Jewels

Many of the dogs that come to us have murky bloodlines. Most of the time we take a look and make our best guess based on traits we think we see. This is how Jewels go labeled a Lab/St Bernard mix.

When I first saw Jewels you could see where the St Bernard guess had come from. The coloring, especially the black around the eyes looked very Saintly. I expected her to be bigger than she was. At 9 months old she still probably has some growth left in her but not too much gain in height, Jewels was the size of a small lab.

Carol has been a volunteer with the Humane Society for many years. She's put together an amazing set up where each dog has their own run complete with a covered space that includes a heated dog igloo in winter and a box fan in the summer. Carol has also provided old furniture for each dog to lay (and sometimes chew) on. The dogs are happy, warm and dry. For the last several years Carol has also been the "Puppy Lady", she's the expert on taking in pregnant dogs, or young puppies. The one thing Carol is not totally comfortable with is bigger dogs. Retired and living alone and somewhat isolated Carol doesn't want to get knocked down and banged up, and who can blame her?

For the last 25 years I've had big, giant, humongous dogs. The list includes 2 Newfoundlands, a St Bernard and a Great Dane. When we got our first giant dog, a Newfoundland, the breeder very strongly told us. "This dog is going to outweigh you, you cannot let him win an argument or get away with misbehaving even once. You must ALWAYS win every dispute". I took this to heart and have applied it ever since that day. I love big dogs and have no problem being the boss. I think this is actually a testament to how dang stubborn I am over me being a great dog trainer.

Jewels came to me because she was a larger dog and from the beginning she fit right in. By the time we were halfway home on the drive back she had her head resting on the console between the 2 front seats and was snoring loudly. She made herself at home in the house too, climbing right up on the sofa and going back to sleep. Jewels only fault was she did not like to be alone. She would began barking and not quit until you returned. I was between 9-5 gigs at the time so this worked out well for both of us. She liked to try to get the ball when I tossed it but OCD Lola was just a couple of steps faster and usually won.

By now my older daughter Sierra (now 19) was home from college for the summer. Sierra immediately begin a campaign to have us keep Jewels who had begun sleeping with Sierra on her bed. I understood the feeling, Jewels was a very sweet lovable dog but I tried to explain to Sierra that's not what we signed up to do. Our job is to find forever homes for these dogs and that way they're in a great place and we get new dogs.