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Merlin is a pure-bred German Shepherd. Although it looks like he tasted something bad in the second picture, I really just caught him at a bad moment. It still makes for a funny picture, though.
Merlin was named after the Rolls-Royce Merlin V-12 engine that powers the P-51 Mustang WWII fighter. Both are powerful and lean.
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Merlin was purchased as a pup from a breeder. However, despite having parents with certified good hips, he was diagnosed with severe hip dysplasia at an early age. So, he had to endure a "triple pelvic osteotamy" to address the problem. Basically, they break the hip socket loose from the pelvis, rotate to the correct angle and use steel brackets to secure it there.
Merlin is quite docile, although he can put on his ferocious face, when the occasion calls for it. He loves to lean against people and be petted. He's really quite a coward and hates thunderstorms.
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Doolittle is named after General James "Jimmy" Doolittle of "Doolittle's Raiders" fame from WWII, among other things. It's a goofy sounding name, but one with great history and honor. However, apparently Doolittle misunderstood and took it as "do little". He is the laziest dog I've ever seen. We also have to ration him carefully, or else he'd quickly become very obese. He lives to eat and be petted and isn't too interested in much else.
Doolittle was a beautiful puppy, with his perfect Collie face markings. However, his legs never grew much at all! He's quite short in stature. He's a good dog, though. He isn't any trouble at all and we never have to worry about him running off.
Samson was dumped down the road from our place in June, 2001. We don't have any idea what he'd been through, but he did NOT trust humans at all. If he felt threatened at all, he would retreat into the nearest culvert. Some of his whiskers were missing, as well as the end of his tongue.
Gretchen patiently worked over an hour to earn his trust enough to follow her home, walking behind her at a safe distance. She did it by tossing him chunks of dog food, at first from a good distance, then slowly getting closer and closer until he would eat from her hand. He did not trust men at all, so I had to stay well back. He was scared of EVERYTHING. We had to just about start over when he spotted one of the cats and retreated. Finally, after he followed Gretchen into the back yard, I closed the gate behind him. At first he tried to bolt, then just sort of gave up, when he realized he was trapped. The picture below was taken that first night.
He looks SO lost. However, it didn't take too much coaxing to get him to warm up to being petted. After getting his belly full and a good night's sleep, he was a new pup the next morning. It was an amazing transformation. He was just like a regular pup the next morning. He was happy to see people and loved any attention he could get.
We think he's a German Shepherd Dog/Chow mix. He looks mostly Shepherd, but he has black on his tongue and his tail is curled. He also struts around like a Chow. He is much stockier than Merlin.
Samson is named after Curtis Pitts' "Samson" biplane. It's extremely powerful and agile, which is a good description of Samson.
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Samson loves water and will go crazy if you have the hose out and aren't spraying him with it. He loves to cool off in the water trough. He also loves to fetch his "floppy" (soft frisbee). He's pretty good at it, if you give him a decent throw. He's just too big at 75 pounds to jump as high as the border collies, etc. Unlike Merlin, Sammy loves thunderstorms and tries to chase the thunder.
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