Cent, our beautiful German Shepherd, stayed with Helen, my baby sister, while we were in Italy. A year or more ago we saw the first signs of Degenerative Myelopathy in him. This is a progressive, incurable, disease of the nerves of the spinal cord which causes gradual loss of mobility and loss of feeling in the limbs. The condition is common in German Shepherd dogs and Cent has not been able to walk properly for many months now. Helen had the ideal place for him to convalesce. He could get everything he needed without having to move far and he had Misty, Helen’s lovely Australian Shepherd for company. Sadly, after a few weeks away in Italy, we could see how far and fast his condition was progressing. It is all a matter of quality of life and although it was very painful for me to admit, I could see that he was at the end of his journey.
I got Cent twelve years ago to help with Mitsy (not to be confused with Misty). You may remember Mitsy – her story is here. Mitsy was a problem dog. Cent was not. In fact Cent was the best dog I have ever known. Right from the start we bonded strongly and he was always very much a one-man dog. Diane used to complain that if she ever told him to do something that he would look at me first to see what he should really do.
Training Cent was a complete delight. It is all about the relationship. He was so keen to engage with me that, for the most part, if I showed him what I wanted him to do then he would do it. For the most part training was just part of the “doing things together” that we both enjoyed. I rarely used any treats or other inducements although we would usually play for a while after training. The basics of recall, sit, down and stay were mastered very quickly. Then we moved onto some more advanced things such as just using hand signals. When Cent was paying attention, I could get him to sit, stay and so on with just a very small hand movement or even just a nod.
Keith the dog trainer had helped me deal with Mitsy several years before. Now he also helped with Cent although this was a very different sort of approach. I suspect that it is always the case with dog training that it is actually the owner that is getting trained. Dogs are fairly predictable creatures that tend to react the same way to the same circumstances. Humans however, tend to massively over complicate things and lean towards anthropomorphising their relationship with dogs. So the reality was that Keith was teaching me how to handle Cent while Cent just thought it was all great fun.
We did some protection work. This was very interesting. You may have seen a police dog chase down the baddie, grab their arm and drag them to the ground. Sometimes the bad guy will be pinned to the spot while the dog barks and snarls at them. All looks quite scary, dangerous and a bit vicious. What does the dog actually think about all this? My first clue was in how we started the training – with a toy. We had a pillow made of strong sacking with a handle. Really just a tougher version of many pulling toys. Cent loved it and would happily spend hours tugging and pulling. I always let him win the toy. This was important in building his confidence. With your household spaniel you probably don’t want to do this. You should always remain the owner of the toy. Before long I needed to fasten the training pillow to a hook because Cent could pull so much better than I can.
Over time we transferred Cent from the pillow to a sleeve. You have seen these. A thick, padded, hessian sleeve that a pretend baddie can wear and the dog bits onto it. To do this we needed a volunteer to wear the sleeve while Cent tried to pull their arm off. Keith runs a dog food business and fortunately one of the helpers was brave enough to do this. At the same time we worked on triggering Cent. We set up little scenarios where the bad guy would shout abuse at me and generally behave very aggressively. I would respond in kind and threaten to release the dog. Cent would join in by barking and growling. Then he would grab the sleeve and hang on to it until I told him to release it. In time I got to actually release the dog who would then run down the poor lad wearing the sleeve. And there we were. Doing it just like the police do. It looked like I was letting loose a viscous and savage animal but to Cent it was more like a game. He was not out of control at all. I could always stop him with a word and get him to lie down right in front of the bad guy.
Now, to be honest, Cent was not a natural to this and we did not want to take it too far. But he could do it. He had the on/off switch and ever after it was comforting to know that if we were ever genuinely threatened that he could be our police dog.
Another form of training I did with him was tracking. We would go out to somewhere quiet where I could tie him up for a while. Then I would wander off following a convoluted route out of sight and hide his toy. I would come back the same way and then off we went to track it down. For this I used a long lead. The idea was that Cent was free to sniff around but not to actually run off and leave me. I could stay in touch with the dog but, for the most part he was unhindered and I was not inadvertently guiding him. This all worked well and Cent absolutely loved doing it. We both did. When I got the long lead out he would get very excited.
It was comforting to know that if he ever got out of sight on one of our walks that he would be able to find me. In fact, most dogs are pretty good at this and will use a combination of back-tracking, sound and smell to catch up with you. Of course if you are further apart more skills are required. Many years later, he tracked me down for real. Diane and I had been collecting mushrooms in the forest. Back at the motorhome, I decided I would go try find some more of a particularly tasty fungus we had found called Hedgehog mushroom. Diane was cleaning up the rest and flicking little bits of unwanted mushroom into the hedgerow. Cent was busy trying to find these discarded bits and did not notice me wander off. Sometime later, according to Diane, he realised I was not there and just set off after me. Meanwhile, I had wandered deep into the woods in a big loop and was in the process of working my way back to the truck. Cent found me. I heard a noise and then he just bounded out of bushes looking very pleased with himself. The reason I knew he had tracked me was that he did not arrive from the direction of the motorhome but from almost the opposite direction, from the part of the forest where I had been a few minutes earlier.
