Chapter 563: The Disturbing Dog
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
When the conversation between Zhang Zian and the newly-arrived customers ended, Snowy asked them politely, "I'm hosting a live broadcast. Do you mind appearing on on camera?"
From the moment the new customers entered the pet shop, Snowy had been avoiding filming their faces. She only aimed the camera at their bodies.
Qian Bowen was startled. Since he had never watched a live broadcast before and did not know what it was, he was hesitant. However, his son, Small Money, responded quickly without hesitation, "It's okay, film us! Big sister, are you livestreaming the Chicken Dinner (alias of Player Unknown's Battlegrounds)?"
Qian Bowen flicked his son on the forehead. "What chicken?! This is not a restaurant!"
Covering his head, Small Money glared at his dad and complained, "The uneducated are terrible! Chicken Dinner is the most popular game nowadays, don't you understand?"
Qian Bowen raised his hand and scared his son. "How dare you say that I am uneducated! You want me to beat you?"
Snowy smiled and explained, "We just want to capture the process of customers selecting pets."
"Oh, let's do it. I have never done anything bad, so I have nothing to be afraid of." Qian Bowen still didn't fully understand Snowy's intentions, but he agreed anyway.
Zhang Zian asked, "What kind of dog do you plan to buy?"
Qian Bowen pushed his son. "He is asking you! What kind of dog do you want? The same breed as our previous dog? Or another breed? Let's try another type of dog. The previous one was really quarrelsome."
Small Money was obviously upset. He said sullenly, "I want a dog that looks just like Kiddo! I am willing to buy a new dog with my own lucky money! Not a big deal!"
It seemed that this kid gained his nickname, Small Money, because he kept bragging about his lucky money. Zhang Zian was curious how much lucky money this kid had? Judging from the clothes of the father and his son, they came from an the working class family.
Qian Bowen was very helpless. He sent his son to the display case to watch the dogs. Then he took Zhang Zian to the side and vented his grievances in a low voice, "Seriously, when we lost our dog Kiddo a few days ago, apart from feeling sorry for the dog, I felt kind of at ease… I could even say that I felt relieved, because that dog was so noisy and it was barking all the time."
According to Qian Bowen, he worked in a factory and was responsible for operating the assembly line. He worked three shifts a day and often needed to work at night. He was tired and sleepy after the night shift. After returning home, all he wanted was to sleep for, but the dog was always barking at home. It was so noisy that he had a headache and he couldn't sleep well at all. One time, he almost caused an accident because of his drowsiness.
Not only that, but even when he was on the shift, he still needed to sleep at night. Yet, the dog was still very rowdy at night. It would stay quiet for a while if Qian Bowen fed a bit of a snack to it. But later, it continued barking and did not quiet down until after midnight.
Qian Bowen sighed. "Since we raised this dog, the experience was almost the same as having a second child. Every night when it barked, we would go to look at it and tell it not to bark. Don't be fooled by its small size! It's especially good at barking! Because of this, our neighbors upstairs and downstairs came to us more than once. Some neighbors were students who would need to take the high school or college entrance examinations this summer, so they must rest well at night…We got along quite well with our neighbors originally, but since raising this dog, our neighbors rolled their eyes at us every time we met. Someone even warned us that they would call the police should the dog bark again…"
Zhang Zian frowned. From Qian Bowen's description, he understood the seriousness of the problem.
Snowy and Vivi frowned, too. Since Snowy and Vivi lived in single-family homes, they did not need to worry about if their neighbors minded if they have pets. They had never thought that keeping pets could bring such big trouble.
Setting aside other small troubles for the moment, the two issues alone—that Qian Bowen nearly caused an accident due to his dog's barking affecting his sleep; and the dog's barking had interfered with the examinee's rest—were enough to decide that this family should not have a dog.
"I know." Qian Bowen noticed that Zhang Zian, Snowy and Vivi were about to say something, so he waved his hand and said, "I know that under such circumstances, we really should not continue raising the dog. In fact, even if the dog had not been lost, I had intended to give it away quietly, and then tell my son that the dog was lost. But I felt quite sad when we did lose our dog. After all, my son and I had been raising that dog since it was a puppy…"
Snowy chimed in weakly, "I think raising cats might be a good option. Cats are quiet and obedient, and they will not bother other people..."
Vivi was allergic to cats but she still nodded.
The comments of the netizens in the live broadcast were fiercer—Why did some people in hate pets? It was because some families were obviously not well suited to keep pets, but they raised pets anyway, causing trouble for people around them. Hence, many people began to hate pets.
Fortunately, Qian Bowen could not see these comments. Otherwise, he would argue with the netizens.
"But our family members don't like cats. This kid loves dogs. After our previous dog went missing, my son has been very upset. He is even more annoying than the dog… I wanted to take him here to buy a new dog. It would be the best if this new dog won't bark at all…" Qian Bowen smiled in a self-mocking way. "I know that this is not possible. What kind of dog would not bark?"
