I got hooked on having a four-leg bodyguard at the Sacramento Sheriff’s Reserve Academy. A Canine officer brought his 100-pound German Shepherd, named Thor, to visit. Thor had been trained to track, detect drugs, and catch criminals. In 1984, Thor was a $10,000 dog. Thor had been imported from Germany. I volunteered to be Thor’s target. I had been loving him up for a few minutes just before the officer gave the alert command. Thor jumped on his rear legs bark begging to tear me apart. Afterward, Thor was again fine with me petting him. I would be lying to say Thor didn’t invoke fear in me at the alert command. Like in the Mafia movies when they are about to wack someone and they say, it isn’t personal, it is business. That describes Thor’s behavior.
Eleven years later, I began getting ready to have such a dog. I bought a book on how to train a dog to be a bodyguard. I also bought the food and water bowls. My then-wife, Karen, had said no to us having a dog. I was signaling to her and my two daughters that a dog was forthcoming. I kept going to the county animal shelter to check on what was available. It was heartbreaking to see all of the dogs begging to be picked. I endured this sorrow for about a year. Then one day, there were two German Shepherds. One was a six-month-old female; the other was an adult male about 90 to 100 pounds. I was told both were on a two-week evaluation hold. Both would be free for adoption next week. I told the staff that I wanted the male.
The next week, I came to claim that male German Shepherd. He was gone! I asked the gal who had helped me the week before about him. She said that he had been destroyed because he was too aggressive with the other dogs. I then looked over the female. She had a dignity that is hard to describe. While all of the other dogs were continually barking, she sat stoically in silence awaiting her fate. She was a pretty girl of three different colors, brown, black, and sable. I filled out the adoption forms and paid the fees. The county wouldn’t release her until she was spayed. On the adoption paperwork, I listed her name, Shultzee.
In a couple of days, I picked up Shultzee from the veterinarian to take home to meet my two daughters, Brianne 3, and Rachel 2. Shultzee took to my two girls right away. And, of course, they were infatuated with Shultzee. I cautioned everyone to not mess with Shultzee while she was eating. For months, I had to sit with Shultzee in order for her to eat. After I took out her stitches, I began my three-year training program. The first two items were basic obedience on a leash and tracking. Shultzee did know who was Rachel and who was Brianne without anyone teaching her. Soon, the household hierarchy became me, Brianne, and then Rachel. Shultzee didn’t mind Karen at all. To my amusement, Karen had to relay her orders through either Brianne or Rachel.
Soon after I removed her belly stitches, I took Shultzee to a huge park to begin her long-distance recall to me. When I was about 100 yards from her, Shultzee broke her stay and began running from me. I started toward her at a trot as she looked back at me. This was a dominance test by her. I stopped and ran away from her toward the truck. Shultzee seeing my intention to leave her behind, ran to the truck passing me up. Yes, I would have left her behind. Shultzee never ran from me again. Whenever I called her, she ran at me at her top speed.
I took Shultzee to where the Northern California law enforcement officers take their canines for advanced obedience training and bite work. The trainer, Hans, was harsh to everyone but the dogs. If you didn’t praise your dog with a high pitch and over-the-top praise, Hans would be all over the handler. Oddly, it was female officers who had the hardest time talking to their canines with high-pitched baby talk praise. I and Shultzee had a big problem, I could not get her to bark on command. Actually, Shultzee had not barked since I adopted her.
Shultzee would not even bark for treats! Shultzee was making me look bad in front of Hans. Shultzee was so good by herself in the house except for her garbage lust. I would come home to find that she had strewn the kitchen garbage all over the first floor of our house. My scolding did nothing to stop her behavior when we were away. I would come home every day to the kitchen garage being scattered to the four winds and Shultzee hiding from me with guilt written all over her face. I went to the hardware store to get mousetraps. As Shultzee watched me, I laid the mousetraps in a minefield pattern around the kitchen garbage can. Yes, the easy way was to put the garbage can where she couldn’t get to it. This was a test of wills, mine and hers.
After a few minutes, curiosity got the better of Shultzee. She approached my minefield. I walked away to the entrainment room. I heard the snap of a mousetrap. Shultzee was furious and she was barking in a deep-deep bark. I gave the command to bark, gibloud! I gave her a treat. I took her to the front room, and I said, Gibloud! Shultzee ran to the mousetrap minefield to bark with fury. Over a few days, I said gibloud, further and further away from the mousetraps. One day, I held her leash so she couldn’t run to the mousetraps. Shultzee barked on command in front of Hans. Hans asked how I got her to bark. I told him, he laughed and said good work. However, that session Shultzee lunged at another German Shepherd and unbeknownst to me, I had the leash looped around my right index finger. I heard a click, Shultzee’s lunge had fractured my finger! Hans saw what had happened. Hans yelled, “You won’t do that again!” As it happens, Shultzee would go on to fracture another person’s right Index finger a few years later which was my fault.
