Before we met, I had Dobermans and Great Danes (and a Chesapeake Bay Retriever). Big Dogs! Obedience training for the Big Dogs was in the unit next to where Wilhelm did auto restoration. He loved the Big Dogs too! He would sometimes wander over to see the trainer's Great Danes. But in his heart, he had always wanted a Saint Bernard. Big, hairy, drooly and absolute loves! And this was before the Beethoven movies existed :-)
So, when we got together, we talked about getting a Saint Bernard. I was already showing dogs by this time and so had seen some of the Saint Bernard people around. Doozer's breeder had a boy named Larry. A smooth Saint who was in the Top Twenty. I thought he was a stunning dog and fell in love with him. Wilhelm would have been just fine with a Saint rescue, but I figured if we were going to get one we might as well get one that we could show <we... HA! Doozer was supposed to be Wilhelm's show dog!! But more on that later>. After talking with Doozer's breeder, I hung around the Saint ring a little more often and it turns out the breeder had a long hair girl by the name of Bailey. OMG! If Larry was stunning, the Bailey was the epitome of what I thought I wanted in a Saint! A lot of Saint Bernard girls are very heavy and doggy-looking. I'm used to Danes and Dobermans where girls should be very feminine looking. Bailey was all that and more! The next time I caught up to the breeder, I told her if she ever bred those two together we wanted a puppy! Well, she did breed those two and a litter of 5 was born (2 boys, 3 girls). Of course, when Saints are born you do not know if they will be long or short hair. We kind of wanted a long hair, because we thought it would be easiest for a novice handler as smooth Saints are harder to finish. The breeder invited us over when the pups were just 3 days old and picked up one of the boys and said "This is going to be the pup you want". I looked at the other boy but had to agree with the breeder. Even at just 3 days old you could see the head was going to be awesome on this pup.
After that, we went over to the breeder's house every couple of weeks to watch the puppies and get to know them. And wouldn't you know it... at 8 weeks old it turns out the ONLY smooth puppy in the litter was the boy we wanted <sigh>. We talked it over, and talked with the breeder, and we decided to take him home. It certainly was not a bad decision in the long run!!
So, after 8 weeks of watching the puppies grow... how did our boy become named Doozer? Because years and years ago there was a cartoon named Fraggle Rock. On it, were these characters named Doozers. And Wilhelm said that was the puppy's name. He thought it would be a cool name for a Big Dog. The only problem was, he pronounced it Dozer (like bulldozer). Wilhelm knew it was spelled with 2 "O", but thought it was pronounced like 1. I didn't remember the cartoon so we rented an episode and after we did, the error was discovered. Wilhelm realized the Dozers were actually Doozers but it was too late to change the pronunciation as Doozer by that time answered to Dozer. The good news is, it doesn't confuse people if you are just pronouncing it :-)
So, our baby Doozer came home and a 8-1/2-year love affair began.
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