When Is The Time Right?

11/3/07

I recently was contacted by TMZ, asking for a comment on a
celebrity dog adoption news story. It got me thinking more
about the human/animal bond and the adoption process. 
I want to talk about the importance of that bond first.
 
You have to understand the way I was brought up. Being
around dogs and taking care of them was our way of life. My
half-brother and my sister and I were all born into this mix
of family lifestyle and professional business atmosphere. All
I knew from the earliest years of my life was that dogs were
the best teachers I ever had. My experience was the same
with just about every person I’ve ever met and talked with.
 
A child – boy or girl – learns all the positive values there
are in life from a pet dog: empathy, respect, loyalty, love,
responsibility, and companionship. Your parents and
school teachers can try to instill these qualities in you,
and you may learn from your friends or from
institutions such as the Scouts or athletic team
participation. But at the most basic one-on-one level,
children and dogs together accomplish something
spontaneous and innocent that serves a whole lifetime.
 
Note that I use the term “child”, not youth, not
teenager, not adolescent. I make that differentiation
because one of the issues of the celebrity dog adoption
story involved the regulation set by this particular
rescue organization that it would not allow a family with
children under 14 to adopt a dog. 14! Let’s stop to think
about the average 14 year old. He or she doesn’t have
the free time of a younger child, the time needed to
bond with a dog and make it your best friend.
 
At 14, most teens are well into puberty with their
interests on sports, techno-toys, fashion, the opposite
sex – not to mention the load of homework that middle
school and high school demands and easily takes
precedence over a new dog in the house. Sure, some
14 year olds make the time and take the time; a dog
isn’t just a novelty. But for many 14 year olds, the
influence that a relationship with a dog can have is far
less meaningful if your time is already occupied with
school, extracurricular activities, and social friendships.
 
Before you think I’m totally one-sided on this point, let
me also say that very young children and some very
small breeds of dogs as well as certain dominant canine
personalities aren’t a good combination. I always
recommend that people take the time to study the
various breeds as well as spending time with mixed
breeds.
 
It’s a win/win situation for the dog entering a home and
the family welcoming the dog when you don’t act on
impulse because a puppy is cute or a dog has such a sad
expression or the one spinning in circles makes you
laugh. Those aren’t good reasons to obtain a dog. The
life long commitment you make to a dog must be made
with intelligence and wisdom as well as sympathy and
a desire to do a good deed. 
 
It’s hard to turn away from a dog, knowing it needs a
home. So I acknowledge the organizations that must
set rules and procedures and criteria for placing needy
dogs into good homes. Somebody has to be thinking
logically and for the successful outcome of the purchase
or adoption. Rules are important for the safety of the
dog as well as the safety of mhuman family members.
 
But I do disagree with an inflexible policy of no
adoptions into homes with children in elementary
school or younger.  More important is matching the
right type of dog to the family with young children.
That can be done by these same organizations
working with adopting families. Isn’t it a matter of
common sense to create an environment where the
responsible parent is involved with the bonding process?
The temperament and size of the dog is key along with the
prior experience the family
has had with dogs plus the age of any children in the family.
 
Isn’t it common sense  to create an environment where a
child learns valuable lessons of character that will carry all
through life? What better way than with the right dog for
that child who is capable of learning and ready to
demonstrate tender loving care? I can’t imagine waiting
until I was 14 to have my first encounter with a dog.
 
I think back again to when I was a child. Not only in my
own life but just about every book I read and certainly just
about every movie I saw had a boy and a dog or a girl and a
 dog in it. Just think about “Lassie Come Home”!
One reason it was such a success as a short story, novel,
and movie was because the whole family could identify with
the enduring love between a child and a faithful dog.
 
I also remember John Wayne. The first professional dog
training job I had on my own, not working for or with my
dad, was for a John Wayne movie entitled “Big Jake”. My
dad also worked with him on “Hondo”.  Everyone knows
that his preference was to be called “Duke”.  It was a
nickname he had from childhood on. His family’s dog was an
Airedale terrier named “Duke”. The dog and young John
went everywhere together in their small town of
Glendale, California. All the locals who knew the family
starting calling John “Big Duke” and the dog “Little Duke”.
The nickname stuck, and John Wayne kept it for life in
honor of his childhood best friend. Now that’s the positive
power of the human/animal bond.
 
As I knew “Duke” in the entertainment industry, I found
him to be a man of integrity and honesty, very
straightforward. I have to attribute his character in part
to his relationship with “Little Duke” and the influence the
dog had on his life. What kind of man might he have been
had he never had a dog or been around one until he was 14?
I doubt he would have been the screen idol we all looked up
to. That close boyhood relationship with his canine pal could
have been just that thing that gave him his ability to portray
heroic characters.
 
Not too long ago, I saw a survey about prison statistics.
According to this survey, 80% of inmates never had a dog
as a child. The bond between a child and a dog creates an
impact unlike any other. One of the most successful prison
programs for rehabilitation has been the kind that allows
inmates to care for and be responsible for a dog. For the first
time in their lives, they discover the goodness in themselves,
the ability to empathize, to think beyond their own needs.
They grow and improve as human beings. It’s an amazing
process to see the change.
 
When I was growing up in the 1940s and ’50s, all my friends
had dogs. I believe children should be exposed to dogs at an
early age. It gives us humans the tools to grow up right.
It sure taught me right from wrong.
 
I’ll end this blog with a little story about “Pal” – the first
“Lassie” – and me. I was about five years old and got it in
my mind that pine cones would make an ideal missile to
throw at the dog. As usual Pal was in the yard, baby-sitting
me. I didn’t have a clue that my father was in the house,
watching us. There I was, aiming to hit the dog and
probably managed to get him a couple of times. Pal gave
me a moment to figure out that what I was doing wasn’t
the smartest thing in the world. When I didn’t come to my
senses, he came straight at me, knocked me down, and
snarled just enough to make me stop and think. My dad
came out of the house and looked down at me, sprawled on
the ground. He said, “I knew the dog would teach you a
lessen when he got tired of you.” Dad didn’t have to
discipline me; Pal had taught me all I needed to know and
remember. I never threw anything at any animal ever again.

Tags: Bob and Laddie, Bob Weatherwax, Dog Rescue, Laddie Son Of Lassie, Lassie, Lassie Name, Pet Adoption, Pet Rescue, Rudd Weatherwax