Circa 1972 est.

Floyd, the German Shepherd we had at the time, was a slow learner when it came to the rules of the house.  Or maybe we were the slow learners.  Either way, there were a number of things he knew he was not supposed to do and did them anyway.  Over time we took measures into our own hands on how to deal with these numerous infractions.  Some of them worked, some of them did not and others had more undesirable or unexpected results.  This story is about the latter.

We all woke awoke to the sounds of Cindy yelling at Dad.  It could not have been much past six in the morning and she was upset about something.  After a brief outburst Cindy came stomping back up the stairs, slammed her bedroom door and did not come back out for what seemed like hours.

The source of all the commotion was a small box that contained an old Ford Model T coil.  My father had rigged the coil up to a capacitor that converted 110 volts to 12 volts which fed into the coil.  On the other end of the coil my father attached a long wire, about 6-feet in length, with the ends exposed.  When plugged in the coil produced a strong, non-lethal, shock.  Over the years the device had been the source of many practical jokes but on this day it was being used for the intended purpose of “dog training.” 

Floyd would often get up on the couch after everyone had gone to sleep even though he knew it was against the rules.  After other attempts at training had failed my father decided to put the wire on the couch and plug it in once he suspected Floyd had climbed up on it.  He also spread some newspapers on the couch so he could hear when Floyd jumped onto the couch. 

Sometime around five AM on this particular day my father heard the rustling noise of the papers from his nearby bedroom.  After deciding to let the dog settle in, he reached over to the extension plug next to his bed and plugged it in.  Unknown to him the rustling was actually Cindy who had come down half asleep and decided to lie down on the couch.  To make matters worse, Cindy had somehow gotten a hold of the wire, not knowing exactly what it was or why it was there, and had twisted it around her toes.

Assuming the dog had fallen asleep it was time to strike.  Just as quickly as he plugged it in he knew something had gone horribly wrong.  As Cindy let out a scream he did his best to unplug the device as quickly as possible, but the damage was done.  As Cindy stormed back upstairs to her room Dad began the process of explaining to my mom what had just happened.  As you can imagine, telling the story to my mom was difficult as it required him to tell the story between extreme bouts of laughter.

Not knowing if Cindy and my Dad had just had a falling out or what had happened, the rest of the kids were not sure if they should go downstairs or not.  When we finally did go downstairs, we found both of our parents in the kitchen in total laughter.  Upon being told what had happened there was only one person left in the house who saw no humor in the day’s events.

Cindy, feeling dad had done it to her on purpose, refused to speak to him for weeks.  As for the “couch training,” a new approach was used which did not involve “the Shocker.”  We soon learned that the coffee table, turned upside-down on the couch, was just as effective.