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| Bruce jumps to dig his teeth into Vivek’s bite suit. (below) Bruno sticks his tongue out at the camera. Pictures by Saradindu Chaudhury |
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There are two dogs in FE Block’s Singh household. One of them, the Pug Bruno, is beyond training. He couldn’t care less about someone trying to teach him to “sit” or “fetch” and would do what he feels like anyway. So all hopes were pinned on the second dog Bruce, the French Mastiff.
Not one, not two, but three trainers were hired one after the other to teach him but one look at the size of Bruce Almighty and they all ran away.
So Vivek Vikram Singh decided to train Bruce himself. “I researched the techniques and ordered a bite suite online,” he says. The suite is a bulky 10-kg one with a tough jute exterior and thick padding inside. With the suit on, Vivek provokes Bruce to come and charge at him.
They practise no more than once a fortnight, for the well-being of the suit. Two more suits, to cover just the arms, had been purchased along with this full-body suit three months ago and Bruce ripped one of them to shreds in just three days.
However vicious Bruce may seem, it is in fact the tiny Bruno who is the alpha dog in the house. “Bruce was brought home when Bruno was a year old but even as a puppy he was four times the size of the Pug,” recalls Vivek. While Bruno was initially scared of Bruce he soon realised the pup was harmless and started bossing over him.
The Singh household is a three-storey building and David often chases Goliath up and down. The family members ensure the two are not left alone without supervision as they end up brawling otherwise. “Bruno tries to climb up Bruce’s head whenever he lies down but his head is so big that it looks like Bruno’s climbing a hill,” says Vivek, pulling the Pug away from the Mastiff yet again.
Incidentally the two-and-a-half-year-old Bruno hates being lifted or petted too much. He’s an adult and doesn’t like to be treated like a baby, even if he’s cute. Bruce on the other hand jumps at half a chance to play, literally. “He knows jolly well that my mother and sister cannot harness him and purposely runs fast if they take him for a walk,” says Vivek. “After a few seconds of being dragged they let go of his leash and he runs away expecting them to play ‘catch’ with him.”
Food habits of the dogs are distinct too. While Bruno’s ultimate dish is curd, Bruce has to have a kilo of dog food, 750g of chicken and 750g of rice a day. And his weakness is sweets. Just the other day after everyone retired to bed the 60kg Bruce jumped up on the dining table and polished off an entire box of laddoos.
Miraculously, the table survived.
F If you have a pet you have brought up at home as a family member and which has its eyes only for you, do write to us with your contact number at The Telegraph Salt Lake, 6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta 700001 or call 22600115 after 3pm or email to saltlake@abpmail.com