These training sessions took place after the sun had gone down. I made the observation that Shultzee became two times more aggressive after dark. This after-dark aggressiveness would cause two serious incidents. Years later, Dave Hernandez and I were doing a cylinder change on a Cal Fire S-2 Tracker. It was about 11:00 pm. Shultzee was lying on a mat in the bed of the company truck close to the tailgate which was down. We had our tools laid out on the tailgate. Dave had gone to the tailgate for tools many times with no reaction from Shultzee. But this time, Shultzee’s bodyguard training overrode her familiarity with Dave. And it was after dark, Shultzee was in her wolf mode! Dave picked up a torque wrench which is a long bar tool. Shultzee moved like a bolt of lightning at Dave’s face with her mouth wide open. Shultzee thankfully only gave Dave a warning nip. Shultzee only removed a few hairs from his upper lip. I truly believe that I was more scared than Dave was because I have seen Shultzee kill opossums by crushing their ribs and breaking their spines. Dave calmly said put her inside the truck. To Shultzee, the torque wrench looked like a club that was used by the aggressor in her protection training.
Shultzee had so much bite control because I gave her treats by having her leap to snatch food from my lips. Shultzee never missed or accidentally bit me or other people in her leaps for treats from lips.
We had a man and wife living by us who had two Huskies. Every morning, their Huskies pulled them on their skateboards to the park and back at more than 20 mph. You could hear the bearings in the wheels singing as they passed by. This was before I got Shultzee. They moved away before I got Shultze. Of course, I trained Shultzee to pull me on a skateboard. I taught her, to turn right and left. Go, go fast, and stop. Shultzee was a trickster while she was pulling me. I had oversized soft rubber wheels on the skateboard which made it whisper quiet. At night, we went for pulls around the neighborhood. The housing development had a six-block greenbelt with a triple-wide sidewalk going its length ending at a playground. When Shultzee saw people walking/jogging away from us, she went into her trickster mode. Shultzee broke into a meat missile mode and she body-checked them as she passed them. I would yell, coming through, but 9 times out of 10, the people were too busy talking to each other to heed my warning. Shultzee enjoyed scaring them.
At the beginning of our recall training, Shultzee and I had things to work out. Shultzee would run straight at me in her meat missile mode. A 90-pound dog running at you at 35 mph is a scary sight when it is within five feet of you. I would try to dodge her but she would zero on me. We ended up colliding with me being knocked down. One evening, I jumped straight up to avoid her hitting me. Shultzee hit my feet with so much force that my body spun head over heels landing me on my back which knocked the wind out of me. We went home and I had some thinking to do. I decided to trust her and I would stand my ground no matter how close she got to me at her top speed. As it turns out, it was a me problem, not a her problem. I stood my ground and Shultzee veered off at the last possible second and body-checked my left leg to finally come to sit down at my right side. I had people standing right in front of me, usually females, after I gave Shultzee the recall command, I told them to not move no matter how close she came straight on to us. As a safety measure, I held them firmly by their shoulders. They got a thrill from the perception of the danger of a 90-pound dog running at 35 mph straight at them and her veering off at the last possible second. I have never seen other dogs body-check.
I began Shultzee’s tracking training by making it a game for Shultzee and my girls. I would tell the girls to hide in two different places upstairs. I then told Shultzee to sook Brianne, and then sook Rachel. Shultzee was able to tell between the old scents and the fresh scents. I read that dogs can do that, and it was remarkable to see her do it. It was magical to me. After the girls got a little bit older, I would send them to hide in the greenbelt. The greenbelt was down our street a block away. Both sides of the greenbelt were lined with bushes. I put Shultzee in the house so she couldn’t see what direction they went. Shultzee found them every time with ease.
