The heart can truly break!

by Jeanne Perciaccanto

This past week I was faced with the most difficult and devastating aspect of dog ownership, to terminate the end of a precious friend’s life. 

There is a distinct separation between the brain and the heart. 

I could see her decline. I knew she was sick and the sudden onset of an aggressive form of lymphoma would take her quickly. I had her to Vet twice in a few days before the final visit and her ultimate end.  

My heart fought against the inevitable.

As her life begun to decline, I could still see sparks of who my friend had always been still shine through.  More from her undeniable will to be for me, then anything I did for her.

Her desire to be with me increased.  She never left my side in the house.  Each time I had to leave, she stood at the door in anticipation of going for a car ride.

I began taking her to classes I teach, but when the distance of the walk through the building became more difficult for her, she was willing to wait in the car. I can only believe being there was more satisfying than being home.  I would see her sitting up in the back seat alert for my return as her life’s’ role had always been my guardian and guide.

The torment leading up to her demise was unbearable.  This was not the first time I had to face this decision, as all dogs come to this end all too quickly.  This time was more difficult to face than others for me, she had that special something.

She of course knew she was sick but I pray to she had no knowledge that her feeling ill was nothing more than a feeling, yet, I think dogs seem to have a better insight on death than we seem to be capable of understanding.

As the disease rapidly progressed, I could see there was something more going on with her than the lymphoma.  Her body shape seemed to slowly change. Her breathing became more labored at times and seemed to abate to normal at other times.  My brain analyzed what I saw but my heart was feeling the pain of acceptance.

As dog owners, we are forced to walk a fine line, our decisions always final.  We guess.  Is she capable of more or incapable continuing?  Is she struggling for me as I struggled within myself?  I watched for signs to make things seem normal and that I still had time together and mine to still love her.  She still told the cat to back off her food.  She told me to fill the water bowl.  She still loved her petting and back scratches and of course to take her favorite car rides.  Does her life still offer satisfaction in her older days or is it just a struggle to keep me happy?

The day I had to let her go, I was watching her as she slept on the floor.  Her chest exaggerated to expand more.  Her belly had become more distended over night and felt like it was becoming mushy.  I had realized what I was seeing over the past few days was her going into congestive heart failure.  This was confirmed when she was weighed and had gained back the 6 pounds she lost in two days without food intake to support this gain.  I knew it was her filling with fluids.  The decision was no longer mine to make.  Life had run its inevitable course and nature reached its final conclusion, it was time.

She was willing to go for that last car ride. She was willing to enter the Vet’s office for her last visit and accept her favorite treats.  She even willing got onto the lift table with a simple command of place, the best dog to the end.  She willingly and bravely accepted the shot to sedate her, gently falling asleep in my arms for one last time.  She willingly accepted her end with the grace and fortitude in which she lived it.

I, on the other hand, was and still am a blubbering mess.  My heart is broken at the loss of such a wonderful girl who touched so many lives with her playful spirit.  The best working dog who did whatever asked of her and more.  A pal I could go and play with or curl up on couch with on cold nights.

She gracefully left a life which had given its final all and I am left with a void in my life and a broken heart that feels like it will never heal.

She lived 14 years.  She was accidentally rescued from a shelter at 2 years old by a friend who was there to pick up another dog.  Not able to pass up that sweet face, my friend inquired about this little girl.  This was the day she scheduled to be put down, classified an unattainable dog they said but she showed them all in the end.

She ran probably a thousand miles in play.  She touched a thousand hearts with her skill and playful spirit.  She trained thousands of dogs in class as my training assistant.  She probably had a thousand car rides.  She left this life having lived it a thousand ways every day.

Sleep well my love until we meet again!

Stop dog abuse!

by

Jeanne Perciaccanto

While doing research for an educational program, I came upon a series of stories and pictures about dogs that stood and still stand guard over their owners who have passed on.

We all remember this iconic picture of a fallen hero and the dedicated love of his dog.

