do you have any
yes we do have a pet we have a a dog that we got from the uh
well we call it the S P C A it's the uh animal from an animal shelter uh he'd come in there as a stray uh he's a Pomeranian and Sheltie cross uh
uh-huh
all right
yeah
well he was very well trained when we got him uh he's
oh that's good you don't often find that i don't think
no uh we suspect that he was hurt in an accident you know got away from somebody traveling through and hurt in an accident because
right
a dog that looks as good as he does and is trained as well is someone that has lost him and not have been able to locate him
uh-huh
and uh if they were local people they would have been able to find him
sure there's a okay uh that's interesting yeah the only pet that i've had uh i'm a i'm a doctoral student right now
uh-huh
and in my in my earlier days as a student i kind of time shared on a dog with a a good friend of mine
and uh it was an amazing dog it really was they had he had gotten it from the pound and uh it it's a Spanish Pointer named Domino
oh yeah
kind of looks like a Dalmatian a Dalmatian and we trained it from a pup and basically it right now it it's fully trained and it can do
uh-huh
a lot of things it will get beer for you out of the fridge and it will get the newspaper and do all kinds of stuff
so it's really it's it's kind of a show piece anymore and whenever anybody comes over we all have to show him Domino you know
oh i think so
yeah it's uh she's been a real good a real good dog and uh just it's kind of a shame that i'm i'm gone i'm away from it now i i just i actually live in Florida
uh-huh
but i'm on an internship up here for a year and then i go back down but uh yeah Domino's a real good dog uh
yeah
what uh possessed you to get the dog
well i i guess in one sense we felt that it it's nice to have a dog
even though there are you know complications come with it and then with our children uh at the time they were oh grade five and and grade eight so
yeah
uh-huh
it was an age where it was uh we thought it was be good for them to have the discipline that goes with with having a pet uh
sure sure learn a bit learn a little bit of discipline and how to care for it and things like that that's good that kind of builds some character a little bit
yeah
right
uh well that's the idea i think the reality of it is that they perhaps uh
it depends on the on everyone's discipline
um-hum
and uh from that aspect i'm short on the discipline because i don't uh enforce that the kids look after the dog and uh we've had him about four years now
uh-huh
uh
but i think it does it it you know it's necessary that individuals have the discipline to look after the animal properly uh
yeah that's something that's important for sure
yeah
i think uh do you live in a in a in a fairly rural part of the uh or
uh actually no we live in a in an area that's oh probably about two and a half miles from the university
oh i see
uh we live right might say we live right in uh in the middle of a residential area
um
and uh
so that is not as good uh you know this dog being a small dog it's uh more you more acceptable but again
yeah
yeah it's not that big of a problem With Domino she was full grown i would estimate seventy pounds
yeah
and you know we we lived in Oviedo which is a small town it's a suburb of Orlando
uh-huh
but there's not there wasn't a lot of room for her to run around and she was a dog that loved to run
so that was the biggest problem i saw and i think that's one of the uh the issues people need to think about before they get a dog is you know do you have the room for this dog to run around or can you know i guess you can't really say for cats
me and cats don't get along too well uh but you know that whole space issue i think is real important
yeah it's uh that's one of the biggest concerns it's like
uh there's a lot to be gained from a relationship with an animal but the same time
one has to recognize the reality of physical requirements of of the animal
right yeah that that
and the larger they are the more room they need to exercise
sure and that's all part of your of keeping your part of the relationship you know showing the maturity and responsibility to recognize those uh those issues
right
well
you know and also the whole whole thing with noise my mother oh she freaks out because she's got neighbors that have dogs that don't train them
uh-huh
and you know we had we had a neighbor in Nebraska when we lived there that had uh Brittany Spaniels and they're very high strung animals to begin with but uh