Cent was a well-travelled dog. 28 countries I once worked out. His first big trip was to the Pyrenees by way of the Portsmouth to Santander ferry. This is an overnight trip across the Bay of Biscay. We were going skiing. It was the middle of winter and the weather was not too great. Fortunately we had a dog friendly cabin. Some ferries required him to go in a cage. Neither of us liked this and it was only possible for short trips. This time he could sleep with us and I could take him out on deck to a special dog area. During the night the sea got up and Cent started to be disconcerted by the way the ship was rolling. In common with most dog friendly cabins, this one was small and a bit grotty. Diane and I each had a small bunk, narrow and not as long as I am tall. Shortly after we settled down, Cent decided he was really not happy with the motion and got onto my bed. So we have a quite big person, me, in a very small bed with a 40 kg German Shepherd sat on top. It just could not work. In principle I did not mind sharing my bed but there was simply no space. And he would not stay still. Having you ever tried pushing a big, heavy dog that does not want to move? Every time I got him off he would sit by the bed and whine. Then next time the ship moved he would jump back on. Diane thought it was hilarious. Eventually, just after dawn, the sea and the dog settled down.
Cent got to come skiing with us. We would wait until the last cable car up and then take him with us. By then, the slopes would be mostly empty. Cent would run down the side of the piste and we would ski. He loved it. I also took him on a few ski tours. He could usually get up, and down, the deep snow better than I could manage on skis.
Cent and Mitsy became great friends. They did nearly everything together. Mitsy was clearly a bit calmer and more relaxed when he was around. Occasionally she would get a bit uppity with Cent and he would just pin her to the ground for a short time while the correct balance was restored. For several years they lived together outside our cottage by Torside Reservoir. I called them the reservoir dogs. They each had a kennel although Cent more usually just slept outside. In the summer he would be in the long grass in the field. Sometimes in the winter, I would go outside first thing in the morning and could see the depression in the snow where he had been sleeping.
The dogs were very happy living outside. They had a big field to run and play in. The house was ours but the field was theirs. At the edge of the field were the woods. I did not want the dogs running around in the woods so I bought an electric fence. It was just three feet high and I only plugged it in for week. During that week, both dogs managed to touch it, just the once. After that they never went near it. Two years later we got a couple of chickens. The first task was to explain to the dogs that the chickens were not food. This was actually quite easy although you could tell that Mitsy really, really wanted to chase them. The chickens went in the woods during the day. They just stepped through the gaps in the electric fence, which by then had been switched off for a long time. The dogs would watch them but still would not go near the fence. Either dog could easily have jumped the fence but no, they just stood fascinated as the magic chickens passed through the fence unharmed. It was a good arrangement. The chickens would put themselves to bed at night and the dogs would keep them safe from foxes.
Mitsy died while we were travelling in Norway and Cent became really quite depressed. Very quiet and a bit listless. What can you do for a depressed German Shepherd? We made sure he stayed well fed and well exercised. We also tried to spend a bit more time with him. A few months later we got back to the cottage and the first thing he did was to run around excitedly – presumably looking for Mitsy. After that he never wanted to sleep outside again and preferred to come in at night.
Cent proved to be the perfect travelling companion. After Brexit we needed to re-register him in Germany. This was very easy to do and so he became a genuinely German, German Shepherd. Not that he cared although he did enjoy the travelling. Whenever we arrived somewhere new he would jump out excitedly and the pair of us was go an explore. If we ever had to leave the motorhome we knew he would guard it safely for us. No-one is going to mess with a vehicle with a GSD inside. And at night we could sleep soundly knowing that if someone even came too close the motorhome then our finely tuned burglar alarm would go off. Most days there were long walks together – that unspoken, unconditional companionship that make walking feel a bit empty at the moment. We swam in lakes, climbed mountains, crossed deserts and wandered around foreign cities. He was not so keen on the heat. That great thick, bear like coat was perfect for the snow but less so for warm climates. So sometimes he would just lie in the shade. Whenever we ran the air conditioning in the truck he knew exactly the best place for the cool air flow. He was perfectly polite with visitors and even persuaded a few non-dog people that at least some dogs were quite nice.
So Cent is gone now and it is my turn to feel a bit depressed. I do miss him a lot and so does Diane. We had many great times together. Sometimes doing things but often not doing anything. Just being together. He always seemed happiest if he was not too far from me and I loved having him around. I always felt a bit proud with him walking next to me but now I feel that a piece of me is missing.
These pictures were chosen by Diane
Vikkas Cent 2010 – 2022
