Pepper

Pepper
Black Labrador, German Shorthair Pointer / Akita Mix
Female, 14 years old
Born January 19th, 1994

Starting my introductions of the animals I live with is my oldest pet (in doggy years anyways). Pepper has been with my family since she was probably somewhere close to 6 weeks old. My stepbrother, who was in high school at the time, noticed that some people a few blocks down the road were giving away some puppies from what I would imagine was an accidental litter. The father was a purebred Japanese Akita, and the mother a mixture of Black Labrador Retriever and German Shorthair Pointer. Pepper was not my brother’s first pick. He had happened upon the house on his way home from school, and had a particular male puppy in mind. By the time he got permission to get a puppy and went back, Pepper was the only one left. A scrawny female runt. Cute as can be. Pitch black with a little dot of white on her chest. I remember for a long time I used to call her by the nickname “black spit”, as the powdered candy Raven’s Revenge was quite popular back then, and my favorite flavor was the one which turned my mouth black, and subsequently my saliva, too. Odd, but hey, I was a strange child, and as you’ll eventually be reading, my animals all get very strange and unique nicknames from me.

Pepper lived with us for maybe a year or so, before my stepbrother moved out of the house and in with his mother about 90 minutes away. Despite having hardly seen her much at all, Pepper always remembered me when I’d come to visit. Being that she is half akita, the traits of the akita personality and temperament run quite predominant in her. She does not take to strangers whatsoever, and is highly territorial and aggressive. Never bitten anyone, but always growls and does not like it when you come near her family. I always found it quite endearing that despite all the time spent hardly seeing her during her adolescence, she still remembered me from the time I lived with her during her puppyhood, and never displayed an ounce of her usual aloofness of strange people and so on. The story of “Hachiko” comes to mind with this.

Pepper came back under the care of my family when my stepbrother enlisted into the Navy in around 1997. His mother was taking care of her for a while, but decided suddenly move residences and just left Pepper and 2-3 other dogs alone to fend for themselves in the backyard. Being that she was formerly our family dog, we couldn’t leave her there, and my stepbrother said that he would want to have her when he got out of the military. So Pepper came home with us, and has been with us ever since. My stepbrother never decided to take her back, for whatever reason, and personally I wouldn’t want to ever give her up anyways.

As I mentioned before, Pepper is half Akita and has quite a few problems with aggression. She’s also well known for terrible separation anxiety in her youth, though she’s grown out of it with age. She’s very territorial and dominant. Whereas some dogs are aggressive out of timidness and fear(please read about Bindi), she is not fearful aggressive by any means. True to the temperament of an Akita, this dog has the heart of a lion and was born to be a leader, and she will fight to the death if she has to to keep control. She is willful, stubborn, courageous, loyal, and a superb guard dog. Many people have been fooled by her looks. When you see a dog that looks like a Labrador, you think friendly and sociable. Sure, she’s friendly and sociable – with her family. Strangers only receive the Akita half of her. Especially when she was younger. We used to have to remove her from the room or even the house when we would have company over. The only ones Pepper listens to are the humans in the household. She may be an old lady now, but she still is the boss of all the dogs in the house. We’ve had a couple scuffles over the years with her and the other dogs at home, fortunately nothing resulting in anything too bad (one puncture wound on a former dog of ours took a quick trip to the vet to fix up). Had I been older and had the money myself, I would have loved to put her through some behavior modification to work on her aggression issues. Unfortunately, I was 6 years old when she came into our family, and was a child throughout the time when she was at her prime and causing ruckus. Now she’s just a bitter old lady that doesn’t do much of anything anymore, aside from eat, sleep, poop, and play when she’s up for it.

But despite all the problems we had with her, when it comes down to it, Pepper is a dog that I’ve always felt safe around. Some people have said to us that if they were in our shoes, they would have had her put down years ago. Sure, she’s got her issues, and every dog does, but her loyalty and protectiveness has kept us safe from harm on many occasions. She’s never been out of control. I trust her more than any other dog I’ve ever owned or met. I know what sets her off and why, and I’m of the age where I understand now how to prevent it and control it better. I credit Pepper for protecting our house from burglars that made it into our external garage, when had we not had a dog, probably would have broke inside our house, too. She was a handful in her youth, and still a bit of one these days, but I’m thankful to have her in my life, and will cherish all of the days I have left with her. The average lifespan of the breeds in her are around 12 years old, and she’s passed that mark by over two years. She’s got arthritis, a bit of weight problem, some cataracts on her eyes, and we’re starting to see some signs of hearing loss, but she’s still so full of life. She’s not ready to go just yet, and quite frankly I’m not ready to say goodbye just yet either. Bless her little heart.

~ by Kiyo on August 16, 2008.