One summer the Norton clan went to the Ocean to camp. There are signs that caution about “sneaker waves.” That is a huge wave that comes out of nowhere to knock you down and then pull victims out to the ocean. I witnessed one of these waves knock my Brianne down and begin to pull her out to the Ocean. I retrieved my crying Brianne from the clutches of certain death. That evening, I took Shultzee to explore the area. When we got back, I was in a state of panic because the girls, Brianne, Rachel, and their 10-year-old female cousin were gone! I scolded all of the adults. Then I told Shultzee to sook the girls. The girls had cut across many campsites on their way to the Ocean. I apologized to everyone as we crossed their campsites as Shultzee followed the girls’ tracks. Shultzee found the girls a quarter mile North of the Point Reyes campsites. The girls were at the water’s edge up against the bluff that runs a ways out to the Ocean. Their cousin could have gotten my girls killed! After we all got back from the Ocean. I told the six adults where we found the girls and because I couldn’t contain my anger, I scolded them again. I would end up years later firing my wife, Karen, for cause. Shultzee was about to bite Karen’s brother, George, because Shultzee saw George swinging one of those seaweed tubes at the three girls. Shultzee was using her deepest bark of warning that she was about to bite George. I was a long way from George, Shultzee, and the girls. I yelled at George to drop the seaweed tube. Later, I asked George why he couldn’t see that he was triggering Shultzee to bite him. Shultzee was ultra-protective of my girls and children. Having Shultzee was like having a four-year-old child who is incredibly fast and strong and who has knives which are her sharp teeth and nearly inch-long fangs.
The playground at the end of the greenbelt was being vandalized often and we homeowners through the association were being charged for the repairs. I had enough of these charges. Shultzee and I began patrolling from 1 am to 3 am. After a few days, we hit paydirt. I kept in the shadows from the lights that lined the walkway down the greenbelt. I saw four teenagers at the playground. I unhooked Shultzee’s leash and told her to blive/stay. Shultzee was invisible in the shadows. I walked the forty yards to the playground to talk to the teenagers. I saw they had wrapped the three swings of the four around the vertical bar. The girl was sitting in the fourth swing. I calmly told them of my concerns about the recent vandalism of the playground and it was uncalled for to wrap the swings up on the vertical bar. Then one of the teenage boys said, “There are three of us old man, what’s to stop us from kicking your ass!? I thought, old man? I was only 34. I said do you think that I am alone because I am not. Then I yelled, gibloud! Shultzee seeing the boys’ demeanor, began barking in her deepest pleading bark to be released. This shocked all of them into the reality that they were in grave danger. The girl said let’s go. I told the boys they couldn’t go until they unwrapped the three swings. I yelled, oust! Shultzee stopped her, I want to attack barking. The boys unwrapped the swings and to my astonishment, they apologized to me. I didn’t dare call Shultzee to me because she was all wound up and she was in her after dark wolf mode.
For a time, I had to work at the Oakland Airport because there weren’t any aviation mechanic jobs available in Sacramento. The vehicles were being broken into nightly. I thought, “Shultzee doesn’t care where she sleeps, she might as well sleep in the truck.” I took her out at my lunch break to play and to relieve herself. I was working for a cargo operation, so the maintenance was done at night. One night, I volunteered to go to the Safeway grocery store by the airport to get things for our weekly barbecue. Boy, those were the days when top cuts of steak were cheap. As I was walking through the mostly empty parking lot toward my truck, I saw three men walking toward me. I changed my course to my left, they changed their course to intercept me. I always parked my truck at the edge of parking lots. Shultzee was in my truck with the windows down. I again changed my course. The three men again changed their course to intercept me! My arms were full of two bags for our company meal. I had no other option but to call on my bodyguard’s protection. I yelled, Comen! Shultzee lept from the truck in her meat missile top speed mode. Shultzee ran between the two men to my left while body-checking the man in the center of the three. They must have soiled themselves! As Shultzee came to my right side, the three men ran away from me and Shultzee. I put the bags down, and I lavished her with praise. I can’t write anymore in this writing session because my eyes are burning from weeping.
It got too taxing for me to go home every day after my shift ended. The Bay area stays cool during the day, therefore, I decided to sleep in the bed of the truck. My truck had a camper shell on it. Additionally, my fuel costs brought my pay down to California’s minimum wage. Eventually, Shultzee and I stayed the whole week there, and sometimes, we didn’t go home on my days off. Shultzee and I had adventures. One day, I trying to organize our supplies after a grocery run. I was standing at the tailgate working away. All of sudden, Shultzee was on the tailgate at my right side barking with her lips drawn back to prepare to attack. A man had walked up behind me quietly unbeknownst to me. I turned around and he was within a yard of me. He said that he was only going to ask me for money. Maybe, the polite thing to do would have been to announce his approach to me. Probably, he was being half truthful. If the opportunity had presented itself to strike me down to rob me, he would have done so.
