Prayers. Dogs are incredibly valuable assets, as well as great companions. They can track, and provide security, two things that will save you life if you live in the boondocks. I had a Shepherd-Rottie 50/50 mix, he was born to a breeder mishap and I found him in a kennel with a bad case of malnutrition. His owners was a young couple and apparently going through hard times, and they had cats so he was not allowed in the home and they left him with little food. How adults could do such a thing is beyond my comprehension. When I adopted him I was young, and he was so skinny and obviously very unhealthy. He gradually regained his health soon after I took him in, and I quickly fell in love with the fella. He was one hell of a dog, and smart as a whip. He grew to be larger than your average Shepherd with one hell of a set of teeth. He challenged me twice when he reach maturity, and I had to establish dominance. He also tried to eat both of our house cats for a brief period of time, and after some grooming became the best of friends with them. He was abused, but he came back to the world and turned out to be the most amazing animal. He would respond to verbal commands, and do any number of requests, when I finally grew out of his puppy years he would rarely disregard a command. He did not require constant treats: he was rewarded with praise. We had acreage on the side of a mountain and he would patrol my property boundary per my training, and respond to verbals. We had some hunters walk my property which I did not post, and told me if they saw a dog running deer they were going to shoot it. I told them if they were on my property and shot my dog, they would be shot: they didn't like that, but I allowed them to leave my property. I posted my property after this incident, I marked the trees on the forested sides and used signs on the roads. The dog never ran deer, he would let them eat from our flower gardens int he morning unscathed, and he would only engage something I gave him the command to. What an amazing animal, and he lived a very long a healthy happy life, he was at least 16 when he died which is incredible for his breed.