only written the one book that he knew of, but nowadays you couldn’t turn on the radio without hearing a promotion for one of her upcoming seminars.
He’d assumed she was older. Much older. Why, he wasn’t sure, just something about the way she wrote spoke of a maturity beyond her years. He thought about the book he’d read and didn’t think there’d been an author photo along with the brief bio.
He was so occupied by his thoughts of Mikayla that what came next took him by surprise. Angel sprang at him in joyful delight, all two hundred pounds of her, and together they hit the floor with Dusty on the bottom.
Before he knew what had happened, Angel was standing on his chest, smiling down at him. She barked once, a loud, happy bark as if to declare she’d won.
“Angel!” Mikayla was pulling on the leash, trying to get the dog off him, but Dusty was more successful in just pushing her to the side and climbing to his feet. Except for a bruised ego, he was none the worse off.
“Bad girl!” Mikayla was scolding her, even as she petted her head. Dusty wondered if she understood how contradictory her actions were.
He dusted himself off. “You shouldn’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“You’re disciplining her with words, but rewarding her with action.” He motioned to where her hand was running over the dog’s head. Angel’s tail wagged as she enjoyed the petting.
Mikayla looked down at her hand as if it had taken on a life of it’s own. “I hadn’t even realized it.” She snatched back her hand. “It’s just habit.”
Dusty glanced down at the dog who was once again sitting, this time at her master’s side, her tail still wagging happily.
Dusty thought he better lay down the ground rules now. He’d seen this before. People who could not bear the idea of being apart from their pets for any amount of time. Just watching her behavior with the dog, Dusty thought Mikayla Shroeder might be one of those people.
“Ms. Shroeder—”
“Mikayla.”
“Mikayla, you need to understand that my training methods are different from others. If I accept Angel as a client, she has to stay here with me.”
Her eyes widened. “For how long?”
“Eight weeks.”
“Eight weeks? Why so long?”
He braced his weight against the examination table and folded his arms across his chest. “What I do is less training and more deprogramming. I need to be her complete focus for a while. After two weeks, you can come visit her and then after that I need you to come in once a week for training.”
“What kind of training?” she asked.
“You have to understand that Angel is half the problem. You’re the other half. Your behavior toward her has to change as much as her behavior toward you.”
She glanced down at her dog, who gazed up at her with adoring eyes. “I don’t know about this. Eight weeks is a long time. We haven’t been separated that long, since…I just don’t know.”
Dusty caught the pause, but said nothing. Most people who came to him never went through with the program for this very reason. They did not want to be separated from their pet for such an extended amount of time. But separating them was the only way to get the dog’s complete attention, and getting the dog’s complete attention was the way to retrain them.
“I tell you what.” He walked over to her and took Angel’s leash. “How about I give you a tour of the hospital and training facility and then you make up your mind?”
Chapter 3
Dusty led her down a series of hallways, pointing out the various rooms to her, showing her the hospital was a lot bigger than it looked from the entrance.
“We are a full-service hospital and can accommodate up to twenty-five patients overnight.”
“Are you the only doctor?”
“Yes. I do allow other local vets to use the facility on occasion. We have two operating rooms, both are state-of-the-art in their components.”
The pride in his voice was evident as he guided her around his hospital, and Mikayla couldn’t help but be impressed by the place and the man.
They reached the back entrance where a set of automated double doors led to the emergency entrance. As they walked out of the back entrance it was like they were walking into another world.
From the front entrance the Warren ranch looked like a comfortable tract of land, big enough to hold the hospital and make a kennel, but behind the hospital its secret was revealed. The place was huge.
She stood on a slight incline overlooking acre after acre of green, open fields. In the distance, she could see another tall two-level building, made of the same light brick that the hospital was made of. Beside the two-story building was a smaller building that Mikayla could not quite make out from the distance.
He gestured to two golf carts sitting nearby. “If you want we can take one of the carts, but if you don’t mind I would rather walk.” He gestured to Angel, whom he still held by the leash. “Give her a chance to burn off some of that energy.”
As if sensing the possibility, Angel was pulling at the leash, straining to get out in the open field.
“Lead the way,” Mikayla said, and they headed across the field.
The more she saw, the more impressed Mikayla became. On one edge sat a stable and barn. Several horses pranced and stood in the gigantic pen just outside it. On the opposite end sat a large, three-story brick house.
Once they started walking, Angel stopped pulling at the leash and skipped along, sniffing at various things in the grass and taking in her surroundings. It didn’t escape Mikayla’s notice that Dusty seemed to have her pet well in hand.
Maybe, she thought, his way of doing things, keeping Angel on the ranch for eight weeks, would work. At least, no one had ever tried anything like that before. And she seemed satisfied to stay at his side.
“Do you board horses here?” she asked, gesturing to the stables.
“Yes, but we also raise them. I have some of the finest trainers in the country and three young colts, one of which I think could take a title.”
“Vet, dog trainer and horse breeder. Wow,” she said with a shake of her head. “You’re a busy man.”
“And you’re a busy lady. I have to confess I’ve read your book.”
“Oh? What did you think?”
“It was excellent, very thought provoking. It’s just you seem too young to have such an in-depth understanding of human nature.”
A brief sadness crossed her eyes, and Dusty regretted his words.
“Hard times do
