Who We Are

 

My name is Larry Parr.  For many years I used to write cartoon scripts for TV.  I am one of the people responsible for rotting your brains on Saturday morning.  I wrote everything from SMURFS to SPIDER-MAN.

 

My cartoon-writing days are pretty much behind me now.  My wife and my daughter and I have moved to a small town just outside of Duluth, Minnesota.  We have five acres of land, three large dogs and two cats.

 

Our dogs are Chika, a very large German Shepard/Wolf mix.  She is ¼ wolf.  She is very intimidating to look at, but she is the sweetest, kindest, most intelligent dog I have ever met.  We never lock our doors at night or when we leave for the day because no one is going to mess with the house with Chika standing guard.

 

Our next dog is Molly.  Molly is a mix of black and chocolate lab. We took her in as a puppy because her owner said that any puppies that were not given away that day he was going to shoot in the head.  Such a nice man....

 

We are so glad we have Molly.  She turned out to be a dwarf.  She isn’t a dwarf by breeding, she just turned out that way.  You could not ask for a sweeter or kinder dog.  She loves being scratched all over.

 

Zoe is our latest addition.  She is a Border Collie mix.  My wife got her on a trip to WalMart.  Next to our WalMart is a pet rescue outfit called Friends of Animals.  Instead of going to the store, Chris went to Friends of Animals and fell in love with Zoe.

 

I couldn’t be happier.  Zoe is sooooo much fun.  She’s bright and inquisitive (this morning she was in the backyard intently watching the crows flying around in the treetops) and just sooooo eager to learn.

 

We had a fourth dog.  A black lab named Murphy.  She was a handful.  We never bothered with any training for Murphy and she chased a rabbit across the backyard and into the woods one morning and just kept going.  We spent three days looking for her.  But it was no use.  She was hit by a car and killed.

 

It’s because of Murphy that I now understand how vital it is that all dogs get at least the basics of training.  If you’ve never lost an animal I can only hope that you never do.  It is devastating.  For us it was the same as losing a human member of our family; that’s how much our animals mean to us.

 

Murphy has been dead almost a year now and I’m still tearing up writing these words and thinking about her.

 

I strongly urge ALL dog owners to put their dogs through at least the basics of training.  You will be amazed at the difference it will make in your animal.  In almost every case a dog who has gone through training is happier after training and an even greater joy to be around.

 

I’ve found two training courses here on the internet that are marvelous.  I can’t recommend them highly enough.  They both WORK and that’s the bottom line.

 

You don’t have to use either of the programs I recommend, but PLEASE get your dog trained – if you don’t and something happens to your friend, you may never be able to forgive yourself.

 

-- Larry Parr

 

There are two excellent dog training programs which I can personally recommend to you.  One I have personally used, and the other my sister-in-law used and both programs worked miracles.

 

You can read all about the program my wife and I used to train our three dogs HERE.

 

Read about the program my sister-in-law used to train her old hound dog HERE.

 

 

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