Whitey was the King! He was a gentle giant and I thought he was such a wonderful dog. When I met him he was already very fearful of people, he seemed to have seen it all and had good reason to be. I remember one day a young dog was roaming, it had escaped from it's owner or been let free. He was on Whitey's turf and wanted to hang around with him. Still playful, I watched as he jumped up and nipped at Whitey's collar. Whitey seemed aloof and ignored the young upstarts provacation. Then he calmly began to walk the young dog following. I thought this seemed interesting so I watched. The most interesting thing happened he walked about 1 km with the dog and then stopped. It was like he had taken the young dog to the edge of his territory and was signalling him it was time to go home now.
To this day I have no idea what was going on in Whitey's mind but it's one of the most amazing things I've every seen a dog do.

One day, as my wife and I talked, I asked Whitey to "sit". Of course he didn't know what it meant, it just came out of my mouth. For some reason, my wife and I had a bet. If I could teach Whitey to sit on cue then she would make me English fish and chips. She felt safe because how was I to teach a dog that I couldn't even get near, to sit. But the next day the deed was done and I could smell frying fish! Actually it was easy (dogs are so clever) but don't tell the wife!

Please, please, please, take good care of your dogs. Don't let them roam and unless you want to breed from them, get them spayed before accidents happen. Jackie and Whitey were truely wonderful dogs who did suffer . Dogs are family members for life, we must take responsibility for them through good and hard times. Don't abandon animals, there are always other options.