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Bravo
April 1999 to February, 2008 Good dog, Bravo! What a good, good girl.
Bravo came to us a terrified 2 year old retired racing Greyhound, undersocialized, and afraid of everything.
She left us six years later an affectionate, flirtatious socialite who loved going in the car to PetSmart, the dog park, to
classes or anywhere there were people to rub her silky ears.
Bravo was my research partner during graduate school, a wise and cautious colleague as I worked with Dr. Rosales-Ruiz on developing the Constructional Aggression Treatment (CAT for Dogs) which became my graudate thesis. The work she did has helped improve the lives of many dogs around the world. And it's saved the lives of some. Bravo was not just a good dog. She was an important dog.
We never knew
much about Bravo’s history as a racer because the tattoo in her left ear wasn’t dark enough to read so we couldn’t
look her up. There are other racers with Bravo in their names, and it’s possible she’s related
to some of them. We’ll never know. We know Bravo isn't a very feminine name, but
it was her name. She earned a lot of cheers in her lifetime. She came so far. She was so scared
and emaciated when we brought her home. She gave us years of love we will never forget. She was our
dear friend and companion. She was my colleague and partner. She was Bravo. Her birth date tattoo in her right ear read 499F, meaning she was born in April of 1999. F means that she was the sixth puppy in her litter to be tattooed.
She never liked cameras with their silly flashes and always had a freaked out expression in her photographs.
Bravo was so terrified when I got her, for Christmas in 2001, that when we returned from walks and I removed
her leash she would just stand where I left her until I came and got her and took her to a bed or to her water dish or anywhere
else. It seemed that she didn't know what to do when given a choice.
On our very first walk in the neighborhood a woman walked toward us with a tiny, friendly Papillon. Bravo circled my legs and went inside my coat so that I was straddling her. She shook and shook. She had probably never seen a small dog before. When she met our cat, Mouse, he was friendly, but she was terrified. He learned that if he walked toward her he could make her walk all around the house. It was kind of sad... and kind of funny. The first time she saw children was on a trip the vet's office. We were inside and a woman walked by with two small children who were probably 2 and 3 years old. They pressed their noses up against the window. Bravos ears went up. She walked to the window and sniffed up and down, from the height of their heads to their little toes, over and over. Her ears went back, and her tail wagged. From then on whenever we met small children she went all mushy. She thought humans in small packages were pretty interesting and good. I remember her licking little baby toes sticking out of little strollers with the sweetest expression on her face.
I studied TTouch to help her with her fears. She loved TTouch.
She could instantly tell the difference between a TTouch class and a clicker class, even if the chairs were arranged the same.
She learned that if she whined TTouch participants would come over and do touches on her. Once she whined so loudly
the instructor could not be heard. I had to ask my classmates not to touch her unless she was quiet.
Bravo was always nice to our other animals. She didn't exactly
love snuggling with the cats, but she would sometimes tolerate it. She and our little dog, Pan, sometimes argued over
who should eat first, but it only came to sudden bursts of noise. All Bravo had to do was give him "the look"
and he would complain loudly.
The first afternoon, when we first brought her home on December 22, 1999, I took her directly to the backyard.
She looked at the watergarden and slowly walked to it. She took a drink, splaying her deer-like legs to reach the water.
She walked forward and found herself up to the chest in ice cold water. It was December and 32 degrees outside.
But she learned to love the pond. When it was hot, she would walk in, delicately, never disturbing
a plant, and sink down into the water up to her neck. When she was cooled off she would rise gracefully from the water
like a great sea creature and step out, leaving the potted plants untouched.
At the age of 8 we noticed that Bravo was starting to have more grouchy moments. Despite her fears early in her life with us, she had learned to be quite opinionated and assertive, so we chalked it up to her age and some aches and pains in her joints that had bothered her off and on. On February 20, 2008 Bravo went outside to play in the backyard, chased some squirrels, secured the perimeters, then came inside to take a nap beside me at my desk. A half-hour later she tried to stand and screamed loudly. I rushed her to the vet who discovered that she had a spiral fracture in her back right leg. A consultation with an osteopathic veterinarian revealed the worst. She had bone cancer. Best case scenario involved amputation and radiation, which might buy her another 4 to 8 months. My son, Jesse, and I were at her side when she was guided out of this life on February 22, 2008 in the afternoon. It's never easy to say goodby to a true and loyal friend. We will miss her for a long, long time. She was such a fine dog, such a comfortable and comforting companion. Bravo, our pointy sister, our Bravo-sutra, our Bravo Sue. What a good, good girl! You're a good, good dog. Bravo!
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