LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter Two

      Two hours later, Dory sat in the middle of the dog run, laughing while Flash licked her face. “He doesn’t wear out!”

      “Not easily,” Cadell agreed. “I guess he’s chosen you, too. He needs a little more training with you to cement his role, but if you want you can take him back to Betty’s with you.”

      “She has three cats!”

      “They might not like it, but Flash will leave them alone. Okay, I’ll keep him here for now. I wouldn’t mind tightening up his training some more.” He dropped down onto the ground beside her, knees up slightly, arms hanging loosely over them. “Betty told me a bit about what’s going on. Want to talk a little?”

      She tensed. Here she’d been having such a good time, and now this popped up. She wanted to resent him for it but could understand his curiosity. After all, he was training a guard dog for her. “Will it help?”

      He caught her gaze and held it, an electric moment that conveyed compassion, as well. “Up to you, but I usually like to know what kind of threats my dogs will be working on. It allows me to hone their training. A bomb-sniffing dog doesn’t always make a good attack dog.”

      She nodded slowly, looking down at her crossed legs and Flash’s head, now settled comfortably on her lap. Her fingers were buried in his scruff, the massaging movement comforting him as well as her. Dang dog was magical, she thought.

      Finally she sighed. “Betty probably told you the important parts. My older brother killed our parents. I was seven and I walked in on it. Anyway, somehow he only got twenty-five years, not life, and he’s getting out soon.”

      She turned to look at him again, her voice becoming earnest. “I have no reason to think he’ll be the least interested in finding me. I haven’t seen or talked to him since that night. He never even wrote me from prison. But...I’m having a lot of nightmares at night, and no matter how much I tell myself...”

      “You still can’t quite believe he’s not a threat to you,” he completed. “Hardly surprising, given what you saw him do.” He paused. “So he never once tried to get in touch with you all these years?”

      She couldn’t understand why that appeared to bother him. “No. Which means he isn’t interested in me at all. He’s probably all but forgotten me.”

      “Maybe so, but I guess your subconscious isn’t buying it.”

      In spite of herself, she emitted a short laugh. “Apparently not. I feel so silly sometimes. Nightmares every night? And now a guard dog. That’s over-the-top.”

      He shook his head a little. “I don’t think it’s over-the-top. Nothing wrong with having a guard dog around, not for anyone. At the very least, Flash will be good company.”

      She looked down at the dog she was petting. “He sure will be. He’s wonderful. Petting him feels good.”

      “It feels good to him, too. But you’ll have to work him every day so he doesn’t turn couch potato on you.”

      Astonishment filled her. “Couch potato? Him?”

      “Well, I don’t mean he’s going to get lazy. But he needs to remain sharp, so every day you’re going to have to work with him for at least a half hour. Can you do that?”

      “Sure. It’ll be fun for both of us.”

      He smiled. “Good. You’ll be a great handler for him. He likes the work, you know. For him it’s a fun game. Now let’s get busy on the attack training. I’m going to put on my padded suit, and you’re going to make him attack me.”

      She felt perplexed. “But he knows you and likes you! Why would he attack you?”

      “Because it doesn’t matter that he knows me. Protecting you is all that’s going to matter. When you tell him to attack, he’ll attack. It’s not his job to make decisions like that, but to take care of you. You’ll see.”

      She still hesitated, concerned. “Does he know how to attack?”

      “We’ve been practicing. Now it’s time to get serious.”

      He rose in a single easy movement and went down the run to a shed at the end, disappearing inside. When he returned he wore thick padding on both arms.

      Even so, that didn’t seem like a whole lot of padding. Flash recognized it immediately and rose to his feet, tail wagging. Dory stood, too.

      “He’s been practicing on a dummy,” Cadell said. “Now he gets the real thing.”

      They left the run and went out to a paddock, where the two ostriches stared at them over a fence. “Tell him what to do right now,” Cadell said mildly.

      Dory hesitated, then remembered. “Flash, heel.”

      The dog immediately came to stand alertly beside her. In all her life, she was sure she had never seen such an incredibly well-behaved dog. He was now still, watchful and right where she wanted him.

      “Now you’re not going to tell him to attack,” Cadell said. “For that I don’t like to use such an obvious word, one that he could hear in ordinary speech. It’s not only tone that matters. They can pick words right out of a conversation. Now, some dog trainers don’t worry about that, but I do. I don’t want officers getting in trouble because someone is claiming to have been attacked and the dog reacts somehow.”

      She nodded, her heart beating nervously. “I understand.” But she wasn’t at all sure she wanted to command this dog to attack.

      “The word I use is fuss. Long u sound. Like foos.”

      Her sense of humor poked its head up. “I hope I remember that when I need it.”

      “Well...” His eyes crinkled at the corners. “We’ll practice until it becomes natural. But since you’re going to start with a very simple command every night when you go to bed, or when you take him out, he’ll know what to do even if he doesn’t hear the word.”

      “Meaning?” She began to feel confused.

      “If you tell him to guard, he will. And he won’t always need an attack command to protect you. He’s capable of evaluating a threat that gets too close. This is for when something is a little farther away and he might not see it as a threat to you immediately.”

      “Ah, okay.” Now she was beginning to understand.

      He patted her shoulder with his padded mitt. “It’s about to all come together. I’m going to walk away about twenty feet. You’re going to give the guard command. Then I’m going to turn around and point a toy gun at you. Pay attention to what happens as I approach you.”

      Okay, she thought. She could do this. “Flash, guard,” she said. She felt the dog shift a little beside her but didn’t look down

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