by Sandra Gurev
Missing not having a dog in our lives for many
years, my husband, Jerry, and I decided to check out some eight week old golden
retrievers. Owning a different breed was
not an option for us. Our last golden,
Jenny, had all the attributes of her breed: intelligence, sense of humor,
friendliness to children and desire to please.
We drove to a small town in New York State in
pursuit of a puppy. The five pups for
sale all had winning personalities as they approached us with happy grins and
tails awagging. We chose Sweetpea
because of her eyes and expressive face. She came home with us that day.
A few week's later we realized that we were
overdue for a dog obedience class.
Sweetpea had gnawed through the knobs on our new kitchen cabinets and
had drawn some blood from my arms and lip through her rough play. She treated me as she would a litter mate.
Our trainer gave us one private lesson with
Sweetpea after I was in tears one day from her aggression. She put Sweetpea in a "down stay"
thirteen times! It took grabbing
Sweetpea by the scruff of her neck and shaking her for her to obey the
trainer. "She's a tough one,"
she said.
Besides the group lessons the trainer recommended
providing Sweetpea with daily puppy play time to work out her considerable
energy. She advised finding other young
dogs in the neighborhood and setting up play dates. We developed a routine with Liberty, Bear,
Cassie, and Edison. Their owners were
amicable to our bringing Sweetpea to their yards for play. Since they all had invisible fences, for the
most part she stayed on their property.
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Sandy Gurev
is a wife of fifty-one years and mother of two sons and four
grandchildren. Sandy was an elementary school counselor prior to
retiring to Williamsburg, VA nine year's ago from Rochester, NY. Her
volunteer work includes providing lunch to cancer patients and fitting
women with wigs after they have lost their hair. Playing competitive
duplicate bridge and belonging to two book clubs rounds out her time.
Within the past two years she has written a memoir for her grandchildren
and a couple of articles for the American Amateur Press Association.
Sandy found that writing helped to reduce her perception of pain while
she was awaiting back surgery.
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