SHINTA, A SHORT LIFE.
My first introduction to Shinta was in the isolation kennels at the school. Only 10 months old, he ran around and around in circles in his kennel, climbing up and down the wire, flinging his excrement all over the place and barking and screaming like a lunatic on uppers; he was on everyone’s ”don’t want” list for this reteam. When the chief instructor informed me he was my new PD, I was not impressed.
The very first day of reteam, Shinta ran around wildly getting tangled in the 15 footer and barking and whinging loudly and driving me and everyone else on course crazy, continually climbing back up the lead, I think he had more air time than Chuck Yeager. Shinta was an extremely enthusiastic biter and when the CI explained the new whisper in their ear method of leave on command, I had serious doubts about putting my face that close to his; but, lo and behold, when introduced, he left straight away and continued to do so for the rest of our time together.
I returned home and Shinta continued climbing back up the lead, although by this stage he was concentrating his efforts mostly on my left hand, forcing me to wear a padded glove. While at Glenbrook, the Penrith living in barracks were shut down and of course doggies had to secure the area as well as our normal duties, with no extra troops of course, the usual RAAF way. To lighten the load, I took up residence in the old barracks from 1700 hrs to 0800 hrs each day taking Shinta with me. We were both indifferent to each other at this stage and the first night in the barracks I tried to get Shinta to sleep by the side of my bed, but he kept sticking his nose in my ear and climbing into my bed, finally I gave up and let him stay. In the morning, he was a different dog, he no longer bolted at every opportunity and became a willing worker, although he still hated my left hand.
By the time we got to our second last posting, Shinta had become very affectionate, climbing on my lap or lying next to me with his head on my lap whenever he could, it was also becoming evident he wasn’t a very healthy dog: One weekend another handler rang me at home and said there was something wrong with Shinta, when I quizzed him, he said Shinta was very quiet and had sidled up to him in the kennel and nuzzled his hand for a pat, not Shinta‘s normal behaviour. Alarm bells rang and I raced in, but Shinta greeted me like there was nothing wrong, the other handler insisted that he wasn’t quite right and so I took him to the Vet. Upon examination the Vet found he was indeed crook, he had suffered a heart attack.
His list of health issues was expanding: He already had an enzyme deficiency which prevented him from digesting his food properly, he had also picked up an ear infection that wouldn’t respond to treatment and had a continual runny nose. The ear infection was taken care of by an aural resection (removing the lower section of ear leaving a hole in the side of the head), for the runny nose, he had an exploratory rhinotomy, (peeling back the face and scraping out the nasal cavity). When done the Vet advised me to keep him indoors that night and gave me a syringe with a pain killer, telling me to be very careful when I administered it that night, as he would in all probability be in a great deal of pain. I came in that night and slowly opened the door to the SGT's office where Shinta was convalescing, Shinta jumped around whinging, whining and wagging his tail as usual, I gave him his needle without any problems and went home.
The next day I spoke to the handler I asked to check on Shinta during the night, I said Shinta was fine and obviously not in any pain, “Ooooh yes he was“, he said, “He tried to smash his way through the window to get at me“, so I guess he wasn’t feeling too well after all. The rhinotomy made things worse: Both nostrils ran continuously, the mucous building up and hardening, blocking his nostrils with rather large hard bogies the size of peas which I removed everyday with tweezers. I was coming to work practically everyday to look after him at this stage and after a discussion with my boss regarding Shinta’s health problems he agreed not to interfere as long as I continued to look after him as I had been doing (it’s nice to be the white haired boy every once in a while).
Like all dog sections, Amberly dog section did a number of demonstrations each year. One such demo was done at the Brisbane show in the middle of the large, round oval. It was quite a big demo with four man/dog teams and a number of helpers. For one exercise, Shinta was picked to do a long range attack to highlight his speed. I sent Shinta in to attack, but instead of making a beeline to the aggressor, he ran, full speed, around the oval track. As he passed the audience one fellow stood up and yelled ‘go Rinny’. With that, the crowd were on their feet cheering Shinta on.
Shinta was quick, very quick, he held the record for the obstacle course, a series of eight or nine obstacles arranged in a circle, one being an 8’ scaling board, a tunnel through which the dog had to crawl and a 3” wide log walk. Shinta managed the course in 19 seconds.
I was posted to the school as an instructor shortly after and Shinta went with me. I was the only instructor who retained his allocated PD, the rest relinquishing their dogs on posting to the school. I simply couldn’t bear to part with him. I continued looking after him and he seemed to improve. Eventually I went on leave thinking Shinta was OK for a couple of weeks but he went downhill quite rapidly whilst I was away and so he was euthanised.
Unfortunately, I never knew when Shinta was crook: Whenever I turned up he would get excited and carry on like there was nothing wrong; in retrospect, perhaps that was why he liked to curl up next to me or sit on my lap in the latter part of his life, but I like to think it was for other reasons. He scared the s$%t out of more than a few people in his short life but to me he was just an extremely large, extremely affectionate Teddy bear. He retained his slightly crazed bent and never outlived his hyperactivity nor his finger painting and at the end of every shift I was usually adorned as well as he, but I just couldn‘t say no to his affection.
I wasn’t there to take Shinta for his final walk, a low life SNCO had him euthanised when I was away on leave. He was only six years old when he died, just plain worn out.
Shinta lives on in my memory and on my study wall with Dante and Chum to keep him company.
