DadChat: Got that Dog in him

My most recent dog was an English Shepherd/Farm Collie, whatever you want to call it, basically a bigger Lassie Collie with floppy ears. He was an absolute beast to the local fauna, and was still killing groundhogs well into his teens. I could always tell when he had been eating squirrels, because he wouldn't eat the tails and would just leave a fluffy tail on the porch. He was generally quiet, except when he saw cattle, because that activated the herding dog instincts. He did not know how to herd cattle, but he knew that when he saw cows he had to bark at them. He wasn't the brightest dog, having been sprayed by skunks at least four times, and whenever people asked if he was a smart dog, I'd always go "He's a good dog." Unfortunately, as he got old, his hips started to go, and we had to help him on his way there, still made it to 15, which isn't too bad for a 90lb dog.

We trained our cat to use the toilet the way that Charles Mingus did. He wrote book called the Cat-alog, and sold it with his merch at shows. His method worked great. https://www.charlesmingus.com/mingus/cat-traning-program