As I mentioned in my FURminator review, I come from a long line of obsessive vacuumers. I also come from a long line of Army officers. Think the two could be related? Yeah, just a bit…anyway, so my dad was in the Army, as was his dad and on and on.

Although I decided to go a different route, I’ve spent almost all my life around military people and on military bases, and I was lucky enough to inherit a few good traditions. One such tradition I grew up around was the Army-Navy rivalry. It’s for sure one of the oldest and most storied rivalries in the US, and comes to a head each year in December when the Army and Navy Military Academies meet for their annual football game.

So what does all this have to do with dogs and Cali? Well, this great rivalry brought us one of Cali’s greatest tricks: “Army Chow.” Through an intense military training regimen, we have trained Cali to tell the difference between “Navy Food” (bad, gross, smelly food) and “Army Chow” (wonderful, succulent, juicy food). It took many years of push-ups and sit-ups, but she finally has it down. Drop a burger on the floor and tell her “Navy Food” and she won’t even take a lick–she’ll just stare and think “that’s gross.”

But the second you say “Army Chow!” that burger is long gone, chewed up, and down to Cali’s stomach.

This is a family tradition with our dogs. My father and friends trained thier first dog back in their early Army days. They said their had it down so well, that they could drop a steak in front of him, say “Navy food” and the dog would leave the room without as much as a sniff. My dad passed the tradition down to my first dog Sparky (who also had a great “Army Crawl” trick), and now Cali has picked up the tradition.

It’s a great trick–I’ll try and get a video up of her doing it soon, but if any Army fans would like to know the training trips, just shoot me an e-mail.

Sorry no Navy dogs allowed!