Having been a passionate hunting enthusiasts since my childhood, I had the opportunity to meet many different hunting dogs in my life. Interestingly, most of the real canine "characters" that I have known were of the Pointer breed. There were a few other breeds, a weird Labrador, a psychotic Springer, and some others. But by far, the strangest and weirdest were a couple Pointers, including the one that I had!
On my last stay on Okinawa (1966-68), shortly after Jo and I got married in 1966, and after we moved to the house in Onishi Terrace Heights in Ojana, we decided to get a dog. I wanted a hunting dog, since I was going to resume hunting on Okinawa. The problem was, of course, there were no kennels to speak of on the island, so the only way you could get a dog was from private individuals. So, we decided to place an ad in the Morning Star. The ad read something like this:
WANTED
Hunting dog (bird dog) pup, under a year.
Pointer, Setter, or Spaniel preferred.
Call (our phone number).
It seems that as soon as the ad was placed we received a call. A young woman who lived in Futenma area said she had a Pointer "pup" that they were willing to give to a "good home." I think everyone knows that there is no such thing as a "free lunch." Everything has its price, and a dog that is offered for free to a good home is usually a problem animal. It isn't always so, but it is more often than not that the dog has some sort of a behavioral problem.
However, we were so thrilled at the prospect of getting a new dog that we immediately rushed over to the woman's house. The young woman, it turned out, was a wife of a Navy Lieutenant and they had two small children and she was pregnant with a third. They lived in a house that was much smaller than ours and with no yard. The dog, a full size lemon and white English Pointer greeted us by jumping up and practically knocking us over. I asked the woman how old the dog was, since I was looking for a pup, and this one did not look like a pup. But she said not to let his large size fool us, that he was under a year old, still a pup! I had seen a lot of English Pointers, and this one was not an under one year old pup, he was more like a two year old! But the dog (Gin was his name) was very friendly and the woman assured us that there were no problems and that he was house broken. She said that he was a bit too rambunctious for the two small kids and what with the small house and no yard, and her expecting another child, it was difficult for her to manage the dog. So, foolishly (very foolishly, as it turned out!), we took Gin home.
We renamed him, since Gin, we thought, was too pedestrian a name for such a dog. We called him Stenka, after Stenka Razin, the legendary Don Cossack pirate who used to ply his trade on Volga River. We were very pleased with the name since it seemed a perfect fit for the somewhat cocky and "swashbuckling" style of our new Pointer. After he seemed to get accustomed to us and respond to his new name, I began his bird dog training. I soon discovered that he was more than a handful for one person to handle. We used to take him out to Yomitan air strip where there were always quail. But Stenka appeared to not have any interest in quail, rather, he was fascinated by swallows that would skim low above the ground. Once Stenka spotted a swallow, he was gone like he was shot out of a cannon and it normally took both our efforts to corral the wild Pointer. I would chase him on foot, while Jo would try to cut him off by driving on the paved portions of the air strip. Our training attempts at Yomitan were disastrous, we spent more time chasing him than anything else. He seemed to be untrainable! No amount of effort, no training technique seemed to work with him.
We got Stenka in the Spring, so the weather was warm and we used to often go to the beach. We couldn't go to any beaches where there were people, since Stenka would always do something to annoy others, like walking all over sunbathers, lifting his leg and peeing on their property, stealing their food, and generally making a nuisance of himself. He was not very well socialized. So we sought out secluded, small beaches. Fortunately, at least back in the those days, there were plenty of smaller, secluded beaches on Okinawa. However, even with no one around Stenka managed to get into trouble. He discovered crabs underwater and would actually dive for them! Pointers are not known to be waterdogs, but I guess Stenka never heard of that. He would dive for crabs and bring them to shore and pile them up in a mound like he was making some sort of a religious offering! He would keep doing that until we had to drag him away because his eyes would become red and swollen from all the salt water!
At home he was a problem. He was only "sort of" house broken. There were many "accidents." Our yard was not fenced so he had to be taken outside on a leash, otherwise he disappeared. Stenka loved to brawl with neighborhood dogs and he also had an amorous streak and sought out all the female canines. Once I noticed he had difficulty urinating, so I took him to a veterinarian. The vet examined Stenka and very quickly gave his prognosis - Stenka had canine venereal disease! I didn't even know that there was such a thing as canine STD, but apparently there were several strains and Stenka had contracted the more common one. He had to receive penicillin treatment to be cured!
He was a terror of Onishi Terrace Heights. Once he escaped from his confinement, he was gone, sometimes for days! I looked for him all over, and couple of times spotted him running with a pack of village dogs! He loved to fight and would charge any dog regardless of size, he seemed fearless. Stenka particularly disliked a pair of dogs that lived a few houses from us. They were in a fenced yard, a concrete block fence that was about five feet high. Every time Stenka got loose, he would head straight for that house, sail over the fence like an Olympic athlete, and proceed to beat up the two dogs. The owner, an old man who was a DOD employee and lived alone, used to shoot his sling shot loaded with marbles at Stenka. It didn't seem to bother Stenka at all as he continued to beat up the old man's dogs while I would desperately try to pull him away! Fortunately, the old man's dogs were never seriously hurt, apparently Stenka was more noise than actual bite!
Stenka was impossible. I couldn't train him, couldn't control him. At home it was dangerous to leave him alone since he not only had "accidents," but destroyed things. Once we left him alone for several hours and he chewed off completely the rear portion of the rockers on a rocking chair that we had. Jo sat down and almost toppled over! We didn't know what to do with him. Strangely enough, there was someone who wanted him! A long time resident of Okinawa, an American married to an Okinawan, who lived in a house with a very large fenced-in yard wanted Stenka! He thought Stenka was the most beautiful dog in the world! Stenka was a very impressive looking animal, very graceful looking, despite his horrible behavior! I warned the man about Stenka's behavior but he said that he wasn't concerned, that he had a large yard and lived in a secluded area. So, Stenka left us and I never heard anything about him again. I continued to see the man from time to time and he was always friendly, never said anything about Stenka, so I assume everything was OK.
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