In addition to Star I have another two boys that I am responsible for as a SAHM, and there are far and away bigger babies than Star. And arguably more work. They go by the names of Dexter...
And Stanley...
..
.and never could two Weimeraners be more different.
Dexter was our first. We brought him home when he was 8 weeks old in April 2005 and he is (shhhh, don't tell) the love of my life. He was a challenging puppy, not in the house training, whining all night kind of way, no problems there. But he was quite simply a ball of teeth wielding energy. For those of you that haven't experienced life with a puppy I should explain that just like humans they lose their baby teeth and get big teeth. And when this is happening they like to chew...on wrists, the back of thighs, shoes...and finally we sussed it..rawhide. Phew. He also used to hurl himself around our sitting room, throwing himself onto each sofa before hurtling onto the next and round and round he would go. At about a year old, around the time of the photo, he entered a new phase. Too much energy and not enough exercise. He was getting two 45 minute walks a day, of which at least 30 minutes of each was running free. The problem was this was not enough and living in a new build house with a new build sized garden was not giving him enough opportunity to burn off all that adolescent energy. So he started to eat the walls...through the pasterboard until he came to blocks. Not just nibbling you understand...holes up to half a meter in diameter...all over our kitchen.
Thankfully, shortly after this we moved house. We now have a much bigger garden with fields on two sides providing plenty of dog brain stimulating smells. And Dexter is a changed dog. He is calm (provided there are no strangers in the house/at the door or food in smelling distance), he is very loving, he is clever, he is loyal. He can read moods. If I'm ever feeling down he is at my side, nuzzling his love and understanding. Unbelievably he knew I was pregnant before I did. One night he, seemingly inexplicably, left his bed in the corner of our bedroom to sleep on the floor next to me, and there he stayed, every night until Star was born when he returned to his bed. He is wonderful and I love him so. I can't imagine life without him and I am haunted by the knowledge that this day will come...
And so to Stanley. The term Mad Dogs was invented for him. We foolishly thought, new house..new baby, let's get another puppy, another lovely Dexter, a playmate...Doh ! In April 2007 Stanley arrived, aged 8 weeks. From the moment he arrived home he couldn't have been more different to Dexter. He wet his bed... for weeks, he whined through the night...for weeks. He didn't chew though. Well, he did but he chewed Dexter, not us or the house. In fact he still does, at every opportunity, in a dominating/playing kind of way... in between perpetually trying to hump poor Dex. And unlike Dex, who eats everything in sight and is now at risk of being mistaken for a coffee table, Stan doesn't like eating. Anorexic Stan as we like to call him. This is not entirely his fault. He has colitis which is a 'pedigree dog problem' suffered my Weimies. Stan is too highly bred you see. Show champion dad, crufts champion mum...very beautiful but bad stomach and so highly strung he is a drama queen of the highest order. Dex on the other hand had a show champion dad but a mum who could only just be classed as pure bred.
So, what have we ended up with ? Stan makes Dex's life a misery most of the time, other than when they are chasing each other gleefully around the garden. We have to hand feed Stan a variety of food...currently on special vet food at £3 a tin ! But despite it all, Dex remains a stoical soul and takes whatever is thrown at him, and Stan... he just dances and prances from dawn till dusk, and his tail never stops wagging.
The tail of two Weimeraners
