Puppy Love

The puppy talk has started again. Sure, our wedding is only in 16 days. Why not load a little more onto our incredibly full plates?

I have wanted a dog for years and have been trying to talk Mike into getting one since pretty much the first day of our relationship. Of course we both knew we should wait until we had a house and a yard and were financially stable enough to afford the dog, but that didn’t stop me from pestering him about it.

Mike and I are in agreement about a lot of the qualifications for our first pet together. We want a bigger dog since I’m home alone a lot, and we want a breed that doesn’t require an insane amount of daily exercise. We also want a dog that can train easily, and that has a friendly temperament/can be around kids. Not too much to ask, right?

Lots of research has gone into this. We watch “Dogs 101” (best show ever, by the way) all the time and fall in love with a new breed every episode. For a while the front-runner was a Doberman:



Every time we mentioned wanting this type of dog someone would say how vicious they are, but they are surprisingly sweet-natured and very protective. In the end, we decided it wasn’t worth having to deal with people being afraid to touch our dog.

Next came the Vizsla, who I still love, but alas, it wasn't meant to be:


Look at those eyes! Apparently this dog rarely needs to be washed (bonus!) and it’s a great family dog. We were all but sold until we saw how much exercise these pups need. In an episode of trusty “Dogs 101” a Major League pitcher was playing catch with his Vizslas for 4 HOURS and they still weren’t tired. If those dogs wore out a professional pitcher, we’re hopeless.

We were feeling a little lost until Mike mentioned to me that he had always wanted a Great Dane. I laughed because naturally, I assumed he was kidding. I mean seriously, look at this thing:



If we got a Great Dane, I would officially be the smallest person in our house.

But Mike pulled out the ace up his sleeve and cued the “Dogs 101” episode for Great Danes.
(Seriously the show is brilliant. I’m pretty sure I would go for anything that is presented to me in a ‘101’ format).

My concerns were many, mostly centered around the fact that these dogs are gigantic. The food and vet bills would be insane, and while we live in a nice house, it’s no mansion. I also worry about that beast trampling things, like our future children.

Yet, I was shocked to find out that Danes require very little exercise, can live in an apartment and are actually happy sleeping for 22 hours out of the day:



They are incredibly friendly, great family pets and are easily trained. They are also very protective—bonus for me with my nights alone because who wouldn’t be scared if they broke into our house and saw that giant staring them down?

I’m still nervous about how big the dog will get. This is a puppy; look at the size of its feet!


But Mike actually ran into someone on the street with a Dane the other day and talked to her for a while and she said it was the best dog she has ever owned.

So are we crazy? Do we climb aboard the Dane Train?