11/52

Both Brian and I grew up with a dog, so it seemed very natural to want to get a dog when the kids weren't babies anymore.  Oh, I know there are plenty of breeds that are great with babies.  That wasn't the problem.  It was the amount of work it takes to have and train a dog.  In 2010, when Abigail, Emma and Isaac were 9, 8, and 4, Brian and I really started considering it.  But we had agreed that we would wait about 4 years.  The kids would be older and could help more. 

We narrowed down our choices.  We definitely wanted a dog that was good with kids, didn't shed a lot and wasn't small.  We got down to Golden Retrievers, Newfoundlands and Great Danes.  Brian's parents had two wonderful Goldens, Jackie and Murphy.  We had dog sat for them a few times and they were great with the kids.  But the clumps of dog hair they left behind left me thinking I would be forever brushing and vacuuming to keep up.  One of Brian's friends owned a Newfoundland.  It's a gorgeous teddy bear of a dog.  But apparently they drool.  All the time.  On everything.  Hmmmmm.  I'm not really a fan of dog slobber.  Then we started doing research on Great Danes.  I remember going down to Missouri for our family reunions and going to Aunt Shirley's house.  They had a few Great Danes.  The dogs were beautiful, friendly and very gentle.  They have a shorter life span than most breeds.  If we found one that was gentle with our kids, it was worth it to us.  It was settled, we would get a Great Dane. In 2014.

A few weeks later (please note this was much earlier than 2014), I get an email from Brian with a photo attachment from a breeder in Iowa.  I know what you're thinking.  Why didn't you go to a rescue?  There are so many dogs out there to love!  I know there are.  And when we had decided we wanted a Great Dane, we did talk to a couple of rescues.  Both of them refused to adopt Danes into families with children under the age of 8.  I can understand that.  Most of those dogs have a history and it's a risk to place a dog in a home with younger children that lay on dogs and pull their tails.  A dog that large can do some real damage to a small person. 

But this picture...It's this blue-eyed, white and gray creature with four long legs and a tail.  He fell in love with her instantly.  I did too, honestly, but was hesitant at first, thinking about the reality of taking on the responsibility of a puppy.

Zoey at two months.

She is a Merle Great Dane.  Merle is her coat pattern (the gray splotches and black spots). Without having met her, Brian picked her up from the breeder on October 3, 2010.  We didn't say a word to the kids.  Brian just walked in the house with her.  Emma happened to be walking up the stairs and caught sight of Brian with something in his arms.  Within a couple seconds she had figured it out and yelled to Abigail and Isaac to come downstairs - Dad had a puppy!

Plum tuckered out after meeting all of us.

We did a family vote to name her.  We had some very good runners up.  Roxie, Casper, Cookie Dough, Sparkles, T-Rex.  But Zoey won.

I will admit, Brian did all the hard work with Zoey.  He trained her, but more so, he trained me and the kids. He trained us to not let her do anything fun like jump on us or lay on the furniture - even though we thought all that stuff was cute!

A few months later, it occurred to us that she didn't respond to sounds like dogs normally do.  Our voices didn't make her ears perk up, commands like "No" or "Drop it" weren't being followed.  We started doing experiments.  Brian would call her from the other room.  We would yell her name when we were next to her while she was sleeping.  It didn't wake her up.  We realized that she was deaf.  And always had been.  And after some research, it can be common in Merle dogs.

Again, Brian helped us through this.  We needed to communicate with her using hand signals or touch.  She took to it right away.  Pointing your hand into a gun shape and tipping it down means sit.  The stop hand signal is stay.  And lowering your flat hand is lay down.  We discovered some of the advantages of having a deaf dog - you could really call her anything you wanted.  She didn't know the difference.  She isn't affected by sirens, storms, vacuum cleaners, other barking dogs or smoke alarms.  But then we realized a few disadvantages.  To reprimand her, you have to get eye contact with her.  You have to clap your hands or stomp on the floor to elicit vibration or be close enough to her to touch her.  I wasn't comfortable boarding her in a kennel with strangers who might not know how to work with deaf dogs, so she stays with my Mom and Papa (and gets SPOILED) when we are gone for vacations.  If she ever got loose, we wouldn't be able to call her name to find her.  So we installed an Invisible Fence. I didn't love the idea at first, but I did like that she has free reign in the backyard and most of the front yard.  Her natural timidity makes her a great candidate.  She wouldn't push the boundaries of the fence to necessitate higher voltage for the fence. 

Having a big dog means having to watch food on your tables and counters.  She isn't allowed to counter surf.  She isn't allowed on beds or furniture.  When people come to our house, a Great Dane could topple someone over, so we didn't let her jump on anyone.  In fact, we think in part due to her deafness, she is quite afraid of new people.

The top of Zoey's head measures about 37 inches from the ground.

As you can see, now that she's five, she has grown into those long legs.  She weighs 120 pounds and the top of her back is about to my hips.  It's funny how her size is "normal" to us.  When we meet other dogs, the kids and I always whisper about how small the other dog is.  People generally have questions and comments about her breed and size.  We've even seen owners of small dogs pick them up and walk the other way. 

Zoey, in "stalker/guard dog" position.

I know we made the right choice for our family.  Zoey is the most gentle and tolerant dog I've ever met.  And she does all kinds of crazy things.  She sleeps under our bed.  Yes, I said UNDER.  She barely fits, but it must feel safe to her, like a den.  She rarely barks, unless someone is coming to our door.  When she is excited, she puts her ears down and makes a happy growly sound.  If Brian or I sit on the floor, she immediately sits in our lap and twists all around so that you will rub her belly.  If we are sitting in a chair in the family room and we have our feet on the ottoman, she wedges in between the chair and the ottoman to lay under your legs.  There are certain people she likes so much she attempts to groom them with her large long tongue.  She naps during the day on one of our stairs.  She loves to be in the car - so much so that she attempted to get into the Highlander once when it was packed floor to ceiling with boxes and bags destined for Goodwill.  "No matter about all this stuff, Ma, I'll just wedge myself right into the tiny space here on the floor behind the driver's seat."  And on weekends, when she apparently thinks I have overslept, she stands over me and makes this loud Chewbacca sound.  No joke.