Cheechen

 

In life there are dogs and then there are DOGS

Cheechen was a BIGGER THAN LIFE dog.
We got him from a neighbor whose golden Spaniel had pups.
Cheechen had a twin brother with the exact same colorings , except he was darker.

It was hard to decide which pup to take. I would have taken both but my parents
wouldn't agree to do that so I took the one that had a long white stripe going up the side of his body.
I knew I would always know my dog this way.
Who knows what happened to the other pup.

We got the name Cheechen from my Dad, who had a trained hunting
dog when he was a kid..
It was rare to have a trained Pointer, when he was growing up.
His Dad paid a great deal of money for him.
One day his Dad loaned the dog to a hunter and the hunter refused to give him back.
He stole the dog and that was that.

Cheechen loved life.
He learned quickly and was the most obedient dog, knowing tons of tricks.
I spent a great deal of time with him and it irked my Father.
My Father was irked a lot in those days, over nothing.
We then discovered he had diabetes and then it all made sense.

Cheechen would stop at every street corner and look both ways which made him a great city dog.
He would run 10 km every day , with me on a bike and he would swim
across the Richelieu River with me.
This made him a great country dog. lol
I always had a boat tied to me so other boats would avoid us.
No small feat cause the river was wide.
We'd cross over to the other bank and then crawl into the boat for the ride home. lol
I'd also ride him over to Fort Lennox which is now a tourist resort.
And we'd picnic there and play. Back then it was a wild island fort. You could find dead corpses of soldiers from Samuel Champlains time. In those days a 12 year old could command a troop of older soldiers if his Father was rich to buy him a position. It was an area spotted in history with Iroquois battles.
It was a great place for a girl and her dog and a bit of imagination.
Today's kids don't have the freedom or a sense of responsibility we had in those days.
We did a lot more, had more to think about, learned a lot more, things laws can't teach you.

 Only one other dog we knew, a neighbors' black lab, loved water as much as my Cheech Peach did.
He also swam , only by himself, across the lake, half way every day and he also was a nice dog but no dog to mess with. If you pick a fight with him, you'd lose. lol
His muscles were equally as hard like my dogs' were but he lived later, in another era. lol

When the farmers fields grew long thick grass, Cheechen would run through it and jump up on his hind legs to see ahead.
He had a full white mane like Lassie and he looked  soo happy free and strong.
I loved him dearly and he loved me.

It is this dog who was attacked by two shepherds almost every day on the street, on our runs.
He would turn in quick tight circles and bite each one, keeping them busy, until I was far enough away from danger,
and then he would run away.  No dog around was as fit as he was.
There would never be a hip problem in this dog like today where there are too many dog laws, protecting those who cannot protect themselves. Bah humbug. They do more harm than good.

All dogs with hip problems, are the result of these leash laws.
The dog has to run and play and he needs room to do this.
He needs to be trained to obey and that's easy when he knows you love him.
No happy fit dog would ever attack a person.
It makes me laugh when I see dogs put on a tread mill.
What kind of life is this for a dog?
Seeing the situation, my Dad made Cheechen, a thick wide collar and the shepherds bit right through it but
couldn't harm him, giving him the upper edge. They were both twice his size and used the surround technique
as wolves would.

These were old dogs belonging to an old lady and she never tied them so they attacked any dog on the street they didn't like and they didn't like bicycles nor running dogs.
Because there were no laws back then , People were smart and used their noggins to stay out of trouble.
Today laws create people who don't need to think and woosy dogs too.

A dog has to know what's normal and what's not right and this is normal for a dog to know this
if you let him grow naturally. Every farmer knows this as he has dogs following him all day long.
Working , companion dogs putting their noses in all your business. lol

I like to watch dogs perform on You Tube but I have never seen one, that comes anywhere close to my Cheechen

My parents loved to treat him every morning with two pieces of buttered toast.
My Dad would cut each piece into 4 and give him one piece at a time.
When he ignored him , Cheechen would make a pretend sneeze
to remind him that he forgot.
My parents got a kick out of it.
 After the two toasts were done Cheechen  would then go and lie down content with his routine.
 But don't try to cheat him.
 He knew exactly how many pieces he was supposed to get.
.lol
I was happy to find one picture of him to blog about.
I hope I find more somewhere.

xoxoxoox