Biggest political post ever!

We have a miniature Australian shepherd. My least favorite dog ever. Eats drywall. Incredibly clumsy. Can’t bark like a normal dog. It Urrffs. I’ve always heard how intelligent they are supposed to be. You drop a treat for it and it will hit it on the face.

 I had an English bulldog that was awesome. He went everywhere with me and everyone loved him. 

Piper the the mini aus is annoying and recently bit two people. Idk what it’s deal is. I have a strong dislike for the dog yet I’m the one who gets to take care of it. Feed, play, take to vet, brush, etc. It sheds like crazy. Sometimes all year long. I swear I vacuum an entire dogs worth of hair from my garage gym.

It did train with me during marathon prep for a few months. Once we got to the ten mile distances she couldn’t hang. Would run well off the lease and never took off after anything or bothered with any of the neighbors dogs. But something is wrong with her back left leg and she’d be half a mile behind me. 

You make a post about your dog, and don’t even post a picture of the dog?? Come on man, you know better than that! 

Black Mouth Cur. Friendly but barks at everything. A leaf blowing across the lawn prompts an aggressive bark response! I love her but she’s a pain in the ass. Also very prey driven. If she gets a sent or she sees a rabbit and is off leash, she’s gone! would I get another CUR when she’s gone? Probably not. Great dog but high energy and leaves me in the dust.

Of course I’ll complain about her and then when she’s gone, I’ll go out and get  another,I’m a sucker for dogs.

Our current dog is a terrier mix.  An American pit bull cross with Staffshire terrier.  We don't use the Pit bull word sometimes because some people are very fearful of them. Most of my dogs come from shelters.  This one replaced my Australian, German Sheppard that passed from cancer.  We got the terrier mix from an Iowa shelter.  In that state towns can outlaw Pitbulls.  The town he was at with his brothers and sister outlawed ownership of that breed.  When we got him, my wife didn't think he was really one even though you get a DNA showing what breeds are in him.  He looked nothing like his brothers and sister.  Once we got him home, she sent a test away to prove he wasn't one.  When the test came back, he was even more Pitbull than the first test said.  Great dog, very friendly.  Scared of lots of new things.  Loves to sit on someone with no personal space.  Ruins toys by tearing them up.  He has crazy zoomies most days for no reason.  Love him.

My present dog is a German shepherd. He is the 2nd we have had. I am a big fan of the breed. I like dogs that are easy to train. We have had rescue dogs in the past 1 worked out good 1 was a challenge. I seem to like German breeds as I feel they are easier to train. I have had 2 German Shorthaired Pointer, 1st I got as a puppy, obedience trained him then trained him on birds. Its a toss up on if him or Wolfgang (present German Shepard) are my best dog. I had an Australian Shepard, bad dog until about 3 years old then became good.  

This my little shadow. I got her for my daughters when they were young, but she gravitated towards me. I was sick with the flu once and she stayed in bed with me for three days and only got out to eat and potty. Always in my lap. Yesterday, she was breathing heavy and acting sick. I took her to the vet and found out she had liver cancer and an enlarged heart. I got to hold her as they put her to sleep. She had a good 13yrs.

Sorry to hear, that had to be hard.

Yeah she’s about 40 cards short of a full deck. But omg look how pretty her eyes are!!!!

Just put down our toy aussie. His name was Benny but we called him crackhead. I think you would understand why we called him that. He had epilepsy,  took 4 pills a day forever. It really wasn't his fault. I really miss crackhead. 

Many years ago my wife said that after my little Mattie and her 2 cats had passed away we would not get another pet.

 Mattie not pictured walked into the Maryland MC shop I wrenching at and came up to my work area and she claimed me. Her name Mattie came from her being so neglected that her hair was all so matted together and flea infested with crazy long nails that we had to using tiny scissors cut off all of her hair. She knew what we had done for her and was the most loving dog because of it and my little buddy going to races and pretty much everywhere with me just about everywhere I went. I had Mattie for 11 years and even I even shared custody of her with my ex.

A few years before Mattie passed my wife for some reason was drawn to looking at the dogs the county shelter that is 1/4 mile from our house had listed on line and she fell in love with Laci our white foster #1 Plot Hound so so much for not getting another dog.

After that my wife started volunteering at the shelter on Saturdays and next thing you know we are fostering rescue dogs for a 2-4 weeks before being transferred up to NY NJ and PA rescues so we have had roughly 50 dogs pass through our home. She eventually became the foster groups president for several years and her VP assistant that worked side by side with her ended up being hired by the county to run the shelter and she has made many great changes in the shelter’s processes so now a small percentage of the dogs get put down and previously the percentage was very high. 

