Has your dog ever asked you for a butterscotch?

Has your dog ever asked you for a butterscotch? 

I have a service dog (Scrappy) who has become the mascot and relief comic for Onyx Xteriors.  No, he is not a salesman, by any means.  But he does alert everyone when a customer arrives or the phone rings and no one else hears it.  He even picks up things when people drop them and gives it back to them.

At the beginning of his distraction training, we went to Bass Pro Pyramid.  Around the stuffed animals and even over the ponds, he was not interested in bothering anything.  He did very well not sniffing everything.  He did not even walk up to anyone to beg for petting.  And tried to stay calm as every employee wanted to pet him.  But…  The wooden bridge pathways would move slightly as you walk over them.  After 2 short bridges, the longer one moved more than he wanted it to.  We made it a few steps in and he began to slow down.  Maybe he wanted to look at something.  Instead he moved to the center of the bridge and as we reached the middle of the bridge he stopped and refused to go any farther.  When I tried to coerce  him to follow, he laid down flat and gripped the bridge with all four paws spread.  He was even trying to grip the bridge with his chin.  He was genuinely scared.  Needless to say, I had to drag him off the bridge which took a few minutes.   

A few days later, I took him to Tishomingo State Park where I figured he would have a problem with the swinging bridge.  We reached the top, center of the bridge and he was just standing there happy.  So to check his fear, I began to swing the bridge.  He still stood happy like nothing was moving.  We continued our walk with no issues until he saw a squirrel.  He took off running.  He had enough speed to climb a little ways up the tree the squirrel went up.  Then the end of his leash got him and back to earth he came.

A few months ago, he was out back of the shop and then came tromping in so proud of himself.  A huge gray ball of fuzz was in hi mouth.  I calmly walked him back outside and asked him to put the fur ball down.  Glad I did.  It was a young squirrel he had caught without any damage to the himself or the squirrel.  It did take much time for the squirrel to jump up and leave.  I am still trying to figure out how he actually caught a squirrel and would not have given much more thought if he had not done it again.  And again, the squirrel was not damaged.  

On a walk at a park, there was a train track right beside the walking path.  After several rounds on the walking track, I heard a train in the distance.  He kept walking as if it were just a car.  Then, the train had come right up behind us and laid loud on his horn.  Scrappy took off as fast as he has ever run forgetting his leash is only 16 foot.  Once at the end, he flipped up in the air and landed on his back.  He then rolled over to sit until I got to him and refused to get up until the train passed.  Then he was back to his regular self.  Now trains don’t bother him.

We keep a few dog treats on hand for him, but he eats human food for breakfast and supper.  There is a very small cat treat called Temptations in a canister. When he hears the canister open, he comes running and sits right at your feet.  If you get out just one of these treats (about the size of one piece of cat food), his eyes open as wide as moons and he stares right at the treat.  He will do anything for that one morsel.  He even acts like he is waiting on his crack cocaine.  Any new things people want him to do around the shop only takes about 2 hours of training with these treats.  Sorry, not treats, coke.

The other day, Sam was working on a gable vent on his table.  He had been standing there a while.  Scrappy had gone to lay down beside his feet and had dozed off.  Sam accidentally stepped on Scrappy’s tail and both of them jumped.  Sam apologized and petted Scrappy to let him know it was an accident.  Later that day, Scrappy was back at Sam’s table where he was finally on another gable vent.  Sam dropped his utility knife on the floor.  Scrappy quickly tried to grab the knife as Sam bent over to get it.  Both heads met and both Scrappy and Sam fell back as if they hit a brick wall.  They were both alright but I could not stop laughing.  The two of them cuddling on the floor for a few minutes trying to make sense of it.

Now, poor Scrappy has yet to learn what a fart is.  You may think of him sniffing other butts or even human derrieres.  Not him.  This is a habit he never got into.  After eating something that gives him gas, most dogs would lay down until their stomach settled.  But not him.  He will begin to sit down and then you hear the faint sound of the fart as his rear touches the floor.  As soon as he hears it, he jumps up and starts chasing his tail as if it were to blame.  Then he will look around at everything else that might be to blame and walk for a few minutes.  But as he finally feels safe enough to sit again and his rear begins to touch the floor, he farts again and up he jumps, still trying to figure out where the sound came from and what attacked his butt.

