I will never forget Sebastian the husky. It was early on in my career, while we were still living in Long Beach. Obviously, dogs were not allowed on the beach, but in the wintertime, when the snow was deep, we would sneak dogs on all the time for training purposes. This, however, was not the wintertime. It was a beautiful warm spring evening with the sun setting on the blue ocean. t was one of those gorgeous days that you just die for in New York. I was going to be working with a dog named Sebastian, a Siberian husky. So I decided, due to the inclement weather, I would take him down to the beach in the Long Beach area.
One of the problems Sebastian was having was that he loved to run, but he had some difficulty with the coming back part. It was such a beautiful evening and I thought, “Thank god, I don’t work behind the desk and at work for myself.” I could stay out on the beach and work with Sebastian for as long as I liked. Well, we started practicing some of the basic commands: heel, sit, stay, and come, and he was doing absolutely fine. I was walking him on the lunge line or a light line, which is a very long leash, and again he was doing great. Now was that big test; I was going to be taking him off the lead and working him without the leash to get the response that was necessary.
Well, we’re walking down toward this open area of state beach, and there was this young couple enjoying themselves. This scene was right out of two Blue Lagoon, and this couple was seen engaged in doing what young couples normally do on a blanket on a beautiful spring evening. So, Sebastian and I were walking along and all the sudden Sebastian bolted and ran up to the couple and proceeded to lift his leg and pee all over the man. I could do nothing but turn my head and laugh. I mean, what could I do at that point? Then it occured to me that this guy might be 6 feet 6 and 300 lb. and, acting really macho in front of his girlfriend, not too thrilled with having urine all over his head. Well, he stood up and yelled across the beach, “Is that dog yours?” To which I replied, “ I never saw that dog before in my life.” After rounding up Sebastian, we trekked farther down the beach, where I put him back on leash and he responded well. The couple was now out of sight, and I felt confident that Sebastian would not repeat his escapade, so I took him off the leash once again. Sure enough, out. of the blue, Sebastian bolted again, racing back to the couple and to deftly urinating on the man’s head once again. The man took of in pursuit of Sebastian, and I took off in pursuit of the man. It was quite the Keystone Kop chase. Eventually Sebastian became a well-behaved a dog. And as far as I know he has not peed on anyone since.