DS: What's an achievement of yours concerning dogs that makes you particularly proud?

I may very well get TDs for this, but that's fine. I have two very proud moments with our previous dog (Gibbs not so much yet, lol). Chocolate was a black lab/pit bull/chow mix, and he had two moments in his life where I was very, very proud of him.

1.) The night our house was broken into a few years ago, in 2007. I had argued with one of the guys earlier that day about stupid stuff. He and one of his "buddies" broke into the house that night for the sole purpose of stealing Chocolate, and the female pit we had at the time with her litter of puppies.

They had intended to use him as a fighting dog, and to sell her pups, and then use her for breeding. Chocolate normally slept upstairs with my husband and I. That night, he didn't, we had the door left open, and he was downstairs at the time.

It was *maybe* an hour after I'd finally gone to bed. My husband and I heard Chocolate downstairs going INSANE, barking, growling, etc... which was unusual for him. We went downstairs, turned the lights on to find two guys in a corner of our entrance hallway, and Chocolate in front of them, growling, etc... He never laid so much as a paw on either one of them.

I was incredibly proud of him for that (and no, not because I ever felt he would harm a human being). The police were called, and everything worked out fine. We had never trained or encouraged any guarding behavior in him, but I am thankful he did what he did.

All while our then 1 year old son slept upstairs. 2.) Fast forward a year, to the summer of 2008. My husband and my now four year old (then 2 year old, same child as in the story above) were all outside.

I was in the house until I heard Chocolate barking. I walked outside to a scene I never dreamed I'd see. Our neighbor's pit bull who was CONSTANTLY off leash was in our yard, facing my son.

Chocolate stood between him and our son, ready to go. My husband had ahold of his collar yelling at the neighbor's to get their dog. They were yelling that if our dog touched theirs, they would sue, etc... not doing anything to get their dog.

I ran and picked our son up (my husband grabbed the dog to prevent a fight after having told Damien to stay put, as he didn't want our son to witness a dog fight, etc...), and took him back in the house. Had Chocolate not been there, and the other dog had come up without my husband seeing him (which was doubtful), I don't really want to think about what could have happened. Once I got inside, I called animal control, and everything, again, worked out fine.

They were given yet another fine for their dog being at large, and the dog was taken that time. Granted, both situations could have been handled differently, obviously, BUT, given the way they turned out, I was more proud of Chocolate on those two accounts, then I've ever been of just about any dog I've ever owned. Sadly, he was put down last year due to cancer that we found after he'd nipped at my two oldest children.

Had it not been for that, he'd probably still be here today, and he's terribly missed.

Well, my 6 year old border collie has always been very antisocial. She wasn't aggressive unless an obnoxious dog got in her face, but she would go out of her way to avoid social interaction with other dogs. Well, recently, she actually plays ball with other dogs she doesn't know, and doesn't even get aggressive over the toy!

This would normally seem like nothing special to dog owners, it's a huge leap for her though.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.