Tag Archives: miniature schnauzer

It’s been how long?

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So, back to the dog for a minute.

This past Saturday, October 1, marked the 5 year anniversary of Rumble coming into our lives. Most days it feels like he’s been around forever!

Chris and I had talked about wanting a dog for a LONG time before we got Rumble. Like 6 months or more. We both agreed that keeping a dog of any size locked up in an apartment/condo for 8 hours was a bad idea. Borderline evil.

Luckily, I work in a dog friendly office so that wasn’t an issue (at least in theory) so I would be able to bring a dog to work.

Another issue was “What kind of dog?” and boy was that an issue.

First, it had to be an apartment dog, which at the time meant under 20lbs full grown as we were renting

Second, it had to be hypo-allergenic because owning a dog isn’t fun if you’re dead. I am allergic.

Third, it couldn’t be a purse dog! (We’re gay, but not that gay.)

Fourth, it had to be a boy. (We’re that gay.)

So we set out to find the most butch tiny hypo-allergenic dog possible. And that’s not easy. Hence, the Miniature Schnauzer was on the list, and based on their temperament and other factors, they became the shortlist.

We identified a few breeders, made a bunch of phone calls and found DreamMaker Kennels, then of Surr Langley and made contact. Before they’d see us, we had to fill out some paperwork. It was 8 pages of question on why we would make good dog owners and they should let us give them money for a puppy. It was extremely thorough and asked all the questions we’d asked ourselves.

Where will it sleep? What will it eat? What will happen during the work day? etc, etc.

Rumble is afraid of us.It took us like 3 hours to fill it out. They liked our answers and granted us a visit the next day. At which point Chris met Rumble and that was that.

We looked at about 4 puppies they had, but at some point Chris picked up this one and fell in love. I didn’t get to meet the pup at that point I don’t think.

So, we finished all the paperwork and adopted our championship stock puppy, but swore to never show him. Or breed him. Probably other stuff too, but we were buying a pet, not a trophy.

We made the long trek home by SkyTrain, scared of what was happening the entire way. Then Rumble spent about 3 hours in his little carrier refusing to come out.

We ended up coaxing him out with food (which would set a tone for the future).

Ever since then, Rumble Rose has been a constant fixture in our lives. Most of the time everything revolves around him and his schedule. Feeding (and the inverse), sleeping and playing all have to be accommodated, not to mention vacations, travel, movies, food, sex, shopping, work, television and more.

Yep. He has us pretty tightly wrapped around one or more of this tiny furry paws and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Rumble’s Day At The Park

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Sunday March 1, 2009.

On the first day of March, Vancouver was both wet and sunny. Sometimes at the same time, but mostly it alternated between the two. The smell and feel of Spring was in the air and it was easy to forget the horror that was this past Winter.

Through Meetup.Com I’ve been following a small group of Schnauzer parents (never owners) who wanted to get together and let the kids play (puppy playdate). Deb, the owner of the Meetup group hadn’t been successful in getting people to visit Richmond, but one of the members, Gerson, managed to put one together and rally the troups for a gathering at David Gray Park in Burnaby.

The weather forcast wasn’t overly cooperative at first predicting 87% chance of rain. However, it turned out to be a gorgeous spring day, for Vancouver.

Chris and I bundled Rumble and headed out to Burnaby, first taking the Skytrain to Patterson Station and then (mistakenly) walking south on Patterson to (really) Rumble Street. The weather was awesome and we nearly regretted our choice of coats etc. The walk was amazing and the view south was spectacular and fairly clear (see the picture – taken by Chris).

Once we got there we had a GREAT time. The park was HUGE and nicely fenced. To top it off, there were a TON of dogs. We actually had a hard time getting Rumble into the park because he was freaking out and sniffing at the fence. He thought we were going to take him away from all the other dogs.

We finally got him inside and he went bonkers after we un-leashed him. He ran around and shoved his nose into so many unmentionable puppy-parts you wouldn’t believe it.

Chris and I spent a good bit of time talking to some of the other parents (Schnauzer parents and non-Schnauzer parents) which was nice. We met Sharon and Dave, parents of Max who is from the same breeder Rumble was adopted from. And of course I met a ton of puppies, mainly because I was wearing the cookie bag. Never underestimate the power of food.

There were mostly medium to large dogs. In fact, Rumble may have been about the smallest dog there. We saw a Wiemeraner, Beagles, Labra-doodles, Shiba Inus and of course your average-unidentifiable “generic cute dog.”

Check out the videos. Overall it was a success (except two instances when Rumble went a little mental) so we’ll definitely be going again. But we won’t be walking from the Skytrain. All 3 of us were just wrecked by the time we got home. Rumble didn’t want to get out of his bag!

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