We lost our dear old dog of 11 years on January 4. Not a great way to ring in the New Year. We were terribly saddened and the house seemed very empty all of a sudden. We’ve always had dogs in our lives and I knew we would eventually get another, but I thought we would wait a bit. I was wrong. Only a few days into a house without a dog in front of the woodstove or a couch without a dog’s head in my lap, I found myself surfing online animal shelter adoption sites. This was where we found ‘Owen.’ Or perhaps he found us. Brought in as a stray on Christmas Eve, Owen, a six-month old Great Dane/Labrador Retriever mix went up for adoption on the day our own dog died. Fate? The paw of God? Who knows.

Neil Crone, our new guest blogger, and Owen

All I know is we drove to the Kingston humane society, brought him home and he’s been making us laugh ever since.
I’ve raised and trained a lot of dogs, but Owen is the first six-month-old I’ve had to educate. Owen is sort of like Russell Crowe. He’s irresistible, but not terribly well mannered. And, I figured, if he ever grows into his feet, we’ll all be in trouble if he’s not well trained. Also, as Owen’s background was a bit of a question mark to us, we had no idea how well socialized he was with other dogs. So, a group obedience class seemed like just the ticket. We signed him up with Daytripper Dog Training run by Lane White and Teddy Green.

Class One: Lane and Teddy are terrific and very patient instructors. This is good, as Owen is very loud. He is quite obviously the class miscreant. All that is missing is a leather jacket and a pack of cigarettes rolled up his sleeve. If we had a test I am sure he would be cheating by looking over the other dogs shoulders. But he’s happy. He just wants to play. And I guess, from his perspective, this just all seems wrong. ‘What gives? Here’s a room full of perfectly healthy dogs… but I can’t jump on them?’ As for me, I spent most of first class trying to bribe Owen to calm down by shovelling treats at him, then asking Lane if he wouldn’t mind repeating the last ten minutes of instruction, as I hadn’t heard a thing.

Still we made it through. We even learned a thing or two. Owen learned how to heel and I learned Owen loves treats. Stay tuned….

By Neil Crone

A little more information on Neil Crone, our new Guest Blogger:
Neil is an actor and writer who lives with his wonderful wife, two boys and one dog in a town so small everybody knows where everyone else’s birthmarks are. He has performed in dozens of television and radio commercials, TV shows and is the voice of numerous cartoon characters. His most recent feature film roles include Stir of Echoes 2 – The Dead Speak with Rob Lowe, Hollywoodland with Adrian Brody and Ben Affleck, and the recently released comedy Eating Buccaneers. Neil is also thoroughly enjoying playing the role of Radio Redneck Fred Tupper in CBC’s hilarious hit sit-com Little Mosque on the Prairie.

When not on the stage, in front of a camera or behind a microphone, Neil is busy writing; as an award-winning weekly humour columnist and blogger for Metroland papers. Neil is a cancer survivor and is the National Spokesperson for both the Colo-rectal Cancer Association of Canada and Colon Cancer Canada.