Training a Dog

 I was in high school. I hadn't had a dog since I was a kid in our old home. There was a fairly small stray dog I took pity on and started feeding it. It hung around. I asked mother if we could keep it. She said yes but it can't be in the house. I said why not? She said because she didn't want dog hair on the carpets. We spent a good deal of our time in the family room or den and the kitchen and the adjoining breakfast area and the floors there were some sort of attractive composition and linoleum. It was a good size area. I told mother the dog will stay in that area. Since it was open to the dining room, living room, and hallway to the bedrooms, and all that area was carpeted, she doubted what I said was possible. Doubted it with finality. I said it won't go on the carpet. She was adamant that there was no way to keep the dog off the carpets. I said, it will go on the carpet a few steps for a few times but then it won't. After that if it goes on the carpet it can't come in the house. Okay? So she said okay. I let the dog in. It went around the room smelling. I stood in the living room on the carpet. It started to come in. I said No! forcefully and it understood and backed away. It kept trying and I reprimanded it each time. I did it from the carpet side of each of the three interior doorways out of that area. After not too long it understood. Then I called it and when it stepped on the carpet I fiercely scolded it. After a while it learned not to come onto the carpet even if I begged it to. Took about half an hour. 

I don't remember what I called it. I think it was female. We really weren't close. She had mental problems and didn't relate well with people. Just needed a home. Bit me once for no reason I could see. It tried to bite the postman when he was friendly. She was outside a lot. Dogs didn't have to be restrained back then. 

She did come on the carpet a couple of times and was allowed to - during thunderstorms. Went and hid under my bed.

After half a year or so one day I came home and mother told me she had been run over by a large truck. The driver came and told her. He said she ran in front of his truck. He stopped and looked and didn't see her but apparently she was scared and didn't move - right in front of one of his large tires. The city had already cleaned up her remains. I wondered if she committed suicide but that didn't seem very dog like. I found an eyeball in the curb.