Walking him down by the river, he loves walking out into the water on the boat ramp concrete.  He was getting more and more confident of deeper water and then a fish swam up and touched his leg.  He quickly flopped out of the water himself.  He finally gets used to the fish and even tries to catch them sometimes.  But he also found that when the water is down, the concrete does not go as far.  He trots out pretty fast and at the end of the concrete, plop.  He falls in over his head.  It only took a second for him to get turned around and get back in. He now checks each step before taking it.

Dogs love car rides, right?  I usually let Scrappy ride up front with me, but when my mom or dad rides with me, he goes in the back seat.  After several trips of him riding in the back I figured he was more comfortable with more room.  So, I was letting him ride in the back all the time until the other day.  I opened the side door and he just sat on the pavement and started looking around.  No mom with us.  I asked him a few times to get in.  He acted like he did not hear me.  I even tried pushing him in and he was determined he was not getting in.  So, out of curiosity, I walked him around and opened the passenger door.  I did not even have to tell him to get in.  So, no mom equals he is riding in the front.  Testing this theory, he will only get in the front of my truck and my van unless my mom is coming.  Then he allows her to have the front seat.  But he still looks at my dad before allowing him to ride in the front.

Walking through Rural King (hunting, fishing, farming store), he did not care there was baby chicks on the floor.  He showed me where other dogs had used the bathroom inside with a sad face, as this is something he would never do.  He did not even care about all the good smelling dog treats except he asked for a pig ear.  Since he asked politely, I got a few for him for later.  But, as we walked over to the hunting section, there were several stuffed animals.  Now, he had seen many stuffed animals in other stores without issue.  And he had no issue with any of these, except a male turkey with his head slightly tilted and wings spread as if he were about to pounce off the top shelf right onto us.  Scrappy is a lab ridge back mix.  The hair on his back stood up and turned red.  He was ready to attack the turkey if it came down.  The rep at the counter and I stood there talking and laughing as Scrappy had his full attention on the turkey.  He was grumbling his low growl and poised ready to pounce on this bird if it made one wrong move.  After a few minutes of the standoff, he decided to make it move by barking.  The turkey stood still frozen in time.  He decided to stand on his rear feet and bark low (more of a curiosity bark).  Still no movement out of the turkey.  Finally he sat down, but never taking his eyes off the foul fowl.  We finished our conversation and as I stepped to the side, Scrappy quickly took his defensive stance again against the bird and I was not allowed to get closer to it.  So I walked away.

I have 3 grand daughters ages 1, 3 and 4.  The one year old will stand and watch the other two before deciding what she wants to do.  She is a thinker.  Visiting, the older two take off chasing Scrappy, then they turn and Scrappy chases them.  The chase ended up in a circle around the room with the 1 year old sitting in the middle.  She watches for a few minutes and decides to join in.  She stands up and instead of following her sisters, begins turning in place in circles.  Her version was to make her circles very small while they circled her towards the outside of the room.  Later, the little one decided to hide under a box.  She sat down and slid the box over her.  The older two tried holding the box down, but Scrappy knew she should not be in a box and lifted the box off of her.  After watching the girls push and drag each other across the floor in the box, Scrappy joined in.  He was actually dragging the box with the girls in it.  

But back to the beginning…  Has your dog ever asked you for a butterscotch?  Yes my dog has.  I keep a stash in my desk to cut down on smoking.  He found them but did not get into them.  He nudged the bag with his nose and looked up at me with those sad, questioning eyes.  As soon as I picked up the bag, he licked his lips.  I thought it would bee too sweet and he would not like it.  Nope.  He took it and sucked on it like a human.  Most dogs would have swallowed or chewed it up.  Now, about twice a day, he wants a butterscotch.

I will be adding to this story as Scrappy articulates more hilarious stories around the Onyx Xteriors shop.  Dogs are like kids.  They all deserve love.