Shultzee and I walked across the Golden Gate Bridge for something to do. As we approached the North end of the Bridge, I noticed a gap between the walkway and the side of the Bridge that was wide enough for Shultzee to fall through. I shifted her to my left side. On the North side of the Bridge, there was a tourist area with a food stand. I put Shultzee on one of those concrete vehicle pole barriers before going to get food for us. A tourist bus had stopped while I was at the food stand. When I returned with our food, a group of Japanese tourists were taking pictures of my German Shepherd sitting all by herself on the park bench. I wonder if there are still pictures of Shultzee in Japan after the passage of 27 years? I had parked at the Presidio. I was exhausted when we got back to the truck. The next week, the News reported a child had fallen through the gap between the walkway and the side of the Bridge. I wonder if that gap occurred from a modification of the Bridge. Surely, that gap wasn’t there from the Bridge’s original construction.
Shultzee’s training was ongoing in her active years. A fun training game for us was the “Keep Away Game.” I took her to the tennis courts. I put her on the other of the net. Then I said, “You gonna get me?” The game enhanced her problem-solving skills. I kept running around the net away from her. Shultzee didn’t have the necessary traction to catch me. After a while, she realized she could catch me by jumping over the net. Shultzee’s reward was mobbing me. I did this at the Baseball Diamond down the street too. I would put her in bushes so she couldn’t see where I was going to hide. Shultzee was released to find me by this phrase, “Where’s my baby!?” This served to work her tracking abilities and the urge to be with me. Like Thor’s hammer, nothing would prevent Shultzee from returning to me. Well, sometimes things didn’t work out as I planned. When my wife, Mary, was my girlfriend, I went off to hide. Mary was standing with Shultzee to see what would happen. Mary was holding Shultzee’s leash. I don’t remember if I told Mary to let go of the leash when I called for Shultzee. Actually, Shultzee didn’t need to have her leash held because she wouldn’t move until I called for her. Therefore, before I went to hide, I should have told Mary to drop the leash. This is what happened. I shouted, “Where’s my baby!?” After a few seconds, I took a peek to see what was happening. To my horror, I saw Shultzee dragging Mary across the ground. I yelled, let go of the leash! Unfortunately, Mary had wrapped the leash through the fingers of her right hand. Mary couldn’t let go of the leash while Shultzee was pulling her across the ground. I yelled to Shultzee to stop, however, we hadn’t practiced her stopping after, “Where’s my baby!? All I could do was run toward Shultzee to stop her from pulling Mary across the ground. Mary was all scratched up along her right side and Mary’s right index finger was fractured. All of the blame was on me 100%! Shultzee was doing what she had been trained to do. Despite what I said that it was all my fault, Mary held a grudge toward Shultzee for months. I suppose it was easier for Mary to be mad at Shultzee than me who she wanted to marry.
Years before I met Mary, Shultzee and I were walking through a field on a dirt path. Shultzee wasn’t on a leash. Shultzee behaved so much better when she was off the leash than on the leash. I told this to my bitework trainer, Karen. Karen said that was also true of her dogs. Karen said they act like knuckleheads in their thinking they project, “! would tear you apart if my master wasn’t holding me back!” Back to the field. It was amazing to see Shultzee jump straight up by a yard and to the right like she was being teleported. She came down in long dry wild oat grass to capture a small rodent. As Shultzee emerged from the grass, I could hear breaking bones. Shultzee ate the rodent fur and all! At night when the opossums came out, we could hear Shultzee grabbing the opossums down from the top of fences in the backyard. After a few months, there were no more opossums, she killed all of them.
Some random things before the next account. My girls and I with Shultzee would be relaxing while watching movies when Shultzee would look at me to give a soft woof. I in turn told the girls to pet Shultzee. Every time my girls stopped petting Shultzee, she gave me a soft woof. I thought it was cute. I remember the very day when my girls passed Shultzee in their intelligence. My girls would come to me with an issue. I would say, “Shultzee knows how, ask her.” As Brianne approached her 5th birthday, she surpassed Shultzee in intelligence. I used Shultzee for transportation to rent movies for Brianne and Rachel. I left Shultzee with my skateboard outside. One day, a teenage boy made the mistake of trying to steal my skateboard. When I came out to see what was going on, I found Shultzee had forced the boy up against the glass of the store as she barked with her muzzle right up against the boy’s crotch. I told Shultzee, Oust! The boy said that he only wanted to look at the skateboard. Shultzee had a presence that I wasn’t aware of until Mary’s son, Sean, pointed it out. We all went to Old Sacramento to see the sites. As we walked around the streets and walkways, Sean pointed out that the crowds of people made way for us. It was like Moses parting the Red Sea. I was at the Baseball park with Shultzee playing, “Are gonna get me?!” I saw a young adult walking past the park. He crossed the street to go down a side street. I saw which house he entered. I leashed Shultzee, and I took her down to the sidewalk where the young adult had passed. This was something new for her. I said, “Sook!” Shultzee began pulling hard on the leash. We passed where the man had crossed the street. Shultzee doubled back to about where he crossed the street. Shultzee crossed the street with me in tow. Shultzee led me to the door of the house where the young adult entered. I rang the doorbell. When he opened the door, I explained what I was doing. He took it well. I said thank you and we departed. I lavished heaps of praise on Shultzee. For me, her doing that tracking was akin to Black Magic.
