The day my father brought home our first puppy to our home he was a dog we will never forget. The little golden retriever shone with such happiness that no one could resist her. The beautiful name Chelsey was the one that suited our family. The ever so cute puppy traits seemed to end too soon. Nobody wants that puppy stage to end but like all animals, they all grew up.

Chelsey had the life of a prince. Treats here, table scraps there. Days of endless naps never went out of style for her. She worked hard on the fall hunt and slept all day in the cold winter months. She knew that her life was a dream and she enjoyed it.

However, around the age of 10, a piece of news from the vet changed our lives. Chelsey had cancer running through her body and it was only a certain amount of time to know that her life was going to end. The family cried for hours, but I knew she would fight no matter what.

The doctor gave him about a month, and every day we all seemed to be walking on eggshells waiting for him to die. Fifteen days passed and we began to sweat and worry in the deep night. The cancer process is not something to enjoy and I am sure that most of you have had some kind of experience with it.

Three years and twenty-one days later she died. No, this story is not written to make you sad. The point I’m trying to make here is to not always listen to everything the doctor says and just enjoy every second he has with his loved ones.

I wrote this story for the Dog Training Database, which helped us teach Chelsey most of her training. It is an excellent source for finding training sources and I live from it now. Not one of those sites looking for a sale, rather it was created by a dog owner to help other dog owners find sources of dog training.