Interlude - years without a dog

With Shana’s passing, the family consisted of Pam, Jenn, Alli, and me. As far as I was concerned, our family was complete. After all, doesn't everyone know that Mom, Dad, and two kids constitute the All American Family! Much to our surprise, and without our intentional cooperation, Pam conceived again and Daniel was born. Three years later, this time with our cooperation, Esther joined our merry band – talk about a full house! 

During those earlier years, from time to time the kids would say, “Dad, can we have a dog?” I  must be my mother's son, because I would say, “Don’t you think four kids are enough?” I’m the type of person who is a “100 percenter”. If I do something, I’m into it totally. But if I’m not in it, I’m not in it at all. When I had Thor, or Vanessa, or Shana Bana, I was into it all the way. But that was then, and this was now and no dogs meant no dogs!

Another example was that during my pre-daddy days, I took flying lessons and acquired my “private ticket”. I bought a new Piper Archer, a 4-place airplane, and then earned my instrument rating. Pam and I flew from Pennsylvania to places as far east as Hartford, Connecticut, as far south as Orlando, Florida, as far west as Chicago, Illinois and as far north as New York State. What a joy it was to fly – there was nothing like it. But after Jennifer was born, the costs associated with private pilot flying competed with the cost of child raising. No contest, Jenn won without anything in second place! I sold the plane and never piloted again. Did I miss it? Surprisingly no. Am I glad I learned to fly? Absolutely, one of the high points of my life! But when that season was over, I moved into other new fields of endeavor.

Once there were six of us filling the house, Pam and I felt led of the Lord, to Home School our kids. Both of us were involved; I taught math, science, and social studies and Pam taught everything else. She kept all the records, and did everything else moms and wives do – quite impressive. For those who are not familiar with Home Schooling, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Here are our results so far: Jennifer received both her Bachelors in Accounting and an MBA in Accounting simultaneously in four years, graduating with honors. She is currently a practicing CPA. Allison received a degree and a state license in Dental Hygiene also graduating with honors. Allison works in three individual dental offices. Daniel completed the Physician’s Assistant program and continued the Parks' tradition of graduating with honors. Daniel is employed as a P.A. in the Urge-Center at our local hospital. Esther received a degree in Health Information Technology, and, four for four, she also graduated with honors. Esther has moved south and is anticipating employment in Tennessee.

Obviously, we think that Home Schooling works! My point is not only to tout this particular approach, but to add, and this might offend some, that some of the same ideas, concepts, and practices that worked in the training and bringing up of dogs, worked with the training and bringing up of children and vice versa.

Now about that “light hearted” story. When Jenn was 13, and Alli was 11 we enrolled both of them in a local, 4-H Toastmasters class, a public speaking course. Daniel joined Pam and me in the “peanut gallery”, and he asked if he too could participate (none of our children suffers from shyness of any kind). Although Daniel detested giving memorized speeches, he was especially good at giving what were called “impromptu presentations”. These were topics that were assigned at the last moment. Daniel had always been quite engaging, and having the gift of gab, he was able to string words together attempting to convince any and all that he knew what he was talking about. During the awards dinner at the conclusion of the course, the two best students gave a prepared speech, Jenn was one of those two. Each of the other students gave an impromptu speech. Dan’s topic was “If you could have any pet, what would it be?” As a proud papa, I was convinced that Dan was going great guns until he shared that although he wanted a dog, he couldn’t have one because his dad had poisoned the previous dog. When Dan had finished, I had to make a short impromptu speech of my own to set the record straight!

That brings us up to the cold and dreary days of winter early in January of 2008. I was approaching the traditional retirement age, but was having such a blast in professional practice, that I was planning to continue to work for the foreseeable future. I was extremely fortunate that I only had to work three days a week and had four days off each week. It truly was a wonderful life. On the other hand, boredom never has worn well on me and I was always looking for a project or other “to do” activity.

During that time, I was watching TV. While channel surfing, I came upon a curious image of an English woman who had a totally unruly, lap-sized, mixed breed dog that would viciously growl and bite at her as she tried to put on the dog’s leash. The woman had to call her mum, who would come, walking from her own home nearby, and the two women would capture the dog in a bath towel so that the leash could be fastened and the dog taken outside. A professional trainer, who I later came to realize was Victoria Stillwell on the program It’s Me or the Dog, came to the house, and brought up the concept of “non-aversive” dog training. Since I found this whole scene to be ludicrous and a bit beyond belief, I surfed to something else, giving it little additional thought. Later, however I was able to bring it back to mind.