The loyalty and dedicated theses dogs freely give as devotion in life does not seem to end once the physical connection ceases to exist.

We know our dogs willingly give their lives and confront dangers to keep us safe.  Dogs in service with the military and police forge head first to willingly take the bullet.  Search and rescue dogs courageously enter unstable and dangerous rubble with a driven desire to search for life buried beneath.  Stories from war are filled with the heroism and tireless bravery dogs performed to assist our soldiers in the heat of battle. 

The stories of dogs that stand guard over their deceased owners is the most telling aspect to the true nature of dog and man.  There are no visible ties, no received rewards, no safety nor comfort for them in their final role as that of loyal companion.

Our dogs appear to have made a silent pact with us.  “I will forever be your dog!”  They ask little to nothing in return for their devotion.  Food, water and some meaningful time is not a fair exchange for a life offered or forfeit of their lives for our safety.  This indelible bond is neither tangible nor substantive.  It exists because dogs exist. 

Our history of dogs indicates humans domesticated dogs for our needs in service and work.  I suspect we were the domesticated ones as dogs chose to assist us in our struggle to survive. 

However, we have cheated our dogs and broken that bond showing ourselves unworthy of the honor and dignity they bestow upon us every day.   Thousands of years spent breeding dogs for our purpose to now tell them they are not allowed to be what we have created.

Patiently they await our enlightenment as their daily lives become certain boredom.  Calmly they accept our ignorance as to who and what they truly are, in anticipation of the day when they can run free and are once again a part of the nature born in them. Virtuously they allow the same mistakes to play out in town after town as “no dogs allowed” signs mark their inevitable demise making their world smaller each day.

The most egregious indignity of all is the allowance of their mass slaughter.  We use the word humane to appease the inhumanity of our actions.  We offer no solution other than finger pointing and blame as these most devoted creatures slips from a life committed to the safety and protection of those whose final act is betrayal. “ I will forever be your dog” becomes “I am sorry for not being enough of what you wanted of me!” 

We give up when they never do.  We create the problem and when the dog becomes what we have created, we kill them out of laziness and single minded ideology.

No longer are we connected to the husbandry that created dog as mans’ best friend but rather forced to slip quietly into the world of politically correct nonsense void of any singular reference to the actual workings of the dogs’ mind.

We use words like welfare and rights as a badge of honor.  Words which have become synonymous with the death and destruction of a animal dedicated to our well-being.  Laws implemented to blindly destroy a dog for how it looks rear its ugly head.  Legal entanglements designed to steal dogs from their homes and render untimely deaths under the guise of compassion shows us for what we really are, ignorant of the value of the life we designed.  We have become dishonest with our own needs as dog owners.  No longer are dogs seen as a natural being but rather a mindless child incapable of anything other than tricks and costume modeling.

The single greatest source of animal abuse is from those politicians and organizations who most promote humane treatment of dogs by implementing laws whose main intent is putting more dogs into the raging holocaust.

Politicians fearing lawsuits against the town enact laws limiting the very outlets that help reduce dog problems.  They disregard common sense approaches for fear of liabilities such as recommending dog training as part of the licensing agreement.  Certainly kill the dog rather train it!  The institution of laws to stop training or training tools that actual produces result and replace with it what makes us emotionally feel good even if the dogs’ life is in the balance. 

As a plea bargain, towns build dog parks too small to accommodate the number of dogs attending, turning most into local fight arenas accompanied by clueless owners void of any idea of how read dog behavior or body language beyond what they learn on the internet or from a book. 

For thousands of years our dogs have brought solace, comfort, assistance and practical help into our daily lives.  They have watched over our young, our food stores, our flocks and our homes only to reach a point in history where their very existence has become so very fragile.  Our greatest form of compassion towards mans’ best friend is to proclaim the humane way in which we resolve our own incompetence through the mass slaughter of an animal whose sole purpose has been to protect and defend us.

Jeanne Perciaccanto Ultimate Dog Training www/ultimatedogtraining.com