These are just my random thoughts on dogs

My dog, Rex, sometimes jumps our fence. It's a six foot fence surrounding our back yard. He's been doing it since we got him four years ago. We even got an Invisible Fence to contain him, but we don't always use it, so he jumps. Cyndi has started to bribe him with treats. She will give him half of a biscuit when she lets him out, and then promise him the other half when he returns. Sometimes it works, but if he's left out there too long, he gets bored and jumps. He doesn't go very far usually, and most often comes when we call or whistle for him. It's still frustrating because he's a good dog, so I am afraid if someone finds him, they may keep him.

Rex is a mixed breed; mostly German Shepherd, but also part Boxer. When we adopted him from the rescue, they told us he was a German Shepherd/Mastiff. They said he was going to be over 100 pounds. That was my criteria for a dog. I've always wanted to have a big dog. I've had dogs all my life. Medium and small dogs. Never the gigantic, lovable goof. We didn't know Rex didn't have any Mastiff in him until last year. Thanks to science and genius marketing, we purchased a home pet genetics kit. When the kit arrived, it contained two swab sticks. I had to swab Rex's cheek for five seconds and place the samples in the return envelope. I considered swabbing my own cheek, just to see what they said, but also considered the $45 we were already spending. Two weeks later, we received our results. I, in fact, was not our doggy's daddy.

Rex sometimes seems human; like he understands our conversations and wants to interact with us. Cyndi and the kids take him with them on outings all of the time. He comes with us on mini-vacations, and is a very hospitable guest. When we had Friday and Leinie (our dogs P.R.), we never travelled with them. Friday was extremely car sick, to the point we had to give her Dramamine before we had to take her anywhere. Leinie wasn't too bad on the road. In fact, we travelled 1800 miles together when we moved from Scottsdale to Chicago. But, Leinie wasn't very house trained.

We have a lot of fun with Rex. He shares a lot of emotion with us. He's been happy, scared, depressed, sick, maybe even a little jealous. I think they know every human emotion and are aware of how their owner's feel.