One weekend here in Charlotte there is a huge adoption event called Bark in the Park Top Dog Festival that ironically I am wearing the T shirt from right now. For that event we were taking Pit Bull Trooper to the event to hopefully get him adopted. When my wife came home with him he was scared to death of everything band We even talked about taking him back to the shelter and exchanging him for another dog to take to the event. In about 30 minutes he quickly became a completely different happy well mannered loving dog! He was friendly and well loved by everyone at the event but he wasn’t adopted at the event. Monday morning my wife took him back to the shelter and then headed off to work in up town Charlotte. After dropping him off she called me crying and I told her to turn around and go back and we would adopt him. Adoption #2 We renamed him Cooper yes from Guy Cooper. He was a very well trained and really easy to walk and he minded everything you told him to do. Long story we found in his shelter records that he was 1st adopted out from the shelter when he was young under 1 year and then returned. He was then adopted a 2nd time and again returned. It made no sense because he was a great dog but skittish of humans prolly from human abuse. Our area has a huge problem with Pit dog fighting and the shelter gets lots of Pits after a fight gets raided that stay at the shelter till after court. We are pretty sure the 2nd adoption was probably for fighting or training. Cooper was my buddie and he absolutely a protector for us and he could read peoples temperament from far away and react to keep us away from them. 

About 5 years ago on a Saturday while I was at the Atlanta SX my wife was at the shelter counter and someone walked into the shelter to turn in a tiny black puppy that they claimed to have found. Because of Parvo puppies are immediately fostered out so they do not get it. When my wife called to tell me that we would be fostering a little puppy and I immediately knew over the phone that we had adopted foster #3 I do not know why but my wife named her Ladybug. She was so small she could be held in the palms of your hand. 

We always do a DNA test on our dogs to learn the dogs natural traits. Laci was a large percentage of hunting dogs and Plot Hound and she was definitely a hunter and also a great calm separator between dogs that may have not been getting along with each other. She would position herself between them so it didn’t escalate into a fight. Cooper was a large percentage Pit Bull. Ladybug is also a large percentage Pit Bull but about 25% a large breed and we are pretty sure it’s Great Dane because she is a lot taller larger than a Pit. Because some campgrounds are not Pit friendly we say she is some kind of a Lab.

In the last 2 or 3 years we have had to put Laci and Cooper down. Laci was just old age and Cooper had a cancer spot in his gum that started bleeding. Cooper had been sending us signals by constantly licking on the leather chair he usually was laying in. We didnt know that it was a sign of pain.

 Bug is the only one left.

Wife wanted a big dog, I wanted a smart but mellow tempered dog. So I got her a Black Lab, mellow  super smart and obedient as can be. loves and super protective of the grandkids. My wife trained her to find and fetch her phone which she misplaces at least once a week. That right there is her invaluable. I take her on runs while riding my mountain bike, she runs right along side. She loves our pool, keeping her out is a challenge, she will go for a quick dip and right back through the doggie door and dripping everywhere as happy as can be. One of he best dogs/friends I've ever had.

Lock your dog and your wife in the trunk of your car overnight. See which one is happy to see you in the morning. I think this is why we keep getting dogs. 

Heart broken for ya Oldman. What a life you gave her tho! That face is too dang cute. 

We're sold on male rescue mutts. Chowder and his 2 sisters we're dropped off overnight at the German Shepard Rescue in Murrietta in cardboard box. They think they were 2-3 days old. A foster family took them in until they were 6 weeks old. As soon as we saw his puppy picture we were sold, I know all puppies are cute but he looked like a stuffed animal. He has been the easiest dog to own we've ever had. He stays in the front yard, he'll lay there on the lawn and watch other dogs walk by and just sit there and watch them. He's so good at hanging out in the yard sometimes we forget he's out there. We'll hear a polite bark at the front door and he'll be sitting there waiting to come in lol. He is amazing with kids, zero signs of aggression and he loves them. Here's his puppy pictures, chick magnet is an understatement lol

Our cat Amigo actually picked me. We went to a "Cat event" at the pet store by Costco in DP.  I picked up one kitten and was thinking about that one, then another one that had a little scab on his nose looked at me and meowed, when I picked him up he crawled up my chest, bumped my nose with his, then curled up under my chin and started purring..... we weren't seriously looking for a cat but I was like ok, go get the paperwork. lol.  He's had somewhat of an attitude since day one. He's also the friendliest cat we've ever owned. He hangs out with us like a dog. He's the most dog like cat we've ever had. We took him to Washougal in the camper last year, he just sits between the seats and looks out the window like a dog. We were worried about him escaping and getting lost so he's got gps harness thing we got him, but he really doesn't want out, he just sits in the camper and looks out the window. First day home.  Cruising through San Francisco, and hanging out a Washougal 

Not sure what breed Moose (right) is, but if I had to base my guess solely off his anxiety level, I'd say he's mostly Jewish. Visually, though, he looks like the TEMU version of a Jack Russel Terrier. 

We rescued ours. She looked 100% black lab as a puppy, but after doing a DNA test, she's the mutt of all mutts- and the best dog we could've ever been blessed with. She's never met anyone she didn't like, constantly full of joy and a water rat. Anywhere I go, she goes. I also grieve her death everyday even though she is very much alive. Her name is Stella.. like the beer

Ollie was a very small puppy when someone found him behind a dumpster in the office park where Jenn works 

She came to Jenn trying to find the owner, or she was going to take him to a shelter.

He never saw that shelter, and I've been the third wheel ever since. 

We're dealing with a huge health issue, as posted in the pup thread, but he's slowly improving. Like everyone else here, we're doing everything possible to give him his best life. 

We all say we rescued the dog from the shelter, but really the animal rescued us.  I am a very weak person at times and our dog's always save me.