My wife and I both come from families that had multiple dogs. It follows naturally then that, since we bought our house, our canine population has been growing. And so has the stories.<br />
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The first story comes from when I was still a teenager. Along the route where I walked one of our Irish Setters, there was this gigantic St Bernard who pounded his backyard fence every time. One day, he flattened one section completely. My setter was a big boy, weighing about 90 pounds. But when he saw this juggernaut coming, he hid behind me. And no matter move the Saint made, Shawn always made sure that I was always shielding him. Wish I had a video of that.<br />
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After we bought our house, we started to get Rough Collies from a breeder friend. Eventually, we had four including three brothers and sisters, each from a different litter. Our female was a real 'duchess'. To put it politely, she conserved her strength. One time, my wife and I took all four of them for a walk around the neighborhood. Near halfway through our route, Ruthie started to move slower and slower. Eventually, she stopped all together. No matter what, there was no way we could induce her to continue - when she made up her mind, there was no compromise! I had to walk the last five blocks myself to get the car for the 'rescue mission'.<br />
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One morning, someone left the backyard gate open and the dogs escaped. My wife came home and, seeing the dogs gone, organized a search party from our teenage boys and friends and scoured the neighborhood. She got all of them except for Ruthie. This was a strange development, since knowing how slow she moved, we didn't expect her to get very far. A deliveryman told Sandy that he saw a big black dog (she was a Tri colored collie) amble by him, but that was the only clue we had. We thought we lost her. Later on that day, we got a call from our vet that someone had her and identified her by her tags. It turned out she walked as far as she could and laid down right across the front door of an auto repair shop about one block away. When the owner arrived to open up, he saw a strange big dog and prudently decided to go through the back way. When he opened the front door from inside, Ruthie invited herself in, layed down and then graciously accepted any treat she was offered.<br />
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Our youngest collie was much more energetic. One time, when our vet went on a trip, we volunteered to watch her eight puppies for a weekend. Frequently, we would carry them all outside to go potty in the backyard.This was too chaotic for Goliath. His herding instincts took over. He moved each puppy to a separate area of yard and moved constantly to make sure that they stayed there!<br />
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We now have 2 Bernese Mountain dogs who like to lie in our flowers, 2 St Bernards, one that snores in bed with us and 1 Newfoundland