When the dog chooses the owner

By Jessica Carrascalao Heard When Lyric the Siberian Husky first saw his owners with his piercing blue eyes, it was love at first sight. “He came to us, basically, so he chose us. We didn’t choose him,” said his owner, commercial manager Steve O’Brien. It has been ten years since Steve and Lyric first met. Steve and his wife had just been on holiday, and after finding Lyric online, they visited the breeder. Lyric was the second-last dog available for purchase, but before Steve and his wife could choose between them, Lyric ran up. “And he’s been doing that for ten years ever since,” Steve said. Although Steve and his wife threw around other names for the black-and-white husky, Steve said Lyric was the name that stuck. They came up with the name independently of each other. Steve had heard of another dog called Lyric. The name “Lyric” had also been in the news at the time, as Lyric was the name of one of the victims of the Black Saturday fires. “So independently we just kind of chose the name, which is really weird,” Steve said. At 20kg, Lyric is on the small side for a male of his breed. Steve said Lyric could sometimes be cat-like in nature; a trait which Steve considered to be a plus. “He likes to walk on the edge of things, and also he’s very clean. Like, he spends the whole day cleaning himself,” he said. During the day, Lyric’s a house dog. Steve said he had managed to train Lyric to leave things alone. “He’s never touched a shoe, never touched anything that’s not his, so he’s been awesome…like, we can leave stuff around,” Steve said. But being a husky, Lyric’s prey-orientated instincts can take over, and he likes to chase other animals. “When he’s off-lead and he sees some animal, he just disobeys you and sort of runs,” Steve said. Lyric is social, but fiercely independent and strong-willed, loves his walks and playing with other dogs. Steve laughs when asked if he considers Lyric as another member of the family. “He’s the head of the family … he’s really number three, but definitely. He goes everywhere we do, but yes. Absolutely,” he said.