Grady's story
For those of you who think we already post too much about our dog, then you can quit reading right now, because this one is all about Grady. It occurred to me the other day that, while we often talk about Grady, most people don't really know his story. He's had quite a sordid history that's worth sharing. This is Grady's story.
We adopted him when he was 3 years old from the US Customs Service. He had been a training program to be a drug sniffer at a facility about an hour outside of Washington. He didn't make the cut and was on "giveaway row". I'm serious, that's what they call it. To be nice, some places call these dogs "career change" dogs, but really, he was considered a failure in their program. People often say to us: "If you adopted him from a training program, he must be well-trained!" No. That was the problem. He wasn't trainable, so they gave him away. In fact, he was considered too wild, too distracted, and uninterested in working. Leave it to us to adopt a dog like that. What were we thinking?
Prior to that, Grady was also in a training program in Michigan called Paws with a Cause, which trains dogs to assist disabled people. I love helper dogs. I have such admiration for them, and for the people who they accompany. What a gift. We don't know much about his history at Paws with a Cause, but I can say with confidence that there is NO WAY Grady could be a helper dog. He would definitely lead someone into traffic. Presumably he also failed out of their program because the Customs Service "rescued" him and took him to Front Royal, Virginia.
And then, along came Kirk and Gretchen. We brought him home in November 1999, a year after getting married and 6 months after buying our house in Arlington. We came up with the name "Grady" the night we brought him home because a book that Kirk was reading the time had a character (a cowboy) named Grady. Talk about an identity crisis. This dog previously had two names: Trey and Viggor. What kind of names are those? Terrible and mean, if you ask me.
The reason I was reminded of this story is because I recently found his Customs Service record as I was digging through the "Grady file" (yes, he has his own file in the filing cabinet) to get vaccination records for our vet. Among all the medical records we got from the Customs Service, there's a piece of paper titled "Washback/Elimination of Dog", and then a written description of why the dog is being rejected. I hadn't read it in years, and after reading it I didn't know whether to laugh-- because it SO accurately describes Grady-- or to cry-- because it made me sad that he performed so poorly in their program. Here it is.
"Canine Viggor has shown poor intent and interest throughout the first 6 weeks of training. While conducting exercises in building interior, basic packaging, luggage and passenger screening, canine Viggor has shown no desire to search. Canine Viggor would distract while conducting the exercises described above by odors other than the narcotic odor. Canine Viggor would show the same amount of interest in these odors as he would the narcotic odor. This canine does not search continuously and fails to examine areas even though specifically directed. Viggor is constatnly influenced by distracting factors and displays equal interest in these distractions. Canine Viggor's interest is also poor due to the fact that he examines and then leaves the place of concealment without responding further. Remedial exercises were conducte in all the above areas with no sign of improvement."
The bottom line is this: he didn't want to work, he just wanted to play! Kind of like me! I'm so glad we found each other so that we could give him a good home and he could bring us so much love and laughter.
We adopted him when he was 3 years old from the US Customs Service. He had been a training program to be a drug sniffer at a facility about an hour outside of Washington. He didn't make the cut and was on "giveaway row". I'm serious, that's what they call it. To be nice, some places call these dogs "career change" dogs, but really, he was considered a failure in their program. People often say to us: "If you adopted him from a training program, he must be well-trained!" No. That was the problem. He wasn't trainable, so they gave him away. In fact, he was considered too wild, too distracted, and uninterested in working. Leave it to us to adopt a dog like that. What were we thinking?
Prior to that, Grady was also in a training program in Michigan called Paws with a Cause, which trains dogs to assist disabled people. I love helper dogs. I have such admiration for them, and for the people who they accompany. What a gift. We don't know much about his history at Paws with a Cause, but I can say with confidence that there is NO WAY Grady could be a helper dog. He would definitely lead someone into traffic. Presumably he also failed out of their program because the Customs Service "rescued" him and took him to Front Royal, Virginia.
And then, along came Kirk and Gretchen. We brought him home in November 1999, a year after getting married and 6 months after buying our house in Arlington. We came up with the name "Grady" the night we brought him home because a book that Kirk was reading the time had a character (a cowboy) named Grady. Talk about an identity crisis. This dog previously had two names: Trey and Viggor. What kind of names are those? Terrible and mean, if you ask me.
The reason I was reminded of this story is because I recently found his Customs Service record as I was digging through the "Grady file" (yes, he has his own file in the filing cabinet) to get vaccination records for our vet. Among all the medical records we got from the Customs Service, there's a piece of paper titled "Washback/Elimination of Dog", and then a written description of why the dog is being rejected. I hadn't read it in years, and after reading it I didn't know whether to laugh-- because it SO accurately describes Grady-- or to cry-- because it made me sad that he performed so poorly in their program. Here it is.
"Canine Viggor has shown poor intent and interest throughout the first 6 weeks of training. While conducting exercises in building interior, basic packaging, luggage and passenger screening, canine Viggor has shown no desire to search. Canine Viggor would distract while conducting the exercises described above by odors other than the narcotic odor. Canine Viggor would show the same amount of interest in these odors as he would the narcotic odor. This canine does not search continuously and fails to examine areas even though specifically directed. Viggor is constatnly influenced by distracting factors and displays equal interest in these distractions. Canine Viggor's interest is also poor due to the fact that he examines and then leaves the place of concealment without responding further. Remedial exercises were conducte in all the above areas with no sign of improvement."
The bottom line is this: he didn't want to work, he just wanted to play! Kind of like me! I'm so glad we found each other so that we could give him a good home and he could bring us so much love and laughter.
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