Page 33 of Scout Takes the Lead
He gave me breathing and muscle relaxation exercises to do, and told me that if I felt trapped in a flashback one way I could get out of it was to visualize and describe my actual environment. I’m not in Afghanistan, I’m in my living room on the lumpy couch I bought at the second-hand store.
I could also do things like say the alphabet backwards or list animals that began with each letter—-anything to shift my brain’s focus.
Scout helped with all that. By the time I’d him for six weeks, I was sleeping through the night, and not getting triggered so easily by loud or unexpected noises. A big chunk of that progress was due to having the dog around. I had begun to face my fears and rely on him to help.
I became a regular at Java Boys, saying hello to strangers and not getting freaked out if they sat too close to me. I also began walking down Hollywood Boulevard at rush hour so that I could get accustomed to the squeal of brakes and the honk of horns.
Grace had also been important to my progress. Saturday morning was the last day of our beginner training class, and I hoped that she would continue to help me with Scout if we kept on dating. Friday evening I met with Kenny and Cheyenne to make sure they were ready for graduation the next morning. Scout and I arrived at his house, and he had brought in burgers and fries for us. As we ate, we talked. Kenny said, “How are you doing? I mean, with Scout. Is he keeping you calm the way you want?”
“We’re working on it,” I said. “But sometimes things happen too fast. I built up these reflexes in the Army because I had to, to stay alive. It’s hard to turn them off.” I told him about the guy I’d karate-chopped. “At least I’m not doing that anymore.”
“That must have freaked him out,” Kenny said. “But I know how it is. I get nervous, too.” He poured some ketchup on his fries. “And how are things going with Grace?”
“We’re moving slowly,” I said. “I never really dated much, and I know she has had some problems in the past with guys coming on too strong. So I’m feeling my way along.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. Gary dragged me out of the closet before freshman year was over.” He laughed nervously. “Not like I was really in the closet, you know, the way I act. But I had never done anything about it.”
I figured there was more to the story so I waited. Cheyenne sat up next to Kenny and nuzzled his hand. Kenny peeled off a crust of hamburger bun and fed it to him. “Gary and I were together for twelve years,” Kenny said quietly.
“He died?” I asked gently.
Kenny shook his head. “I wish. He ran off with a daddy bear from San Francisco who was an original employee at Apple and made a ton of money on the stock.” He scratched the dog under his chin, then sat back up. “Good riddance to him. Now that I look back I realize he thought I was a meal ticket, and I’m surprised it took him so long to find someone richer.”
“Wow.”
“Not that I’m a mogul or anything,” Kenny said. “But I always made more money than Gary. He was one of those guys who never felt appreciated at any job, so he didn’t stay for very long. When I drive around Hollywood it’s like a tour of all Gary’s failed jobs. He was a server at Billy’s Stone Crab and a clerk at Target. He tended bar at Mickey Byrne’s and developed film at Walgreen’s.”
“You must be a good person,” I said. “To put up with him for so long.”
Kenny shrugged. “He had a big dick and we had a lot of sex for the first few years,” he said. “Then he got into body-building and started taking steroids and he lost interest in sex. At least with me.”
“Ouch.”
“But Grace seems like a nice girl. Anybody who loves dogs that much has to be good.”
“I agree.” I finished the last of my burger, and noticing that Kenny was done, too, I said, “Why don’t we run through the commands we learned.”
Kenny smiled, and both dogs jumped up. “That would be great.” We sat on the living room floor across from each other. I split my bag of hot dog bits into two and we practiced “sit” and “down.” Then Kenny backed away and we made sure Cheyenne remembered “stay” and “come.”
After we were confident both dogs could perform the next day, we quit training and played with them for a while. “Are you thinking about dating?” I asked.
“Not right now. I need to get comfortable with Cheyenne. But it’s good for me to see you and Grace together. That there are nice people out there.” The dogs were playing on the kitchen floor and one of them dropped a bone on the tile with a loud bang, and my body tensed up.
Kenny noticed and he yelled to the dog, “Cheyenne! Stop that. You’re freaking out the company.” The two dogs romped back to us, and just having Scout nuzzle my hand made me feel better.
“I should go,” I said. “It’s getting late and I should log on for some calls.”
“Thanks for coming over,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” Scout and I walked home. He heeled perfectly, though I let him stop and sniff and pee as he wanted. I thought everything was coming together in my life. I had a place to live, a job, a dog, a friend and a girl. The future was bright.
18: Jerk: Grace
Graduation day is my second favorite training class. It’s so good to see dogs and their humans performing together, to know that I’ve helped them build their relationships.
We began with what I called the grand parade. Each of the handlers had their dogs on a tight lead, and they walked in a circle around the concrete-floored room. They demonstrated their ability to heel, though Cheyenne had some trouble ignoring the other dogs and Kenny had to yank on the lead a couple of times and repeat the command.
Then I called the nurse with the pit bull mix up to the front and she showed off the sit, stay and come commands. The nurse with the poodle followed, though the dog was still having some trouble with stay, and we worked together on that for a few minutes as everyone else watched.
Kenny and Cheyenne came up next, and I was pleasantly surprised that Cheyenne had mastered the basic commands. Kenny was still a loving daddy, but he had pulled some strength out of somewhere and deepened his voice to add some authority. I praised them both. “You guys are going to make a great team,” I said.
