This is Reliant. He was Seth‘s gift to me on our first anniversary of marriage. Obviously I have the best husband on the planet. The picture above was the first day we got him, 25 pounds, 3 months old, and super snuggly. He is a normal dog in every way Foxy is not. He eats like a garbage disposal (yay for clean kitchen floors!), destroys toys in a matter of minutes, and is very slow to learn commands. He is also a monster of a dog, currently weighing in at 110 pounds at two years old. See size comparison below:
Sorry for the terrible picture quality. Obviously in the two years we’ve had him, he’s put on a few pounds. Foxy, she who hates to snuggle, has also resigned herself to being snuggled by him some of the time. Actually we really all have resigned ourselves to it. Reliant is a huge baby, and insists on touching someone all the time if he can. For example:
I totally love it. I wanted a snuggle bug for a dog and that is definitely what I got. Reliant knows it too and is a total momma’s boy. He’s laying on my feet as I type this. Seth and Foxy tolerate it. The cat is not a fan of Reliant’s but they’re getting friendlier slowly. Overall he’s a good boy as long as you don’t leave him alone in the house. Then he freaks out and digs a hole in your mattress or digs up the potted plants in your living room or eats your newly delivered Master’s degree. I wish I was joking. He’s learning to be good and refrain from chewing or otherwise destroying things. He’s still got the excuse of youth on his side for now.
Reliant is also annoyingly smart, in that he knows not to do bad things in front of us. He will wait until you are not paying attention to dig up the garden bed or un-pot all of Seth’s plugs or blanket the dining room in feathers from a couch pillow. He somehow even knows if you’re looking at him through a window! He is improving though, if slowly.
Update (7/8/17): Reliant’s chewing and love for rocketing out the front door and into the street got to the point that we hired a trainer. She is a lovely miracle worker of a woman. In three weeks she has helped us teach Reliant boundaries in the front yard and has made it possible for us to leave Reliant out while we’re at work (instead of in his kennel) with minimal damage to our house (think a few chewed receipts from the trash can instead of eating an entire feather pillow). He’s been doing great and loves having Lynx as his best little buddy.
Update (1/3/19): Reliant didn’t last long outside of his kennel while we were out of the house for long periods of time. He still can’t be trusted not to chew on things, although he is much improved and I can leave him out for short trips to the store. We affectionately refer to him as Lenny now (like from Of Mice and Men), because he has accidentally killed one of our chickens and a baby bunny, both with broken legs. He tries to lay down with them between his paws so he can nibble on their bellies like he used to do with Lynx, and then they don’t cooperate, he accidentally squishes them just a little too hard. He then refuses to leave their side and licks them to try to make them better until we drag him away. He did catch a live baby bunny that was returned to the wild unharmed. He picked it up and carried it in his mouth around the yard. The bunny squealed the entire time until I made Reliant spit him out, but there wasn’t a scratch on him. So Reliant is learning to be gentler. He also loves to follow the chickens and help protect them when they’re free range in the yard.