I have been thinking about this thread, and I felt the need to add a bit more.
Several years ago we had 2 dogs. Harley our chocolate lab, and Mona our Dachshund. John NEVER wanted a small dog, but now I don't think he could be happy with out one in our house..Mona started out as Tina's dog, but when she enlisted we kept her, and the little shit absolutely stole our hearts. I spent a lot of time with my Dad prior to him passing, and John started to let Mona sleep in the bed with him. Well it soon became permenent thing until she died last year at the age of 14.
Harley passed very unexpectedly at the age of 8. The day after I made John go to a breeders to look as a new pup. I usually don't force him to do anything, but I knew that he could not be in the house with out a big dog, as Harley had been such a special part of our lives. So we traveled about an hour and half to the breeders. They had 2 dogs left Forrest and his brother, they were so much alike we had a hard time choosing which one we were going to take home. Well Forrest came up and laid in between me and the wall and that sealed his fate. when we first brought him home John was sort of nutral toward him.. He was comitted to taking care of him and giving him a good life, but he didn't think he would let himself get too attatched. WELL Forrest is now his special bud.. they do everything together.he will even load him in the pickup to take the trash down to the end of the driveway. We had Forrest about 2 month when we decided that he needed to have a pet of his own. He was giving Mona all kinds of grief.. he wanted to play and she would get pissed at him. He was just a bit to rough for our ole girl. So we went and got Shelby to play with Forrest. They are best buds now.
The last time Tina deployed we baby sat our grandpups, Sandi and Belle. Well Belle was a bit high strung, and didn't like Tina's new boyfriend, and was not behaving too well, but when she was with us she turned into a completely different dog.. I think living out in the country was what she needed. She is the funniest little thing. I couldn't imagine our lives with out the three of them.. the get ahold of your heart and you are wrapped around their little toes...
Both breeds are great outdoors.. we do have to put a coat on Belle when it is really cold outside, but she loves to be out with us. sometimes she does more exploring than the Labs.
There is nothing better than coming home after a stressful day an seeing my babies all excited about me coming home, and sitting on the couch with Belle in my lap and Shelby laying beside me and Forrest trying to get in JOhn's chair with him.