Teach for a reason; learn for many.

I can't begin to tell you how much I love animals. Pets in general. I don't ever see myself living without one.

Each and every day, our little furry friends provide more than an abundance of joy for their human counterparts.

Over the many years, I've cared for many pets. Roughly, about six cats and six dogs. I also set up a 20-gallon fish tank in the living room of my first apartment way back in the 90s.

Around the same time frame, I found a baby snapping turtle in a local park. I brought it home and took care of it, releasing it back into the wild about a year and a half later. He'd gotten much bigger and needed more space than the make-shift habitat inside an aquarium I designed for him. It was a sad day, though.

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As a creative writer, coming up with names for the many pets I had, came directly from my humorous side.

Names like, Scooter Pie and Green beans, for a Rat Terrier.

Kee-kee-dee for a Calico cat.

Sideburns Brown for a Dachshund. That was the short version of his name. His full name was Sideburns Brown and the attack of the Watermelon seeds. He reminded us of a character from one of those cheesy 70s flicks. We just called him, Sideburns.

I can't take all the credit. My life partner, Stefanie is responsible for the extra-long names. She can't help it. I encourage it.

There are plenty other unique names we came up with, but we'd be here another half hour going over them. I am, however, going to mention the name of our current dog who is the inspiration for writing this.

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing, Napoleon Richard Liqueur.

Napoleon is a Maltese-Schnauzer mix. He's one of the smartest, obedient dogs we've ever had. No joke.

Before I spend time talking about him, I want to share a little history of how this small win came about.

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Of the many things I enjoyed doing with my pets, teaching them commands and tricks was full of pride and joy. Some got it, others not so much.

My first dog ever was Roxy—a German Shepard-Husky mix. As you can imagine, she was a beauty. I was 14 when my mother finally gave in to my growing pleas of wanting a dog. I wasted little time finding the one I wanted.

I inadvertently taught Roxy how to defend herself without using her teeth. Well, I taught her how to defend herself against me without using her teeth. Not in the way you are thinking.

I took taekwondo lessons when I was 12 and made it all the way to an orange belt. Would have went further, but we moved away.

I loved karate.

In the neighborhood we moved to, I taught a bit of what I learned to some of the other neighborhood kids. We practically spent a whole summer choreographing little fight scenes. Great memories...

With Roxy, the time spent playing with her involved using foot maneuvers. I would use my right foot to do little circular moves around her head and toward her sides, never coming in contact with her, though. After some time, she could predict my moves and countered them with blocks of her own. She understood it was a game and grew fond of playing it. Wish I had video of that time. Unfortunately, the 80s wasn’t as technologically savvy as today.

After Roxy left me in an unfortunate way and I moved out to my first apartment, I had a slew of cats that didn't mix too well with irresponsible roommates. I lost a couple of my feline friends to being let out the door by mistake.

As we all know, some cats are finicky loners. Out of the six or more I owned, the only one I could really teach things to was Bonsai.

First off, with an exception of Roxy, I taught all my pets the snap—a simple double-snap of the fingers to get their attention. Whenever they heard it, they knew it was time for them to come hang out with me. No matter where they were in the duplex apartment, a few snaps and they'd come running. They responded to their names as well, but I preferred the snap most of the time. Bonsai, in all her courageousness, would jump on anything I snapped my fingers over.

One day, I wondered if she would jump on my shoulders if I snapped my fingers near them. Short answer, yes, she would. Time and time again, she would. After her leap onto one of my shoulders, I would put my arms out in front of my body in a circle then put my hands on top of each other, creating a bridge. I would then snap my fingers, and yes, she would walk the complete circle from one shoulder around to the other, tilting my head forward so she could do it again if she wanted. I would show friends and family when they came over because as a young man, I thought it was 'cool'.

I went a few years without pets until I moved to Michigan from Ohio in 2001. We bought two Rat terriers. Scooter Pie, who I mentioned before, and Bum Bum (short version).

Bum Bum was the smart one. I couldn't wait to teach her things. They both learned the snap pretty quick. After that, it was time to move onto other lessons. This time, I decided to use hand motions with the commands. Every time I told one of them to sit, I would face a flat palm toward the ground and move it downward. After weeks of doing that, I took my voice out the equation and just used the motion of my flat palm, and it worked. They understood. They knew it meant to sit.

A short time later, I taught Bum Bum how to roll over. Scooter Pie wasn't interested. It took Bum Bum about three days to understand what I wanted her to do. Yes, I employed the reward system by giving them treats when they did something correct.

During her lessons, I would use the same dual method. This time it was my voice paired with a circular motion using my right index finger. It didn't take too long for her to surprise me one day when I did the motion in front of her without the voice, and right away she rolled over. She received the biggest treat after that.

Fast forward some years, after they both had gone to doggie heaven, we got two new dogs. The first one was Napoleon Richard Liqueur. We bought him as a pup in 2012. Six months later, we decided to get Napoleon a friend. Entering the mix was Asster Jenkins. Asster was another small, white dog. He, being a five-year-old rescue, sadly passed in 2022.

From the start, the two of them got along like they had known each other for years. We felt blessed knowing we didn’t have to ease them into a friendship.

Before Asster came alone, Napoleon learned the snap pretty quick and would come running to me every time. He also picked up on the hand motion that meant to sit. For another lesson, I added a different motion. Any time I said 'come here' I would use my right hand to make an inward waving motion--the same type people use when they want someone to come to them without using their voice. It worked. After a while, both him and Asster would respond after seeing the motion and come over to me.

Another simple command they eventually responded to was finger pointing. I think a lot of dogs may learn this one on their own. These two knew exactly what it meant. Especially when it was treat time and they weren't aware there were still one or two on the floor. I would point to it and right away, they would go sniffing around until they found it. For Napoleon, it doesn't have to be treat time. You can point at anything and he tries to look for something, even if there's nothing to be found.

So yeah, I taught my dogs basic sign language without that really being the goal. I just wanted to see if they could learn alternate ways of communicating. Each time they learned something was a small win.

But it wouldn't be until late last year that the benefit of teaching Napoleon would reveal its most-practical use.

Napoleon is fourteen now. In dog years, that's 98. He's a little slower but still likes to play ball and 'spaceship' (watch the video at the end to see what that's all about). We have plenty of time left with him, but he started showing a gradual change. We first noticed the beginning signs about a year ago when he rarely responded to thunder. We took him to the vet. They confirmed it was just a matter of time until he lost all hearing.

In hindsight of learning this, we remembered he had an ear infection almost ten years prior. It must've done more damage than any of us knew.

Today, you can yell his name to no avail. He’s completely deaf now. But you know what, we can still communicate with him. All that time spent teaching him dual commands has become useful in a way we didn’t see coming. By using sign language, he still knows when we want him to sit. He still knows when we want him to 'come here'. He still knows when there's a treat to be found. And of course, he still knows we love him.

All our other pets passed being able to hear. Napoleon is the first one to go deaf. I sometimes wonder if he wonders why his world has gone silent.

He's a good dog. We look forward to having him as long as time allows.

And thank God he can still see. I worked a little magic for him, but I am no Anne Sullivan...

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Please enjoy this Trailer from Napoleon’s movie debut in 2019.