For a few years, I had only visitation rights with Shultzee. My mother volunteered to take care of Shultzee for the summer while I was away. Mother being in her 80s, liked the security that Shultzee provided. Shultzee and Mom became very attached to each other. I was between wives at this time. Mom was taken to the Kaiser hospital in Roseville. My in-between wives girlfriend, Dixie Ann, went with me and Shultzee to the hospital. As we approached the hospital, Shultzee became frantic to get out of the truck. Somehow, Shultzee knew my Mom was close. It might have been the hospital’s ventilation system that ejected my Mother’s scent.
One day, I came home from work to find Shultzee lying on the grass in front of the house. The gate to the backyard was open. I called Shultzee to me, but she didn’t comply. I went across the street to ask my neighbor if he had seen anything. He said he hadn’t seen anything. I walked back to Shultzee. I knelt down to look over Shultzee. I saw that it appeared as though her four paw pads looked like a cheese grater had been run across them. I found her claw scratches the entire length of the street side of the fence. We had the corner lot which made for a long fence line. Someone or persons saw the side door to the garage open. He/they tried to burglarize our house only to find themselves trapped by Shultzee. The nail heads had worked themselves from the boards of the fence. Every time Shultzee jumped to pull down the intruder(s), the nail heads scraped off the flesh of her paws. It appeared that the intruder(s) made their way to the top of the fence while Shultzee was jumping to attack them. The intruder(s) found their safety by jumping into the next home’s backyard. I picked up Shultzee to take her inside the house. I cleaned her paw pads. It t didn’t take long for her pads to heal. I still wonder how much damage Shultzee inflicted upon the intruder(s). Shultzee wasn’t a barker which led the intruder(s) into her clutches. Years later at Mary’s house, the wind blew down a section of the fence line. The neighbor told Mary that she didn’t know we had a dog because she never heard Shultzee bark.
I bought a WWII German rifle. Shultzee didn’t see me put it in our closet. When spring arrived, I got a hunting license. When I touched the rifle, Shultzee got so excited that she began leaping about the room. I had never seen her in this level of excitement before. It must be that before I adopted her, she had been exposed to firearms in a positive way. Shultzee enjoyed going hunting and going to the rifle range. Shultzee also had my back at the ATM. She watched out for danger while I pushed the buttons. When I was done, I walked off without her while the people waited for their turn. When I was about 20 feet away from her, I rotated my right arm in a circle while saying, Foos! Shultzee then ran to be at my right side.
Shultzee wasn’t a cuddler. As I understand it, most female dogs aren’t cuddlers. When we got our mini rat terrier, Shultzee was about 9 years old. It didn’t take long to train Anubis because Shultzee led by example. It took a long time to get Shultzee to bark on command. I said, Gibloud, Shultzee barked to get a treat. Anubis looked on. At the third Gibloud, Anubis also barked for his treat.
We didn’t have much time with two dogs. One day, I found Shultzee unable to get up. She had soiled herself. She had a stroke. I cleaned her up for her one-way trip to the veterinarian. I lied to Shultzee to get her into the car. Go to the park!…Go to the park!…Go to the park! Sean and I took Shultzee to the veterinarian’s examination room. We laid Shultzee on her right side. The veterinarian found a vein in Shultzee’s right front leg. He pushed the plunger and my Baby Girl who had protected me from harm was gone! Her eyes were still open. I tried to close her eyes, but I couldn’t. Sean and I were weeping, I still have the image of Sean’s face with his red eyes from crying all these years later.
I was surprised to find the account of the child falling through the gap in the walkway of the bridge on the internet>https://www.google.com/search?q=child+falls+from+golden+gate+bridge&oq=&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCQgAECMYJxjqAjIJCAAQIxgnGOoCMgkIARAjGCcY6gIyCQgCECMYJxjqAjIJCAMQIxgnGOoCMgkIBBAjGCcY6gIyCQgFECMYJxjqAjIJCAYQIxgnGOoCMgYIBxBFGEDSAQ00ODMxNjIxNzFqMGo3qAIHsAIB&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
