I've been a dog person all my life, but sometimes...
We have three dogs, which is waaay more than enough. Two are big mutts, 120 and 80 lbs. The other one is a survivor, a chihuahua/rat terrier mix that is about 15 years old. The little guy is a cranky old man, nearly deaf, that doesn't like one of the big dogs, and will sometimes just stand and bark at him for no conceivable reason.
I let them out to do their morning business, and the smaller of the big boys will go and stand behind the big one while he wee-wees so that he can then sniff it and pee on top of it. Nice. He's also decided that he wants to eat the Clorox wipes that we clean the counters with; the only problem with that is that then he wants to frantically run around eating grass so that he can barf them back up again. About a month ago, he seemed sick for a couple of days, so my wife was walking around the back yard with him to see if he could pass whatever was bothering him, when he barfed up about 3 feet of thick string, which was still attached. She stepped on it, and the dog backed up until there was about 15 feet or so of this string on the ground. Not surprisingly, he felt better after that. I don't understand the attraction of eating non-foods that some dogs have.
The big one seems to be mostly a shepherd/husky mix, and he's a nice, gentle, kind of shy animal. He is a rescue who was abused in the past. Definitely the strong, silent type, although a little insecure. He has decided a couple of times that he really should be a lap dog and has climbed up on my wife. Mostly you just see a dog with her legs sticking out underneath. We've finally managed to more-or-less convince him that this isn't good. He's not normally as gross as the other two, but he has his moments, like the time he came in from outside with a poop dangling off of his back end attached to some hair or something he had eaten. He couldn't figure out all the screaming and gesticulating, but fortunately went back outdoors until the situation could be rectified.
The little one has decided that being housebroken is overrated. Apparently there are a lot of things more interesting outside than doing your stuff. He can be out for 15 minutes, and immediately come in and drop a land mine. Awesome. We're working on it, and fortunately with some success. I had decided to take a nap one day, and had my arm hanging off the side of the couch. I awoke to the simultaneous sensations of fur and slime on my hand. He had decided to rub his head on my hand, which I guess would be OK except for his wet nose and weepy eyes.
The medium-sized dog goes ballistic every time he hears a sound he doesn't like, such as the UPS truck, ice cream truck, neighbors coming home, kids playing up the street, and other things that humans can't even hear. He looks like the "tasmanian devil" cartoons. Generally, he'd be happy to go out and play with any of the people he's barking and snarling at. Then, of course, the little dog barks because one of the big dogs is barking, but since he's deaf, he just keeps barking after they stop.
We got the medium-sized one so the big one would have someone to play with. The big guy doesn't like to play with him. Every once in a while, he'll slam him down on the ground and say that play time is over, but mostly I think they just irritate each other.
So dogs are great.
I will say this: if dogs are capable of worship, they worship my wife. I don't worry too much about her when she's with the dogs. They may be goofy, but if someone threatened her in any way with the dogs around, I think they would regret it.
We have three dogs, which is waaay more than enough. Two are big mutts, 120 and 80 lbs. The other one is a survivor, a chihuahua/rat terrier mix that is about 15 years old. The little guy is a cranky old man, nearly deaf, that doesn't like one of the big dogs, and will sometimes just stand and bark at him for no conceivable reason.
I let them out to do their morning business, and the smaller of the big boys will go and stand behind the big one while he wee-wees so that he can then sniff it and pee on top of it. Nice. He's also decided that he wants to eat the Clorox wipes that we clean the counters with; the only problem with that is that then he wants to frantically run around eating grass so that he can barf them back up again. About a month ago, he seemed sick for a couple of days, so my wife was walking around the back yard with him to see if he could pass whatever was bothering him, when he barfed up about 3 feet of thick string, which was still attached. She stepped on it, and the dog backed up until there was about 15 feet or so of this string on the ground. Not surprisingly, he felt better after that. I don't understand the attraction of eating non-foods that some dogs have.
The big one seems to be mostly a shepherd/husky mix, and he's a nice, gentle, kind of shy animal. He is a rescue who was abused in the past. Definitely the strong, silent type, although a little insecure. He has decided a couple of times that he really should be a lap dog and has climbed up on my wife. Mostly you just see a dog with her legs sticking out underneath. We've finally managed to more-or-less convince him that this isn't good. He's not normally as gross as the other two, but he has his moments, like the time he came in from outside with a poop dangling off of his back end attached to some hair or something he had eaten. He couldn't figure out all the screaming and gesticulating, but fortunately went back outdoors until the situation could be rectified.
The little one has decided that being housebroken is overrated. Apparently there are a lot of things more interesting outside than doing your stuff. He can be out for 15 minutes, and immediately come in and drop a land mine. Awesome. We're working on it, and fortunately with some success. I had decided to take a nap one day, and had my arm hanging off the side of the couch. I awoke to the simultaneous sensations of fur and slime on my hand. He had decided to rub his head on my hand, which I guess would be OK except for his wet nose and weepy eyes.
The medium-sized dog goes ballistic every time he hears a sound he doesn't like, such as the UPS truck, ice cream truck, neighbors coming home, kids playing up the street, and other things that humans can't even hear. He looks like the "tasmanian devil" cartoons. Generally, he'd be happy to go out and play with any of the people he's barking and snarling at. Then, of course, the little dog barks because one of the big dogs is barking, but since he's deaf, he just keeps barking after they stop.
We got the medium-sized one so the big one would have someone to play with. The big guy doesn't like to play with him. Every once in a while, he'll slam him down on the ground and say that play time is over, but mostly I think they just irritate each other.
So dogs are great.
I will say this: if dogs are capable of worship, they worship my wife. I don't worry too much about her when she's with the dogs. They may be goofy, but if someone threatened her in any way with the dogs around, I think they would regret it.