So this is your dog? In Gary Paulsen's Woodsong, he tells a whole tale of one of his sled dogs who loved having stick. At the end, Gary is not there to untangle him from his chain and he cannot face the "right direction" to die. But he holds his stick as he dies...to tell Gary he was okay when he died. Awwww....(Paulsen had a theory or the Alaskan Native Americans did..that animals try to face a certain direction when they die).
What a sad story!