RIP PD1006 Shinta.
My first introduction to Shinta was in the isolation kennels at the school. Only 10 months old, he ran around and around in circles in his kennel, climbing up and down the wire, flinging his excrement all over the place and barking and screaming like a lunatic on uppers; he was on everyone’s ”don’t want” list for this reteam. When the chief instructor informed me he was my new PD, I was not impressed.
The very first day of reteam, Shinta ran around wildly getting tangled in the 15 footer and barking and whinging loudly and driving me and everyone else on course crazy, continually climbing back up the lead, I think he had more air time than Chuck Yeager. Shinta was an extremely enthusiastic biter and when the CI explained the new whisper in their ear method of leave on command, I had serious doubts about putting my face that close to his; but, lo and behold, when introduced, he left straight away and continued to do so for the rest of our time together.
I returned home and Shinta continued climbing back up the lead, although by this stage he was concentrating his efforts mostly on my left hand, forcing me to wear a padded glove. While at Glenbrook, the Penrith living in barracks were shut down and of course doggies had to secure the area as well as our normal duties, with no extra troops of course, the usual RAAF way. To lighten the load, I took up residence in the old barracks from 1700 hrs to 0800 hrs each day taking Shinta with me. We were both indifferent to each other at this stage and the first night in the barracks I tried to get Shinta to sleep by the side of my bed, but he kept sticking his nose in my ear and climbing into my bed, finally I gave up and let him stay. In the morning, he was a different dog, he no longer bolted at every opportunity and became a willing worker, although he still hated my left hand.
By the time we got to our second last posting, Shinta had become very affectionate, climbing on my lap or lying next to me with his head on my lap whenever he could, it was also becoming evident he wasn’t a very healthy dog: One weekend another handler rang me at home and said there was something wrong with Shinta, when I quizzed him, he said Shinta was very quiet and had sidled up to him in the kennel and nuzzled his hand for a pat, not Shinta‘s normal behaviour. Alarm bells rang and I raced in, but Shinta greeted me like there was nothing wrong, the other handler insisted that he wasn’t quite right and so I took him to the Vet. Upon examination the Vet found he was indeed crook, he had suffered a heart attack.
His list of health issues was expanding: He already had an enzyme deficiency which prevented him from digesting his food properly, he had also picked up an ear infection that wouldn’t respond to treatment and had a continual runny nose. The ear infection was taken care of by an aural resection (removing the lower section of ear leaving a hole in the side of the head), for the runny nose, he had an exploratory rhinotomy, (peeling back the face and scraping out the nasal cavity). When done the Vet advised me to keep him indoors that night and gave me a syringe with a pain killer, telling me to be very careful when I administered it that night, as he would in all probability be in a great deal of pain. I came in that night and slowly opened the door to the SGT's office where Shinta was convalescing, Shinta jumped around whinging, whining and wagging his tail as usual, I gave him his needle without any problems and went home.
The next day I spoke to the handler I asked to check on Shinta during the night, I said Shinta was fine and obviously not in any pain, “Ooooh yes he was“, he said, “He tried to smash his way through the window to get at me“, so I guess he wasn’t feeling too well after all. The rhinotomy made things worse: Both nostrils ran continuously, the mucous building up and hardening, blocking his nostrils with rather large hard bogies the size of peas which I removed everyday with tweezers. I was coming to work practically everyday to look after him at this stage and after a discussion with my boss regarding Shinta’s health problems he agreed not to interfere as long as I continued to look after him as I had been doing (it’s nice to be the white haired boy every once in a while).
Like all dog sections, Amberly dog section did a number of demonstrations each year. One such demo was done at the Brisbane show in the middle of the large, round oval. It was quite a big demo with four man/dog teams and a number of helpers. For one exercise, Shinta was picked to do a long range attack to highlight his speed. I sent Shinta in to attack, but instead of making a beeline to the aggressor, he ran, full speed, around the oval track. As he passed the audience one fellow stood up and yelled ‘go Rinny’. With that, the crowd were on their feet cheering Shinta on.
Shinta was quick, very quick, he held the record for the obstacle course, a series of eight or nine obstacles arranged in a circle, one being an 8’ scaling board, a tunnel through which the dog had to crawl and a 3” wide log walk. Shinta managed the course in 19 seconds.
I was posted to the school as an instructor shortly after and Shinta went with me. I was the only instructor who retained his allocated PD, the rest relinquishing their dogs on posting to the school. I simply couldn’t bear to part with him. I continued looking after him and he seemed to improve. Eventually I went on leave thinking Shinta was OK for a couple of weeks but he went downhill quite rapidly whilst I was away and so he was euthanised.
Unfortunately, I never knew when Shinta was crook: Whenever I turned up he would get excited and carry on like there was nothing wrong; in retrospect, perhaps that was why he liked to curl up next to me or sit on my lap in the latter part of his life, but I like to think it was for other reasons. He scared the s$%t out of more than a few people in his short life but to me he was just an extremely large, extremely affectionate Teddy bear. He retained his slightly crazed bent and never outlived his hyperactivity nor his finger painting and at the end of every shift I was usually adorned as well as he, but I just couldn‘t say no to his affection.
I wasn’t there to take Shinta for his final walk, a low life SNCO had him euthanised when I was away on leave. He was only six years old when he died, just plain worn out.
Shinta lives on in my memory and on my study wall with Dante and Chum to keep him company.
RIP PD1006 Shinta.
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