The boys—Reacher and Panzer—are rough and tumble. In fact, the more roughhousing and the more tumbling, the better. They are boisterous, pushy and antagonistic, at least to one another. They are forever stealing bones, toys and tennis balls from whichever of the other two dogs has one. They love to chase and be chased around the furniture and in and out of every room in the house. Bite, nip, growl? You bet!
Vega, on the other hand, is more subdued. Before I even met her, she was described to me as “chill.” At the time, I figured it was probably an optimistic rather than a truly accurate portrayal of her personality. But I was wrong. Vega is the epitome of the word. She is perfectly content to lie on the floor while the two males in the house spin out of control.
Reacher and Panzer don’t get that. They want Vega to join in the fray. While Reacher generally limits himself to a pleading combination of whining and barking, Panzer is more direct. He literally throws himself on top of her which usually results in a stern motherly rebuke. Vega does enjoy a certain amount of wrestling and chasing, but she rarely initiates trouble.
Don’t get me wrong. She is a working GSD at heart and gets fired up whenever she detects what she deems suspicious behavior from a strange dog or human. The change in her is kind of Dr. Jekyl- and Mr.Hyde-like, minus the evil mental disorder.
But when it’s just the four of us in the house and Reacher and Panzer are going at it, Vega often looks at me woman to woman, as if to say, “Boys. We’ll never understand them.”