Snowy aimed her camera at Zhang Zian to see how he was going to respond.
Zhang Zian said calmly, "Many neighborhoods have the warning alerts dogs and their owners should not disturb other people. As increasingly more families have begun to raise dogs, similar issues have also occurred. But the situation in your family is more serious. Generally speaking, the bigger a dog is, the more it doesn't like to bark because it does not need to use its barking to threaten its enemies. On the contrary, the smaller a dog is, the more it likes to bark. And its barking would be sharp and loud and very piercing. If I'm not mistaken, the dog you kept before was not a big dog, was it?"
Qian Bowen nodded. "It was not a big dog, nor was it a small dog like a Chihuahua... What kind was it? Look at my poor memory, I have forgotten…"
"Dad! It was this kind!" Small Money yelled, pointing to a display window.
Qian Bowen looked at that cabinet. "Yes, it was that kind of dog!"
An energetic puppy was standing in the display case. Its two big ears lopped softly and covered both sides of its face. Its head, ears, neck, and the upper parts of its limbs were covered with chestnut-colored hair. The hair on its back was blue-black. The rest of its body was pure white. Its pair of big eyes were smart and full of vitality. The white and inverted letter "V" pattern on its face was a feature of this dog breed.
Zhang Zian glanced at the dog and immediately understood that Qian Bowen's words were true, so he said, "No wonder, this is a Beagle. And this breed of dog indeed likes to bark a lot."
As if attesting to Zhang Zian's words, this Beagle puppy barked loudly. Its voice was full of energy, which did not match its petite figure at all.
Apart from those big and violent dogs, Beagles were the least suitable dog breed for novice dog breeders. Although Beagles seemed adorable and amiable, they were extremely lively and loved barking very loudly. People who raised dogs for the first time would find it difficult to deal with a Beagle. They would be busy cleaning up the mess caused by Beagle.
"Strange." Qian Bowen watched the Beagle in front of the display case and muttered to himself, "This dog is obviously similar to my dog Kiddo, but it does not bark as frequently as Kiddo did. It has barked once or twice…"
Small Money guessed straightforwardly, "This dog is probably a female dog, so it does not like to bark… Our Kiddo was a male dog!"
"Is that true?" Qian Bowen was skeptical.
Zhang Zian asked, "Did someone give that Beagle to you?"
"Yeah, my friend sent it to me," Qian Bowen said. "Looking back, I guess he couldn't stand the dog's barking, so he gave it to me..."
The Beagle called Kiddo was so misfortunate. Because it liked barking, it had encountered two owners at a young age. And it almost was sent to a third home. Finally, it was stolen by criminals and died.
Zhang Zian thought for a moment and said unexpectedly, "I advise you to raise another breed. This kind of dog is not suitable for novices. If you insist on raising a Beagle, you will repeat your mistakes easily."
"Well..." Qian Bowen frowned. His previous nightmarish experience made him agree with Zhang Zian's judgment sincerely. But the problem was that his son liked the Beagle. Since the death of Kiddo, he and his son had argued several times at home about whether they should raise a dog and which kind of dog to raise. He failed to talk to his wife and his son out of raising another Beagle dog. Because he had raised a dog, Qian Bowen had been alienated by his neighbors. Also, if it meant he would be estranged from his wife, raising a dog would not be worth it…
"No! No! No! I just want Kiddo!" Small Money hugged his knees, squatted on the ground, and sobbed. While wiping his tears, he whimpered, "Kiddo was so poor…"
Qian Bowen had no choice but to discuss with Zhang Zian. "Manager Zhang, Dr. Sun recommended your pet shop to me and said that you are very good at training pets. The Beagles at your shop don't bark very frequently. Is it because you have trained them? If this is the case, I think there is no problem."
Zhang Zian realized that Qian Bowen and his son were determined to buy a Beagle. Even if he did not sell a Beagle to them, they might buy one from another pet shop or kennel.
"No. On the contrary, I haven't trained the Beagles in my shop. Apart from walking them outside every day, I don't normally play with them. My employees and I won't pay too much attention to them," he replied truthfully.
Qian Bowen asked in disbelief, "Why? I know that it is necessary to train dogs. It's really a headache for us to train Kiddo not to bark. Why do the untrained Beagles bark less than the trained ones?"
Snowy was also curious. She had hosted the live broadcast at the pet shop several times, and she clearly remembered that Zhang Zian had stressed to many customers who bought dogs that, unlike raising cats, dogs must be trained. The dogs that had not received training were useless… Why was Zhang Zian's argument completely different today?
"This is because…" Just as Zhang Zian was about to answer, the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of a touch of fluorescent green from the glass door from the corner of his eye. The glass doors to his shop glided open. A sporty girl with a ponytail ran into the shop.
"Snoopy!" gazing at the Beagle, she exclaimed in surprise.