The Schmitt Gang: Dagen & Rylie

I have always had dogs, my whole life, ALWAYS a dog in it. When Cody and I were engaged we would talk about the dogs we were gonna have once we were married. Growing up we had mutts, mutts, beagles, a rott, Alaskan Malamutes, mutts, mutts, lab, mutts, wolves, mutts so I have my favorites of breeds but was unsure on what I wanted other than I wanted a pure bred to offset all the mutts lol. Cody would always say he wanted a weim. I had NO clue what they were until I met him. So once we got a house with a big back yard shortly after came Dagen our pure bred Wiem. Cody named him Dagen because we both wanted it to be something different then just your standard name. My parents are known for naming their animals HORRIBLE names here are a couple examples : Black Mare (guess what she was a black female horse who would have thunk it?), Kitty, Smokey Kitty (because it was a smoke colored cat), Black Kitty, Mama Kitty, White Dog (bet you can guess why yup that's right it was a dog that was white.)the list goes on and on. So all that being said I was completely okay with the name Dagen (in Latin Dagen means Lord of the Outdoors)! We got him in September of 2005. Then comes Everett :)

Then Comes Rylie. One of Cody's friends had her and just didn't want her anymore. She too is a pure bred Wiem. And since we didn't have as much time for poor Daggy Monster (yup what a horrible nickname Cody even put it on his registration his name is "Dagen Hunting Monster" cruel I know :)) We thought why not get her. Well she has proven to be a big pain in my side, but she LOVES my kids and Cody so I let her stay lol. We bred them once the summer after we got her and then she got bred by accident the following winter and after losing both puppies, she went into a deep depression. (yes dogs can get depression.) It was horrible I couldn't stand to see her like that and couldn't imagine what she was going threw so we had her fixed. Rylie and My heart could not take that happening again!

When our dogs are in the house they don't leave the couch. Mind you these are hunting dogs. If we have friends over and their isn't room on the couch they will whine and pace and whine and pace until someone lets them onto their lap or we put them outside. They tolerate anything Everett or Emma would ever do to them. They even nicely take treats from both kids. After Everett watched Toy Story he taught Dagen to "Reach for the sky." The dogs can no longer be in the house during supper time because Emma would much rather find them her food then feed herself.

So we are Two Parents, Two Kids, Two Dogs the perfect family :) Even teams boys vs. girls :) Except Dagen is my dog and Rylie is Cody's. When it's just Cody and I at night when the kids are sleeping if I go in the computer room Dagen follows me and Rylie stay with Cody. If for some reason Cj is on the computer Rylie follows him and Dagen stays with me. It's pretty funny, Cody calls Dagen a trader.

So all though they can be a BIG (they each way about 60#) pain in my side I can't imagine my life with out barking in the background.