Sam The Man

So after writing my last post, I realized that our dogs make very few appearances in my blog, yet they are an integral part of my life.  Sometimes they drive me absolutely nuts but most of the time, they are very lazy, easy going creatures that really just don't demand much from me.  I am secretly dreaming of the day when we don't have dogs, just because I think my life will be much simpler.  Which it will, but it also will be missing something.

My dogs are getting older.  The Man is 10 (which I hear is pretty old for a Doberman) and Madonna (that is her real name for those of you who know her otherwise) is almost 8.  We got them both from the best shelter ever.

We have had The Man since he was 2, wild and a little insane.  Okay, a lot insane.  He had never seen a leash and clearly had never played with a toy.  He still doesn't really know how to enjoy one, but if you get him in the right mood, it is about the cutest thing you have ever seen.  We worked with him a lot, employing the local "Dog Nazi" to help us.  We signed him up for Juvenile Delinquency (that really was the name of the class) and it was a great experience for everyone else in the class because the Dog Nazi was able to use him as an example of what your dog should not be doing....it worked almost every time.  The only time people were in awe, in a good way, of The Man was when he started running.  Now that he is old, he doesn't do it as much but when he runs, he can really run.  We measured his stride on the beach one time in the sand and it was a little over six feet long.  When I say he was fast, it really is an understatement.

But, we kept working with him because we really wanted to have kids and really didn't want to have to get rid of him in order to do so.  The low point in our relationship was one day about 5 or 6 years ago.  I was practicing taking things off of him.  I went in for his new bone and he turned on me.  He went for my arm and stopped himself.  In retrospect, I was impressed that he had the wherewithal to actually stop from biting me but that was the closest I ever got to getting rid of him.  That and the time he killed the groundhog when we first got him but that is another story for another day.

Needless to say, with more work...and some aging...The Man is an almost completely changed dog.  We all know that he doesn't really need us, that he could survive on his own.  On one hand, that makes him totally cool and on the other it makes him really annoying.  But that is how it has always been with him.  He is a dog of extremes; a speedy couch potato and the best worst-behaved dog ever.  The Husband and I talk of getting another Doberman some day, but we both know there will never be another one like him.