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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