Pet Feature: Pups

This post was once just going to be about one pup BUT we recently added another "pup" to our menagerie.  

Now we have Astrid - German Shepard and Husky Mix

She ended up being an anniversary present for @herpetologyguy this year

And Cora - Portuguese Water Dog (PWD)

I'll start with the original pup:

I've had Cora since the summer of 2010.  I got her when she was 2 years old and it involved a road trip to Wisconsin.  I had to find a hypoallergenic dog because my brother is allergic to dogs.  That means that she doesn't shed like a regular dog but I have to cut her hair every few months.  She stayed with my parents for my first year of college and then I found a house I could rent so she could come with me.  Shes a great dog and I worked really hard on her training so she has a great "leave it", recall, and is pretty good off leash (after she gets to run a lap of the area).  She's great with livestock, cats, people, and kids.  She does have a few quirks though.  

Not for the squeamish -  We had one incident with her during baby bunny season.  (We used to keep meat rabbits)  Unfortunate one of the kits had died.  I pulled it out of the nest box and set it on top of the rabbit cage.  I walked away to go check the other nest boxes and then ran inside to grab some more rabbit food.  Cora followed me into the house.  I didn't notice she was carrying something until I turned around.  Luckily she's great at "drop it" and out popped 2/3rds of a baby bunny.  This was partially my fault for leaving the bunny up there and for also not telling her it was off limits.  So she's a little bit of a gross dog.  She loves eating chicken and livestock manure and I have also found her playing with a cockroach on more than one occasion...

She is a licker.  There are days after dinner where she has to just come and lick your legs.  She's a bit obsessive about it and I figure its more stressful for her not to so I have learned to just sit back and enjoy her leg massages.  She really only does this to me (and my sister if she's visiting).  She loves other dogs but is a barker and can come across a little bit crazy.  I think she has a little bit of puppy neuroticism because the first two years of her life was spent in a crate or being attacked by a big black male PWD that her first owner also had but didn't like her.  When I got her the lady told me she was a total spaz.  Well I got her home and she started living like a normal dog and she is one of the most lazy laid back dogs I've ever met.  Now, she does have her spaz moments but every dog does.  

Now for the pup addendum:

We got Astrid in March of this year.  A coworker of mine was looking for a home for his fiance's dog.  His fiance is a nanny and was able to take Astrid to work with her every day but that would soon be changing and they didn't want Astrid to be home alone all day while both of them are at non dog friendly jobs.  So I brought it up to @herpetologyguy as a joke a first but the more we thought about it it sounded pretty great.  A well trained, well behaved, kid, dog, cat, livestock, and wildlife friendly dog for free?  We had even already been talking about getting another dog.  So we went to meet her with our original pup and herpetologyguy-jr and we fell in love!  A few weeks later she came home to live with us.  She is basically the larger more laid back version of Cora (without the extra weirdness) with the added protection benefit of looking like a hardcore dog.  She does have moderate hip displasia that we will most likely need to start treating as she ages but so far shes going strong.  Oh and she does shed A LOT.

And we found out she is not a fan of squeaky toys