by Roberrific

Created on: March 01, 2007   Last Updated: April 30, 2007

My Grandpa always used to say that Man is a dog's idea of what God should be. (Holbrook Jackson) and although the wise old man never owned a dog he sure knew a lot about them.

Take for example the time his neighbors bought a Collie. This dog looked like lassie. It was a sheep dog and had herding instincts. When it chased its first car as a puppy it was laughed at and thereby encouraged. With age it grew into a car chasing fanatic. It was a tire biting monster!

The family tried everything. They would stop traffic to introduce the dog to each friendly automobile. In this way they hoped to eliminate the perceived threat in the dog's mind. But it didn't work. He would chase the same car the next day.

So they tried acting the opposite way - They would run away from the cars and act scared to encourage the dog to remain at home and protect them. But that didn't work either.

Finally Grandpa couldn't take it anymore. He walked over one day and attached a stick to the dog's collar on a short piece of string. The stick was positioned at knee level and was fixed to knock against the dog's front legs when it ran. And that Collie finally got the message. The stick has long since been removed, yet the dog still walks slowly and carefully outside the house and completely IGNORES passing cars.

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