“Wonder Dog”

In the on-going saga of our Great Dane, “Finn”, whom I affectionately call “Big Dog,” as he is so big, I feel it is my duty to provide another chapter of his on-going very event-filled life.  Last episode, I shared the sadness of his heart condition.  Today, I tell a much better report, as the cardiologist, whom Finn affectionately licked in her face before his echo cardiogram, reported he is no longer in congestive heart failure.  Having lungs cleared of fluid has brought “Finn” a new lease on life.  Today, Dorothy and I witnessed for ourselves what Finn can do when he is feeling like himself again.

The menagerie of animals in our life consists of three dogs and two cats.  The original dog is the Corgi, called “Buddy.”  He recognizes “Corgi,” which I what I call him, as well.  Our second dog is “Petunia.”  She is a Boykin Spaniel, whom I call “Crazy Dog,” since she does crazy things and is somewhat of a nervous temperament.  Upon Hannah’s recommendation from Vet School, we now occasionally use a Benadryl tablet with her for the calming effect.  If fact, we had to use one this afternoon, after the incident I am about to relate.  Our third dog is “Finn,” about whom you already know.  What you don’t know is that Petunia has taught Finn some very bad habits.  (Our two cats “Umlaut” and “Albus” did not participate in this story).

First, Petunia has taught Finn how to bite through stuffed animals, as she shreds every one she touches.  Finn only occasionally does this, but we now purchase only those stuffed animals on the “clearance sale,” often two for $5.00 since they don’t last as long as they used to last.  Second, Petunia has taught Finn how to kill a live duck, not that we have live ducks.  The Boykin Spaniel is trained to retrieve ducks for duck hunters.  Since there are no duck hunters in this home, she will retrieve whatever is thrown down the way.  To kill a wounded duck before presenting the prize to the duck hunter, a good Boykin Spaniel will shake the duck from side to side in her mouth back and forth to break the duck’s neck and facilitate its early demise.  In hunting parlance, this reduces the time the duck will suffer, so the duck hunter does not need to do the deed himself.

I don’t know if you have ever witnessed a Boykin Spaniel attempting to kill a stuff animal.  It takes vigorous shaking to kill something that is already dead.  Normally, by the end of this episode, the stuffed animal has lost all its stuffing and if it were not dead already, now it is “truly dead.”  Our Great Dane, Finn, has observed this behavior and has learned how to shake his head back and forth producing a centrifugal force which is much greater than the Boykin can even imagine.  Since Finn’s toys are longer and fuller in size and dimension he can produce quite a brilliant shaking episode.  He does not normally destroy his toys, and is not aware of why he is shaking them, except this is what Petunia taught him how to do.

Now, on to my story.  This afternoon, Dorothy and I arrived home after our lunch.  I was about 200 p.m. and when we opened the front door of the house, we heard an excited, repetitive and rapid barking from Petunia.  She was in the back yard and the excited barking came from under the back porch, where our dogs sometimes repose for the benefit of its shade.  Dorothy went out and immediately put Finn inside the house.  I remained for a minute to place things from my pocket onto my desk and went to the back door listening.  Finn was in a lather, groaning at me to let him outside.  Outside is where all the excitement is occurring, so he did not wish to miss it.

As I went out the back door, Finn went out with me.  The Corgi also came out, as he had been inside due to the excessive heat.  As I emerged on the porch, Petunia stopped barking, ran up to me and then went immediately back under the porch.  I thought I heard something growl, but it must have been her, as she emerged suddenly carrying a three foot long black snake.  She had it grasped in the middle with the snake evenly balanced in her mouth.  She ran to the yard on the east side of the pool and promptly began swinging the snake back and forth in a circular motion to kill it.  She was not successful and dropped the snake on the ground.  By this time, Finn was beside her and immediately he picked the snake to steal it from her and had it by the tail.  Finn began to rapidly rotate his head back and forth and soon had the snake, all three foot of it, swinging in the air, producing a great amount of centrifugal force.  In fact, I am truly surprised the snake’s head did not pop off.

Petunia’s method of grabbing the snake in its middle lessens the change of it biting her.  Finn’s technique was not as sophisticated but was equally effective.  I began to laugh, as I have never seen a Great Dane exhibit this type of behavior.  I do not think this is instinctive.  I went to obtain a hoe from our garage to grab the snake and returned with it shortly.  Dorothy was giving me instructions that I should do something.  I asked her to call Finn so I could get close to the snake.  She did so, but then ran away from the snake and the dog when Finn came with it.  Dorothy detests snakes.  So I attempted to get close enough to Finn to retrieve the poor snake, who is still alive.

Finn ran away from me each time I go close, dropping the snake on the ground, only to retrieve it again and run off as soon I got close to him.  He considered this a great game, running around the yard carrying his prize.  Once he attempted to swallow the snake from its tail, but Dorothy and I rebuked him loudly and he stopped.  About the fourth or fifth attempt at cornering the dog, Dorothy approached on one side and I approached the other.  Finn was distracted by Dorothy for just a few seconds, just long enough for me to secure the snake in the middle with my hoe.  I began to carry the snake balanced on the hoe to place it on the other side of our fence.

The snake was damaged from generous dog bites and one part of its intestine was hanging out, but it was still alive, so I did not kill it, hoping it might survive.  Black snakes are really good creatures to have around for eating mice and poisonous snakes, so I never kill one of these.  I held the snake high as both Finn and Petunia were following me waiting to grab it again.  Keeping the snake about 8 foot off the ground kept dogs from obtaining their prize again.  The snake looked rather bruised, but seemed to know I was not a threat and hung loosely on the hoe flicking its tongue until I placed it over the fence.

Petunia was still highly excited, and required a trip inside the house to receive a dose of Benadryl, as she was panting so hard I felt she might have a heart attack from all the excitement.  Finn was simply bemused and immediately when inside went over and found his favorite stuffed toy, which is a large fat snake about three foot long.  Considering this now, perhaps Dorothy and I share some complicity in this story, but I still feel Petunia is primarily at fault.

Petunia corners everything that moves in the yard.  She identifies, tracks and consumes lizards, frogs, small snakes, birds and squirrels if she can catch them.  This black snake, God bless him or her, simply entered this yard looking for shade under our porch.  He or she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Our “crazy dog” who has wonderful instincts for hunting and our “wonder dog” who learns quickly to imitate almost any behavior, good or bad, had a lot of excitement today!

My daughter, Hannah, asked me to write up this story, so she could remember it.  So in her honor and in honor of the fact she is at Vet School in Sydney, Australia, unable to witness this event, I write this for her, for Dorothy and for me.  I cannot say I ever imagined to witness such an unusual behavior from Finn, our Great Dane.  Perhaps this head shaking is part of his own instincts, as Great Danes, I am informed, hunted bears in Europe.  Is the shaking of the head to kill a snake part of their normal instinctual behavior?  Or is this simply a learned behavior, conscripted from a hunting breed?  Perhaps some who owns a Great Dane can comment on this story.   I regret we have no video to prove this event for further analysis.  But as God is my witness and Dorothy, this event occurred as I have related it.

So now, “Finn” has a new name.  He is christened “Wonder Dog!”  I shall surely be wondering what he can learn to do next!  And by the by, the Corgi did not participate at all.  He is the most sensible dog we have and in his older age has become wise enough to know when to leave well enough alone.

Bill Wilson, for Dorothy and Hannah