A week or two later I was again channel surfing and I saw a new face, at least a new face to me, a person I now know to be Cesar Millan. The interview was concluding, and the part that I saw was the final few seconds and all I got was Dog Whisperer, talking the dog’s language (whatever that might mean), and I saw Cesar form his hand into the shape of a claw and say “My fingers are the teeth and when I touch the dog’s neck it is like the mother correcting her pup with a bite.” Since I had enjoyed Robert Redford’s movie, The Horse Whisperer, I thought the entire concept of training a dog with a method other than with a collar and a leash to be intriguing indeed. I decided that perhaps some research on my part might be rewarding.  

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Shana - our third pooch

Several months after Vanessa moved to her fancy new digs, Pam and I moved into our first house. Our home was a small, Cape Cod style house in the “suburbs” of Williamsport. It had a fenced-in backyard and a postage sized lawn in front. Since I had previously owned a German Shepherd and a Doberman Pincher, this time we decided on a Weimaraner. They say that, “The third time is the charm” and this was true for us. Shana, who I often called Shana Bana, (I like rhymes) was perfect for us and she became a significant part of our family throughout her life. “Shana” is a Yiddish word for “pretty” and is often combined with the word “punum” meaning “face” and is used in relating to the pretty face of a baby. When we saw our pup for the first time, she had such a pretty face that “Shana punum” came immediately to mind and Shana became Shana!

               Even though Shana is older than a young pup in this picture,                    you can see that she has a "Shana punum"

Two sleeping beauties! One of them is only 10 weeks old!

Awake at last

It was early in 1977 when Shana joined our family and the training style and techniques in vogue at that time were choke chain collar and leash. Over the months, Shana and I became an obedience team, and she was integrating into a loving member of our family. 

One of my favorite Shana Bana puppy pictures

10 weeks old

12 weeks old

6 1/2 months old

One weekend, Pam, Shana, and I attended a seminar at Winifred Strickland’s facility in Delaware. At the time, Winifred Strickland was acknowledged to be one of the premier dog obedience trainers in the country. The weekend was a great experience. Shana (and all the other dogs in attendance) learned to swim in the Strickland’s large pond. At one point, the Strickland’s house doors were opened and a pack of German Shepherd dogs came joyously bounding out. These were magnificent creatures. One way the Stricklands exercised their dogs was to throw retrieving dummies, which looked like boat docking bumpers, into the pond and the dogs would race to get them. I noticed that as the dogs were swimming, as soon as it was evident that one dog was in the lead and would be the “winner” the other dogs would turn back to shore terminating any further competition. Glorious!

There was also a wooden dock that went out, into the pond, and at the far end was a high dive platform with a hand over hand vertical ladder. One of the Strickland’s dogs would climb the ladder and leap off the platform. If I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't have thought it possible for a dog to climb a vertical ladder. And when it come to jumping off a high platform, I wouldn’t do that, but then again, I’m not a dog!

A year later we purchased a 169 acre farm (70 acres in fields and the balance in timber) and Shana was in doggie bliss. I became a Gentleman Farmer and Pam said that her city boy was becoming “countrified”. To some degree I think that she was right. Shana had the run of the place – the nearest road – a country road, was more than half mile from the house. I doubt that Shana ever left the property, staying mostly close to the house except for those times when she got skunked or came back smelling of putrid death. 

Shana sporting a Christmas bow

We did put in a vegetable garden, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, green beans, zucchinis and the like. One day Shana was in the garden and I noticed that all of my green peppers were gone. I never knew dogs liked vegetables. Maybe the actual perpetrator was a groundhog, ha, ha. More work for “farmer” Dave. Metal stakes and wire fencing solved that problem.

After five years on the farm, Pam and I received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Too long a story to tell here, but He changed our hearts and minds regarding having children and Pam conceived within six weeks. Nine months later the first of our four children was born. Shana accepted Jennifer totally and we did not have a single glitch, not even two years later when Allison came along. 

