95-pounds of fluffy cuteness

Dave and I have three big dogs.  Addie, an Irish Wolfhound, was our first dog together, and she was (and still is) wonderful.  As Dave’s and my schedules evolved, we thought it would be nice to get another dog to keep her company.  At least this is what I told Dave.  Really I just selfishly wanted another dog, because I really like dogs.  Coincidentally, right about the same time I started feeling as if one gigantically huge dog just wasn’t enough for me, an old work friend announced that he was taking a job in the Middle East.  He had a big dog ( Labradoodle), and he was looking for a good family to take the dog in.  “Me, pick me,” I said.  And then I jumped up and down in front of him and waved my arms around.  After that I spammed him with emails.  Amazingly, he eventually picked us, even though our dog Addie was very, very bad when he brought his dog Doodle over for the get-acquainted visit.

Doodle was 95 pounds of fluffy cuteness and Addie embarrassed us ALL, chasing him around the living room, humping him, and then air-humping him when we pulled her off.  “She’s a teenager,” I explained, “having some teenage angst; hormonal issues.”  You know, what teenagers do (although I don’t recall having done any air-humping when I was a teenager myself, but Irish Wolfhound teenagers are different).  I explained that Addie was just going through a phase, and the air-humping would completely stop when she reached maturity.

So, anyway…Doodle moved in.  The air-humping continued.  It was so annoying.  Dave and I would be watching TV in the family room (we had a projection screen at the time), and Addie would be doing her little air-humping thing right in front of the projector, which made her look really big, projected onto the big screen.  Dave would be watching basketball, or whatever ridiculous (sorry – NOT ridiculous – I meant to say EDUCATIONAL) thing that he watches, and there’d be Doodle’s silhouette, running really fast across the screen, and then a millisecond later, Addie’s silhouette scuttling after him, doing her little air-humping dance.  It was so embarrassing.

Eventually though, Addie got over it.  That, and Dave trained Doodle to handle the transgressions against his person.  Dave taught Doodle to sit down whenever Addie came after him.  It must have seemed counter-intuitive to Doodle, sitting down when a tremendously huge dog was bearing down on him with that sparkly gleam in her eye.  But Doodle, so trusting of David, actually learned how to do it.  Now, whenever Doodle sees any sort of attack (especially humping), he sits.  He hasn’t been humped in ages (the cat..that’s another story; ask the cat to tell you about the time when he was sleeping by the fireplace minding his own business when Addie suddenly charged in and humped his head…too bad he hadn’t received Dave’s special anti-humping training).

Today, we have THREE dogs.  Addie and Doodle have been joined by Otis (the new humping Extraordinaire…must be something about Irish Wolfhounds).  Otis, at three years old, humps anything (I saw him yesterday, being very familiar with the settee on our back patio).  But thanks to Dave’s dog survival training, all is good around here (unless you’re the cat).

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