BY FRAN JEWELL
In the midst of the holidays, I thought it might be fun to share a holiday “tail” with everyone instead of just plain old dog training. I was reminded of a story while talking to my daughter this week about holiday plans with my grandson over Christmas.
Way back when, I was a single mother with my daughter, Jessica. In order to have a Christmas tree, I always bought a pass from the Forest Service for $5 so we could make a traditional family outing of going out into the woods and cutting down our own tree. We went every Thanksgiving weekend and it became a steadfast tradition.
We had two dogs then—Tazzi, who was my air-scent search and rescue dog. She was also my daughter’s 4-H dog and obedience dog. Taz was a Delta Society-certified pet therapy dog that accompanied me to the Blaine County nursing home many years ago.
The second dog was Hattie. Hattie was my first German shepherd and a rescue herself. I got her at 8 months old. She, too, was a 4-H dog; she did junior showmanship with Jessica in AKC, obedience trials and air-scent search and rescue. Hattie was featured in Elise Lufkin’s book, “Second Chances.”
Every year, from the time Tazzi was very young and my daughter was about 12, we would take her with us to get the tree. I had a sled-dog harness for Taz, since I also did skijoring with her. We would put the harness on and let her pull the tree out of the woods back to the car. Tazzi loved this outing and apparently remembered what to do every winter.
As Taz got older, and we then got Hattie, I thought it would be wise to let Hattie pull the tree out of the wood since Taz had pretty severe arthritis in her knees. Tazzi, however, had other plans. After we had Hattie all harnessed up and started to head down the ski tracks back to the car, Tazzi stopped Hattie, stood in front of her, barking and barking at her. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what this was about. Then it dawned on me that Tazzi was not going to let Hattie take over HER job to drag that tree back to the car! So, off came the harness from Hattie. I got Tazzi all harnessed up and began down the trail. Tazzi’s tail wagged the whole way back to the car. I, however, held the top of the Christmas tree to make it lighter so Taz didn’t have a very heavy load to haul!
It was hard to imagine that such a simple task, from year to year, could become so meaningful for a dog. However, it is testimony to the loyalty and dedication that our dear, loving companions have. I hope everyone has a grand, warm, loving holiday. P.S., don’t forget the dog!
Fran Jewell is an Idaho Press Club award-winning columnist, IAABC-certified dog behavior consultant, NADOI-certified instructor #1096 and the owner of Positive Puppy Dog Training, LLC, in Sun Valley. For more information, visit positivepuppy.com or call (208) 578-1565.