Chapter One As I told the police in my statement, the first time I ever heard of the New Day Wilderness program was when that kid, Brian Maddox, called me last October, wanting to know if I could give his dog what he called a “Good Canine Dog Test”. Apparently he had found my number in the yellow pages under “Dog Trainers” . Since mine is the only dog training listing in the book–Raine Stockton, Dog Daze Boarding and Training , certified CGC evaluator and member of the APDTand Therapy Dogs International--- the choice was a fairly easy one. Clearly he had not gone to my web site, or he would have known there is no such thing as a Good Canine Dog Test. I am very proud of the web site for Dog Daze Boarding and Training, mostly because it took me almost a year to learn how to do. There are all kinds of good things on the site, including a schedule of classes, photos of our graduates and all of their ribbons, my own four gorgeous dogs of course, with a complete list of all their accomplishments--- and a full description of the Canine Good Citizen test. It took me awhile to figure out that that was, in fact, what Brian was referring to–the the AKC’s Canine Good Citizen test, which is a fairly simple ten point examination to determine whether or not your dog has general good manners, and whether he can maintain those manners in public under moderately stressful conditions. According to Brian, who was really a very polite and articulate young man despite the fact that he had obviously had never heard of the Canine Good Citizen test until someone told him he should call me about it , his employer would let him bring his dog to work with him only if the dog was a certified therapy dog, or a Canine Good Citizen. He went on to explain that he worked for the New Day Wilderness Program, and that he was going into the wilderness for two weeks in three days and he didn’t want to leave his dog behind, so could I do the test today? If he had gone to my web site, he would have seen that I give the test four times a year, and that the last testing date had already passed. He was devastated. Wasn’t there anything I could do for him? Did I know of anyone else in the area who did the test? So I sent him to my web site, and told him to follow the link to the AKC’s Canine Good Citizen page, where he could request a list of evaluators. Five minutes later he called back, wanting to know if he could pay extra to have me do the test right away. I tried to explain to him that the CGC test is considered something of a public service, and that the AKC frowns upon its evaluators trying to make a profit from it. Furthermore, it really made no sense to give the test for just one dog, since the entire point was evaluate how the dog behaved around crowds and other canines. However, I told him to keep in touch, and that if I had enough students interested in taking the test I would schedule another one at the end of the month. As it ended up, I did have three other people who wanted to test their dogs, so I was able to set up a test for two weekends away. I e-mailed Brian, and a couple of days later he replied enthusiastically that he would be returning from the wilderness the day before the test and would definitely be able to make it. And that was the last I– or anyone else, as it turned out– heard from him. Generally, I am a very curious person, a characteristic I share with my almost- but-not-quite three year old golden retriever Cisco, and one that gets us both into more than our share of trouble. Certainly this wilderness program that I had never heard of but which allowed you to take your dogs to work with you only if they are certified was more than enough to incite my interest under normal circumstances, and under normal circumstances I would have made it my business to find out everything I could about it. But October is an insane time of year around here, what with the influx of leaf-lookers crowding our roads and swelling my boarding kennel, my part- time job at the forest service turning into a full time job with part-time pay, and, to be honest, I was dealing with more than one personal crisis last October. So while I might have been curious about Brian Maddox and the New Day Wilderness program, it was the kind of curiosity that quickly took a back seat to everything else that was going one in my life, and I never followed up. Now, of course, I wish I had. The next time I heard anything about the New Day Wilderness program was on a rainy day in the middle of January, when a girl named Sally McBane called to ask whether I did therapy dog certifications. She was also going into the wilderness in a couple of weeks, and wanted to take her dog with her. Now, I was very curious. And, as I told the police, that’s where my part of the story really begins. |
| Cold Kill A Raine Stockton Dog Mystery |
 |
 |
 |
 |
