If you have read any of the 40+ blogs I have written for Arin’s Good Girl Dog Treats so far, you probably know that I am a huge book nerd and movie buff. One of my favorite book and film franchises is Jurassic Park. I have collected several JP items over the years, ranging from the original trilogy on DVD to cycling socks. I even have a stuffed raptor watching over me from her perch on my headboard. Suffice it to say, I am a fan.

I recently went to see the latest movie in the Jurassic Park film franchise and while this is not a movie review, I will say that I did not like it. The spirit of the more recent films are far removed from the spirit and message of the two Michael Crichton books. So instead of a cautionary tale, we get another mundane summer action flick.

But I digress. One of my favorite dinos in the franchise is the velociraptor. They are quick , intelligent animals and they are thought to be one of the most athletic dinosaurs who ever roamed the earth. In many ways, Gabe reminds me of a Raptor. He is smart, athletic and boy, can he run. Raptors were thought to be able to reach Cheetah speeds (60 MPH). Having seen Gabe chase vehicles, squirrels and rabbits, I’m sure he would give a Raptor a run for her money.

Like a Raptor, Gabe is also a hunter. I forget sometimes, because Gabe is my pet who enjoys hugs, back scratches and washing my face with his tongue, that he was bred to be a hunting/retrieving dog. That instinct was on full display the other day when he caught a groundhog and with a few quick shakes, just like he does with his favorite chew toy, the groundhog met its maker. As any good retriever will do, Gabe then brought it to me, wanting to be petted for a job well done.

I’m not the only Chessie owner to compare their dog to a raptor. In fact, with the new JP movie out, the comparisons have increased 10-fold. I saw someone even had posted a picture of a shirt that read, “Just me and my Chessie”. It had a picture of someone walking a Raptor on a leash. The shirt sold out before I could order one, so obviously a lot of Chessie owners felt the same way.

While Chessie owners are the first people to highlight the virtues of a Chessie and the joy that comes from owning one, it can sometimes feel like you are trying to control the dinos in Jurassic Park. It’s not an easy task and it’s not something everyone should try. Just like in the movies, there is a lot of trial and error before they  become somewhat manageable and even then if the dino or Chessie decide they want to do something, they usually ignore commands and just to it anyway. As Ian Malcolm might say: Life, or in this case a Chessie, finds a way.

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Luckily, we no longer live in the Mesozoic Era or even in 1993 when the original JP movie was released. Now days, I can just give my “Raptor” an Arin’s Good Girl Dog Treat and he behaves, for the most part. Since Chessies seem to be closely related to Raptors in temperament, if the scientists at Jurassic Park had access to Arin’s Good Girl Dog Treats, maybe the dinos wouldn’t have caused all that havoc and audiences wouldn’t have had to suffer through increasingly bad sequels over the last 30 years.