My Dog Smiles
I had a Dalmatian mix that did exactly the same thing. Unfortunately, I had to put her down three Thanksgivings ago. Now I have a wolf malmute mix. The only hybrid i'll ever own!:cheers:
There's nothing wrong with a hybrid/mutt. We had a Dalmatian mixed with an English Setter that we adopted from a local PAWS animal shelter here. He ended up to be dad's favorite dog.
He was one year old when we got him, and used to run every chance that he could get. Dad and I took him in the back yard and worked with him and broke him of his running and he didn't need a leash anymore he became so well behaved.
We named him Captain as he had a big round patch/spot around his right eye, like a pirate captain with a patch over his eye. Dad would sometimes draw a circle around the other eye on Halloween to make him look like the old Little Rascal's Dog Petey.
Captain was very good natured and was not aggressive. We used to bring him to all of the car shows - he loved cars and riding in cars. My dad made a special platform for him between the front seats of our conversion van so he could look out the front window of our van while we drove.
On a trip to the Mopar Nats one year when it was in Michigan, we were following our truck pulling our Superbird to the meet. Halfway there, our friend Jim got a drink and opened it. Captain was looking at him and looked thirsty. Jim looked at Captain and told him that he would let him have some of his drink, but we didn't have anything to put it in for him. Captain then went to the back and jumped on the rear bench and looked into the sink (it was the conversion van). So Jim poured some of his drink into the sink and Captain drank it. (pretty amazing that he could understand what we were saying, think about it, and come up with a solution - for a dog that is not supposed to be able to think/reason....)
Anyhow, Captain loved going for rides in the car. When we first bought the Superbird we decided not to let Captain in it, as his fur was difficult to get out of the carpet (even with a shop vac), and we wanted to keep it as clean as we could.
Captain started acting funny, and we couldn't figure out why. After a couple of weeks, dad said, "I wonder if he is upset that he hasn't gone for a ride in the Superbird."
So we took him for a ride in the Superbird, and everything was back to the way it was... He thought that he was in trouble and being punished by not taking him for a ride. After the ride, he knew that we weren't mad at him and was back to his old self.
Every once in a while we would "take the bird for a walk". This is where we would take it out for a few mile trip. We would go to this highway near our house, and wait for traffic to clear up, then we would turn and go easy. then from a 30 mph roll, dad would stomp on the gas and HANG ON....
There was a "triple kick" when you stomped the gas from a roll. The 'bird as we called it had a 440 6 pack with an auto trans. When you stomped it from a roll, you would get the "triple kick". The triple kick is when the different "stages" of the engine kicked in. First the center carb would go to wide-open-throttle, then the kick down would engage just after that for the second kick, then the outboard carbs would kick in and you felt yourself pinned to the seats.... What a blast. In a matter of seconds we would be at 90 mph and then would back off. Captain would plant his *** against the back of the back seat and hang on when we were "doing our thing" in the car. He loved to ride in the Superbird.
One summer we took our Superbird to the Car Craft Nationals in Springfield, IL. Of course we took Captain, as he became well known to the regular car show people. He would run to them and greet them. If he got to far from us, we just called him, and he came back to us. While we were at Car Craft Nats, we were walking around in the late afternoon and came across the Direct Connection display and the poster girl really liked him. She saw Captain panting from the heat and gave us a cup to get him some water at the GM display across from her. Her name was Linda and dad really liked her looks and personality - she was dad's favorite D.C. poster girl, especially after meeting her.
We thanked her for the cup and then got to talk to her for about 10-15 minutes as there was nobody else visiting her at the time. We asked her if she was going to be at the Mopar Nats in a few weeks in Michigan, and she was. We told her that we would see her there.
So here we are at the Mopar Nats a few weeks later with Captain at the Chrysler Proving Grounds, and we come up to the Direct Connection tent where there is a line of guys waiting for Linda to sign their posters. So Captain sees Linda, walks by the line of guys right up to Linda, and goes under her table and puts his head in her lap. Linda saw him and made a big fuss over him. We did not want to take cuts, so we let her greet him and waited out turn in line. After seeing all of the attention Linda gave Captain a couple of guys jokingly offered dad $50 for his collar.... LOL!
I don't have many good pictures of Captain as it was from long before computers and digital cameras, but I do have a picture of a polaroid picture of them together.
Captain and Linda:
View attachment Linda Capt MPN A04 B.jpg
View attachment Linda Capt MPN A03 B.jpg
Here are some shots of dad's autographed poster:
View attachment Linda dad MPN A01 B3.jpg
View attachment Linda dad MPN A05 B.jpg
View attachment Linda dad MPN A03 B.jpg
Here are shots of my poster from Car Craft Nationals from Linda:
View attachment Linda me CCN A02 B2.jpg
View attachment Linda me CCN A07 B.jpg
Here's a shot of my poster from Mopar Nationals from Linda:
View attachment Linda me MPN A04 B.jpg
Here are shots of dad's poster from Marcie - a year later:
View attachment Marcie dad MPN A01 B2.jpg
View attachment Marcie dad MPN A03 B.jpg
