I received a call last week about the news.
My good friend and real estate attorney, Charlie Brown (yes, that’s his real name!) finally “gave in” to his three kids and let them have a dog.
They were out at a friend’s ranch, and an 8 month-old collie-mix happened to wonder up and start playing with the kids, age 11, 7, and 5.
The dog looked healthy and was very social, which is the only reason Charlie’s wife let the kids play with the dog. In fact, Charlie thought the dog must belong to someone, he was in such good shape.
Charlie asked the ranch hand if anybody owned the dog. The ranch hand told him that they’d checked around, but it was a stray. The dog just showed up several days prior, and that nobody in the surrounding area knew who’s it was.
This happens a lot in the country. Somebody owns a dog, can’t keep it and they dump it off in the country, thinking it will survive on it’s own.
Well, this dog got lucky when he found Charlie Brown and family.
“Can we keep him? Can we keep him?” the kids begged.
Apparently, the dog was smart enough to stick around and since he was still hanging around the next morning–Charlie made the decision: “Okay… we’ll keep him.”
Now, normally I’d issue the typical warnings about “letting the kids” adopt a dog, as the burden of responsibility always falls on the parents’ shoulders. But Charlie knew this already. In fact,
he’d been planning on getting the kids a dog for quite some time, but secretly knew it would really be “his dog.”
“So, Charlie Brown… are you going to call him, ‘Snoopy’?” I ribbed him.
“No,” he replied smugly. “I think I’m going to call YOU Snoopy. We’re calling the dog ‘Chamberlain.”
“And by the way, Mr. Dog Trainer…” Charlie continued, “… What do I do, now?”
The first thing I advised Charlie to do is to take ‘Chamberlain’ to his local veterinarian for a full check up… including blood work.
Next, I advised him to download a copy of, “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer: An Insider’s Guide To The Most Jealously Guarded Dog Training Secrets In History!” from the Download Library at Dogproblems.com. (See column at left).
Charlie started reading our article on “Housebreaking In A Hurry” and realized that he needed a crate so that his new dog won’t get into trouble or have “accidents” in the house when he’s
unsupervised.
I also recommended a training collar, a tab (a one foot leash for the house) and a leather six foot leash. (Charlie is also reading “The Perfect Puppy E-book” – also available in our download
library–to get more detailed information. Like any good real estate attorney, Charlie likes to learn as much as he can about a subject and pay attention to details. These are good qualities for responsible dog owners, too).
Charlie wanted to know what type of bowls he should feed “Chamberlain” with.
We’ve always used stainless steel bowls. I use one for water and one for feeding. (Feeding should be done twice a day for an 8 month-old puppy. The food should be left out for only 5 minutes, after which it gets thrown away). I’ve been told that the metal bowls do not allow bacterial growth like the plastic ones do.
Well– I received an email from Charlie this morning, telling me that they are having A TON of fun with their new dog, and that everything is working out fine. I love these kind of updates,
because they make me feel like my life’s work has some meaning.