[mikester]

Back in my early twenties I had a little English Springer Spaniel. We had also had a mutt for about the last 10 years, together they were pretty good. No complaints at all. The Mutt, Sandy was quite certainly the best dog ever. Seriously, Ever. She unfortunately had been beaten by the fellow who owned her before us (our neighbor) whic just for the heck of it I'll tell that story too.

Our neighbor at the time in military housing was an MP with a Korean wife and a couple of kids. He had quite a temper and one day we simply had to call the MPs, they came (again) and took everyone into custody and had Animal control come for the dog (Sandy). My dad met them outside and said he'd have none of that, he'd take the dog if they would let them. They did and for about the next 15 years we had the best dog ever.

So, back to the spaniel. In the mid nineties dad retired and we moved back to Florida with the dogs and the family and such. They were living in close quarters at my grandparents house with their toy poodle "Punkin."

I hate punkin. It's the yappiest little dog ever and when we took my son their this year he tried to attack him a bit but I digress...

So Now in my Grandparents house are my Dad, Mom, Sister and Brother and the three dogs. I stayed with the other side of the family...

Punkin just loves to get him some Sandy though...The whole time they were there Punkin was attached to sandy (A sizeable mutt of about 100lbs) trying to hump some part of her body. Emily, the spaniel for some reason went absolutely bonkers one day and tried to attack Sandy. Nobody could some up with a good reason but from that point on the dogs had to be separated. I took emily where I Was staying which was darned near a trailer park kind of neighborhood. So fleas were a big problem. I dealt with it for a few months but in the end when Dad got a house together Emily had to go there. They actually separated the back yard with a fence and kept the dogs on either side for about a year. Finally Dad had enough, emily had to go.

That was that.

The point is that dogs have personalities too and they will develop over time much like a person's does. Those things that happen to them over time will also influence that personality. We have control over some but not all of it. Mom took getting rid of emily very hard and still hasn't forgiven dad for it (they've been divorced for some time now and both have remarried). The fact is Dad did the right thing in my mind, She was crazy and couldn't be trusted.