[Naturella]

Ever since I was little and saw the movie “Fluke”, I have been in love with Irish Setters. I adore their coat color (copper-ish, looks like a shiny Fall leaf, it is gorgeous). Also, as of recently, I like Australian Shepherds – really pretty dogs! I am noticing an affinity in me toward longer-haired, flowy, copper-ish/brown/golden coats. I have never owned a setter or an Aussie, yet, and maybe won’t ever (I would MUCH rather adopt a mutt in need than buy a pure-breed), so I can’t speak as to their personalities, but beauty-wise, those are my picks.

As for character, of course, I love my furry baby (not a baby anymore – he is a big guy at 13 lbs and around 1 year old now) Bruno. I would rarely choose a small breed over a medium or large breed, but he stole my husband’s, and then my heart too. We love his face, muscular body (yes, he is STRONG for a 13-lb pup. One of his nicknames is “muscle-pup”), soft fur, pied pattern, everything about him. Because of him, I notice more Rat terriers/Jack Russells and have a positive view of them. But unless another little one steals our hearts again, I would like a bigger dog for our next friend.

I have noticed, at least locally, when I take Bruno to the dog park, we enter a dilemma – he loves to play and rough-house with big dogs, so we put him in the big dog pen, and sometimes owners of larger dogs get nervous for the little guy and pull their dog away when they start roughing it with Bruno. So sometimes he can’t even play much because of his size. On the other hand, when at the small dog pen, a lot of small dog owners freak out at the slightest grunt (he is a vocal one… Never aggressive, just likes to snort, grunt, growl, and sneeze a ton during play) or hump from Bruno because they fear for their little yorkies or chihuahuas. So he doesn’t get to play much there either… I feel like often he just doesn’t like to play with small dogs period. So thank goodness he has some good small and big furry friends to schedule play dates with and rough-house galore! 🙂