Chelsea the Watchdog

Chelsea our Great Dane was not only obedient, she was also very friendly. We were always quite thankful that we could take our dog with us to our booth at a local flea market each Sunday. Chelsea helped bring in business as well as making our work day more enjoyable with her cheerful companionship. Therefore, we were very upset and confused by her behavior when she took a sudden dislike towards a frequent flea market customer. Her reaction was so dramatic in fact, that we thought we might have to start leaving her at home. Every week we had to watch for this man as he moseyed down the long flea market isle, stopping in various booths before arriving at ours. If we were not careful Chelsea, our usually super obedient dog, would literally almost leap over our four foot tall counter in an effort to attack this man. He seemed friendly enough, and did not seem to realize that her bad behavior was exclusively directed at him. At first, we simply held on to her collar and scolded her until she would relent and lay back down. We would then apologize profusely for our dog's behavior. After a few weeks of this, the man started to bring Slim-Jims every time he came to our booth in an effort to appease her. Chelsea then began to look forward to the man's arrival, but as soon as the dried meat treats were consumed, sometimes even before, Chelsea would begin to growl and act as though she would gobble the man up if we would only let her. This went on for several more weeks, and each week we struggled with the decision of whether to bring her for the enjoyment of all of the customers who loved her, many of which would come to the flea market just to see her each week, against the rights of the lone customer who was literally hindered from shopping on our end of the flea market, even in nearby booths, due to the racket and disturbance she would raise every time she saw him. Even in spite of the Slim-Jims, Chelsea continued to detest the man so much that no matter what time of the day he showed up, even if she was in a deep sleep, she would jump to her feet ready to eat him instead of his offerings if given the chance. Finally, after several weeks of this, and one particularly ferocious outburst from her, I told the man that we felt terrible about her behavior, and that he no longer needed to worry, we would begin to leave her at home the following week, so he could shop unimpeded. It just so happened one of our other customers who was waiting to pay for his purchase knew the man, and calling him by name asked him why he wouldn't just stay away from our booth rather than ruin it for everyone else who looked forward to seeing our beautiful 135 lb harlequin Dane. Feeling embarrassed for the man being put on the spot like that, we protested and said that he should have the right to shop without having to worry about our dog making a scene. But, much to our surprise he said that no, his friend was right. It was a big flea market, and he could simply shop in other isles without really crimping his shopping experience. He admitted that the jerky treats were not helping, and said that he would no longer shop our end of the market. He told Chelsea goodbye, and that he was sorry that they could not have been friends. I tightly held onto her collar as she quietly growled at him as he walked away. About a month went by, and sure to his word we no longer saw the man on our end of the market. We still felt bad that we were unable to train our otherwise perfect dog to accept the man, and we had shared our frustration with our fellow booth renters on our end of the market. We had even apologized to them for keeping away a potential customer from their stores as well. Then, one Sunday afternoon all of a sudden there seemed to be a commotion and some yelling down on the other end of the market. Rumors were flying as we saw the police arrive. Those of us with booths were unable to leave to go see what was up as we waited on our customers. Curiosity was eating us up as the wife in the booth caddy corner to us left her husband watching their booth as she went to check it out. She was gone for so long that I had almost forgotten about the disturbance as I busied myself waiting on customers. Finally, our friend came back, stopped by our booth and said that she and her husband wanted to talk to us as soon as we had the chance. We were still busy, but finally reached a lull in customers. We went over to their area and waited for them to finish with there customer, all the time wondering what this could possibly be about. Fearing the worst, such as the death of a mutual friend or perhaps a closing of the flea market-our imaginations had run wild-they finally came over to us with broad smiles. The husband immediately began to thank us profusely, likewise the wife. Noticing our utter confusion the wife exclaimed, "You mean you haven't heard?!! It turns out that the man your dog hated so much was a thief! He and his friend had a scheme where they would come at the busiest time of the day, arrive at the booths separately so it would seem as though they did not know each other, and he would distract the booth owner, or block the view of his friend with his body while the other guy robbed them blind! Several of the other booth owners lost hundreds of dollars worth of stuff that they stole and then resold. The police had set up surveillance to try to catch them after numerous complaints of missing merchandise. If it had not been for your dog, we would surely have lost stuff, just like everyone else. Because your dog would create such a ruckus each time he came to our end, it would make everyone look at him, and would keep them from stealing." "That's why they would always leave so fast, and also why he did not mind feeding Chelsea those expensive treats, he was hoping to bribe Chelsea so she would quit drawing attention to them when they came to our booths,"her husband explained. Wow! We did not know what to say. We noticed a customer at our booth, so we thanked them and left. We went to see if our customer needed anything, but not before giving Chelsea a huge hug and telling her what a wonderful dog she was!