Elliot
Elliot our Mini Schnauzer and the man in the house
One of the first few words Alexia spoke (apart from Mamma, Dadda and the usual) was “hondjie” and so the begging and pleading started to get a puppy…
I heroically resisted this onslaught until I felt that she was old enough to take responsibility for a dog’s well being.
Then the hard part, which type of dog will be suitable for us?
I had a German Shepherd to share my childhood with and it is a memory that I treasure till this day.. He has been gone for 20 years now and I still get emotional thinking about him. Purely for that reason I will never get another one because no dog will ever live up to the memory of what we had together (time and youth equals rose tinted glasses 🙂
I wanted to give Alexia the same magical connection that can only exist between a child and their dog. As she is an only child this dog will have various roles to fulfil – best friend, brother, playmate and protector. This was quite a tall order!
To make a very long story short, a friend of mine took in a rescue schnauzer and over a cup of coffee I fell head over heels in love with this awkward looking, bearded lady called Lily. I have never even seen a schnauzer, new nothing of the breed but the personality I glimpsed that fateful afternoon sent me into a flurry of research. The more I learnt the more I was convinced that this is the dog I’ve been looking for and about a year later when Alexia turned 7 I brought Elliot home.
And O! the joy.. I do not think that I will ever be able to top that moment for my child. The wonder and love that this scruffy, fluffy being has brought to both our lives cannot be explained to someone that has never experienced a dog’s love and devotion.
Once the initial euphoria wore off and reality set in, I was like a new mother worrying about food, toys, potty (house) training, shots and off course education 🙂
And that lead me straight to SADTC (thank goodness) and as I never trained a dog before it was literally the blind leading the blind in this case, both myself and Elliot were equally clueless.
Training me proved to be the more difficult part of the arrangement! Elliot quickly figured out that if he can decipher what the big, bearded man talking in a squeaky voice wants, he gets some really premium treats as reward… and so Chris instilled the philosophy in Elliot of “I work for food”. Chris, with the patience of Job and an endless supply of love for his furry charges proceeded to lead us through the growing pains of not only basic commands but also how to socialise safely among a hundred other things.
Getting on board with the program I bribed Elliot through his puppy classes, proceeded to Sandra’s class (in the big open space outside the safety of the fence:), survived Keith’s super energetic classes, had a super chilled run in Mark’s class, enjoyed the dignified wisdom Oom Johan imparted on us, moved on to John’s classes that was a joy every Saturday and now we are full circle back in Sandra’s class which feels like coming home. It is only now that I’m writing this that I grasp the long way that we have come.
And all throughout we were encouraged and guided (me), given treats and scratches (Elliot) and generally just being absorbed into a feeling of community where we are regular fools and shining stars all in one day.. and even being the “mini” in his class filled with big dogs we feel like we belong and can achieve more than what I could comprehend when we started this journey.
Elliot has an abundance of love that he will lavish on anyone in close proximity but most of all he has that mad love a dog has for his human – Alexia. I was lucky enough to get the perfect breed for myself and Alexia, but I have all the instructors at SADTC to thank for the well adjusted, sociable and confident little boy he is today. I’m loving the journey that we are on at the moment and cannot wait to see what this year has in store for us!