement

  and visualizing myself taking over the Barton Hill

  kennels. 'Can we go ahead straight away?'

  'Well, not quite. I'm sure that it will be all right but wejust

  have to get the head office to okay it.'

  'Does that create any problems?'

  'No, not at all,' he assured me. 'Everything that's passed

  by the local branch is automatically passed by head office. I

  don't think you have any worries, Mrs Hocken. It's just a

  matter of waiting.'

  'Thank you!' i put the phone down. Waiting was all i

  seemed to be doingjust lately but, never mind, that was one

  thing in my favour for another dog. i had all my ammunition

  ready and one evening when Don seemed to be in a

  particularly good mood i decided to broach the subject. I'd

  got all our dogs' pedigrees laid out on the table. 'Have you

  noticed anything about Labradors' pedigrees?' i said to

  Don.

  'Huh, what's that?'

  'Well, look at Bracken's, for instance. It's all show

  breeding. Look at his grandfather, he was a show champion

  four generations back. Here we are, look, show champion,

  show champion. And Mocha's, it's just the same.'

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  i

  'What about that one down there,' he said, noticing the FT

  in front ofa dog's name. (That means Field Tria
l Champion.)

  'Yes, but that's such a long way back and I'm sure Mocha

  hasn't got any of that dog's genes in her, aren't you?'

  Don smiled, looking at Mocha, who was sitting near the

  radiator gazing blissfully into nowhere. 'Yes, i don't really

  think thatyou'regoing to be able to train that dog to do much.'

  He laughed.

  'And Buttons,'i said.'Apart from the fact that she's almost

  three, shejust doesn't have the type of character that you can

  train for obedience, does she?' Buttons is exceptionally wilful

  and although i can get her to do as she's told, it takes a lot of

  doing. i have to be really strong-willed and insist that she does

  something when i tell her, not when she feels like it. It's a

  constant battle with Buttons about who is going to win. She'll

  never accept the fact that it's not going to be her. 'You see, in

  the obedience ring,' i explained to Don, 'it's not a matter of

  getting your dog to do what you tell him. i mean, Bracken's

  quite good at that and he's very intelligent. I've only got to

  show him something once or twice and he picks it up but he

  doesn't like the precision.'

  Don's eyebrows shot up. 'Precisionf What do you mcan~"

  'Well, the heel work, for instance. He sits when i stop but he

  won't sit straight no matter how hard I try and then he starts

  to lose interest if I continue doing it.'

  'Don't you think that's your fault?' Don pointed out. i was

  hoping he wasn't going to say that. i had to admit that some of

  it must be.

  'Yes,'i conceded doubtfully,'but it's a matterof having the

  right type of dog for the right sort of work. Now if you want to

  work in obedience, you must have a dog that's bred for work.

  I've been asking around and a lot of the obedience people I've

  spoken to have explained the type of dog you need.'

  'They can't all be bred from working stock - that are at

  obedience shows, i mean,' said Don.

  Again, I had to concede.'No, they're not. Butprobably the

  handlers are a lot better than I am.' Perhaps this was the way

  to get him to understand. 'I need a very easy dog because i

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  don't feel, as yet, I'm a very good trainer. If i could get a nice