I love my dogs. Each has a unique personality. They also share one thing in common; a zest for tearing apart stuff. It isn’t tough to prevent destruction. Simply put stuff you don’t want to lose out of their reach. I can’t remember the last time I left shoes out. They aren’t without sense though. The two big dogs never take things from my office, Only the living areas. I suppose they see whatever is there as communal property.
We have three dogs. I’ll write about them all eventually. The first two, we’ve had some time. They are all black lab mixes. Jethro is Shepherd/Lab. I’ve met his parents. We just got a Huskie/Shepherd/Lab puppy. I’ve met his parents as well. Aria, our middle dog, was a rescue. She has a lot of everything in her. If I had to guess, I’d guess Lab, Heeler, and Shepherd. I’ve met her mom, who looks like a shepherd colored heeler.
She’s high energy, territorial, and super protective.
For the most part, she’s a sweet, happy dog. There’s something hilarious about seeing 60 lbs of black dog jump like a puppy at sprinklers. You have to maneuver her around them on walks, because she’ll pop the heads off them. In our yard, she’s eaten them twice. First time, I went to take out the garbage and heard the water fountain sound of a busted sprinkler, with herself dancing around like a puppy.
She’d destroyed two zones – about 14 sprinkler heads, only about 1/2 I found. Last week, she hit again and it was totally my fault. We were heading to bed and the missus says “Aria was really wet”/. That’s when it hit me that I forgot to call the dogs in when the sprinkler system was going on. Crap. This time, at least it was only one zone. Depending on the damage, that’s about $20/zone.
I like her protectiveness, in that if there’s someone in my space, she’ll nip them (as a warning to back off). People do incredibly stupid stuff when I’m out walking, usually almost running into me. And every time they escape her jaws by milliseconds, and by my control. It’s really tough to see a kid that doesn’t know better come running up to pet the doggies, who manifestly don’t want to be petted.
Sad that her circle of trust doesn’t include grandkids. She likes them well enough. Just not near me, or any of her stuff. She’ll come around when she sees them as family.
She’s an extremely effective guard dog. I’ve seen the two chase people away from our property at least three times. Every time, Aria’s in the lead, returning on command, or when the threat is 50 feet from the property line.
She’s, by far, the quirkiest of the three, and the sweetest.
Inspected By Pat 