What a wonderful friend

At this point, Shana was more than 8 years old. One day, as Shana and I walked out of the house, she walked smack into the side of Pam’s parked car. I noticed that the car had been parked several feet back of its typical location and I suspected that Shana’s vision was compromised. A quick trip to the vet revealed that Shana had suddenly gone blind. The vet reassured me that blind dogs could do just fine with just a bit of help from their owners. So we proceeded on that basis. Several weeks later, while Allison was crawling on the carpet in the family room, Shana squatted and peed on the carpet, something she hadn’t ever done since puppy-hood. Our choices were limited. We couldn’t co-mingle a crawling infant and an incontinent dog. Since Shana had always been an inside dog, I felt it was totally inappropriate to relegate her to become an outside dog. Those circumstances and being blind became too high a mountain to climb. With great reluctance and sorrow, I brought her to the vet’s to be put to sleep. He asked me if I wanted to drop her off, and I said no, that I would hold her until the end. As the killing injection circulated, I could feel her muscles loose tone and her life force quickly ebb away. It was an awful experience. There is no “good” way to say “Good bye” to such a wonderful friend, but emotional trauma is still evident as I write these words. I do not know for sure what caused Shana’s sudden blindness and lack of urinary control, but I suspect that Shana may have been “poisoned” from the application of a lawn chemical by our landscaper. There is a lighthearted followup to this story, but it must wait until the next post. 

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Vanessa - our second pooch

Well over a decade elapsed after Thor and I parted company. During that interval, I completed my final two years of college, four years of dental school, two years service in the U.S. Navy, and two years specialty training in Periodontics. In the spring of 1976, my bride, Pam and I moved to Williamsport, Pennsylvania and set up our Periodontics dental practice. 

When I tell people where I live, the blank, expressionless response I get stimulates me to add that Williamsport is the home of the Little League World Series. That stimulates most peoples’ faces to register some recognition. Williamsport is classified as a third class city, which I suppose is a step above being a no-class city. The population as of the 2010 census was about 31,000. I have concluded that Williamsport truly is a Little League town! Each year, towards the end of August, however, the population of Williamsport multiplies six or seven fold as it hosts the Little League World Series.

Having the preconceived notion to be a forever childless couple, Pam and I decided to get a pup. Since Golden retrievers were at the top of our list, we visited a highly regarded local breeder and were absolutely taken with her dogs. On the other hand, both of us were concerned about the long, golden coat hair constantly appearing on our business attire. We began to look at shorter hair breeds and the look and intelligence of Doberman Pinchers ultimately won us over.

photo credit

During that time, we became friends with an older couple, also childless, who were well connected to dogs, the dog community, and Doberman Pinchers in particular. At that time, they had two dobies in their pack and that number increased during the time we were friends. We located a beautiful pup, learned about crate training, and were introduced to the local “dog people”. Some of these folks were primarily breed oriented, some were primarily obedience oriented, and some were both. I was interested in obedience training.

We named our pup Vanessa, she was red, and we fell in love with her. 

We began to socialize her both with people and other dogs. Everything was progressing nicely when a few months later I noticed that Vanessa was becoming increasingly fearful of strangers and noticeably skittish. This caught me by surprise, as I could not discern anything in Vanessa’s experience that would have caused this behavior. Now, from my current, more knowledgeable perspective, perhaps Vanessa was just going through the second developmental fear period, which manifests itself at about four months of age. Even if this was the explanation, I did not know that at the time. Because her behavior was quite dramatic, my concern was that we might have a fear-biter in the making. We talked it over with our friends, the couple with the two-pack, and the four of us came to the decision that the best course of action was to give Vanessa to them. Notice I did not say “sell”, I said “give,” so there was no profit motive, at least not on our part. Our hope was that Vanessa could be raised to fulfill her best potential even though it left a hole in our hearts. There were several reasons that I was optimistic that this would all work out for the best.

First, the wife of this “mature” couple was not employed and she spent almost all of her time with her dogs. They were her “kids” and she was absolutely devoted to them. Secondly, their living environment was better than ours for both dog and man. At that time, we were still living in a two-bedroom, walk up apartment, whereas they lived in a beautiful country home that they had designed with dogs in mind, and it was surrounded by a acres of beautiful countryside. Talk about a dog’s life! Although Vanessa remained shy, which I now conclude was her genetic predisposition, her skittishness did abate and they did show her in breed competition. 

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