"Red", the Boxer, was the first dog I had and I was well into my 20s when we acquired him from a breeder up on Highway 7, just north of Toronto, a little east of Yonge Street.
I had just lost my first child - a boy named "Robbie" and we decided a puppy would be something to divert us.
We lived in a highrise apartment and Red was really good to train. I bought a book, probably long out of print, called "Training You To Train Your Dog" by Blanche Saunders.
I read and re-read that book because I had never had a dog. Hmmm . . . yes, I said it - I had never had a dog.
He was a smart little fellow with a will to learn. If anything, Red was over-trained. We took him a lot of places and always when we went away, he came along. In those days, I could take him into a card shop while I searched for the perfect greeting.
We had a Ford Galaxy 500 XL convertible and I used to anchor him on the back seat with his lead fastened to a seatbelt.
He was a kind, gentle and loving dog. He went about 60 pounds in the summer and 66 pounds in the winter. He was solid, but when he turned, you could see his rib cage.
We had another child and Red was the one who would sit with that baby and alert me if she needed anything. (Red even knew he was not to lick that baby.)
Carrie Jane died at six and a half months, the same as Robbie had. (They were both micro-cephalic, a phenomenon not often seen now, where the brain stops growing within the first trimester of pregnancy.)
Red, the Boxer only lived to six and died of cancer. I still think of him - maybe because he was my first or perhaps because he set the bar for how I have worked with my dogs over the years. (I give them a lot of love but I don't take too much nonsense! I don't yell, I generally beg them to do my bidding!)
The Boxer is a breed that I do recommend for children. They are gentle and intelligent. Like all dogs, you must work with them but he is a willing learner.
The children did not live, the marriage lasted only ten years, but the memory of that dog lives on all these years after owning, showing and breeding Shih Tzu and Lhasa Apso for 33 years.
I have not yet asked but I suspect my sister-in-law remembered Red and how he was around children. Nice to know that I am not the only one who remembered that dog!
