Harvest the Dog
Corona del Mar, California is a tightly knit neighborhood with people of many honorable and luxurious professions including, doctors, scientists, dermatologists, bloggers, lawyers and retired athletes. But what is interesting, is that not only does everyone know everyone else by name, but people know the names of the dogs in the neighborhood with astounding accuracy. One dog is very well known in the neighborhood. She is soft and friendly and very kind to children. Her name is Harvest. This is a picture of her to the left. Originally Harvest was going to be a seeing eye dog. But she was a little bit too peppy and aggressive as a puppy so she didn’t make it into the program. Later Harvest was a hearing dog for the hearing impaired. But for some reason the person who was going to get Harvest ended up not wanting to have to take care of a dog. So my parents got lucky and had the chance to get Harvest to be their friend. My parents have been longtime supporters of the guide dog program, and my brother once raised a guide dog himself! One thing that is funny is that when my parents got Harvest, she didn’t bark. And they thought that was very strange. But after a couple years Harvest became more comfortable and started to bark occasionally. She usually barks at other dogs in order to say, “Hello.”
A year ago during Thanksgiving, Harvest barked near the dinner table and it sounded like she said, “I WANT SOME!” It was really strange because it sounded like she was speaking English.
Harvest is a celebrity around Corona del Mar because everyone knows her. I’ll be taking her for a walk and I will say hi to people I’ve never met before and they will introduce themselves. Then they will say something like, “Wait? Is this Harvest? HI HARVEST!” Then they will pat her. Harvest is so friendly and mild-mannered that everyone likes her. Manny people have said to me that she is, “The Most Well-Behaved Dog in Corona del Mar.” Now, I would like to modify that statement slightly and change into, Harvest is the “Most Well-Behaved Dog in Corona del Mar when she is in public.” Because when I try and take her for a walk she often-times resists and I have to physically pick her up off the ground to get her to go.
It is next to impossible to get her to go on a walk when she is upstairs in her dog bed. She just won’t get up. But lately I’ve tried this trick where I will shake the dog bone container slightly to make some noise when I am downstairs. And for some reason, even if she is sleeping she can hear the sound of the dog bones moving around in the plastic container. And after a couple seconds she will come downstairs. So I’ve been very lucky with that as of late.
Harvest is very kind to children and she is very gentle. If there is a small child she will smell him/her and then give them a friendly lick. I always think that is funny because the kids make that face like, “AHHH! That dog licked me!”
A few months ago Harvest’s shoulder was really hurting her. So we took her to the Veterinarian and had her checked out. The Vet said that we needed to switch from using a collar and leash to a harness and leash. It turns out that a harness on a dog can help if the dog is having neck or shoulder problems. And Harvest has been an easier time with the harness. Harvest is ten years old and so the harness helps out.
One thing that I like to do with Harvest is that I like to talk to her like she is a person. For example: Today I wanted to take Harvest for a walk. And normally when I say, “Come on Harvest! Let’s go for a walk!” She will stay laying down and she will just look at me. Usually she is sunbathing. But today I made some conversation by asking, “Hi Harvest how you doing so far today?” And she just looked at me and blinked. And I said, “Oh, that’s good. I’m having an all-right day as well. I picked up some more dog bags from the store so that’s good.” And Harvest was looking at me intently and her tail moved slightly. “Yeah, so Harvest, I was thinking we could go for a walk. Is that something you’d be interested in?” And then Harvest got up on her own to go on the walk.
-Tyler