Month: April 2012

I called Roxy a Ditz-Weiler almost from the moment I met her. Our previous Rottweiler had been a typical grouchy, large and aggressive male.  More than ten years had elapsed since then and I worried about dealing with a temperamental canine and equally excitable adolescents.  I shouldn’t have worried.

Roxy took to all of us as quickly as we took to her.  She didn’t know what to think of our cuddles and hugging in the beginning, but eventually she craved the affection almost as much as she craved food.  She learned quickly, especially if a treat appeared as a reward for a job well done.  Roxy even learned how to speak on command (not easily taught to Rottweilers) and how to track (search and find or follow a path laid down by Rachelle in a field).

Roxy met me at the door each evening, usually with her toy clenched eagerly in her mouth, wiggling her nubbin of a cropped tail so much her back legs would dance and skitter around.

For Terry, Roxy preferred to jump up in his lap while he relaxed in his recliner, sometimes with a warning and sometimes not.  Roxy never understood that ninety-five pounds does not a lap dog make.

I asked my husband and kids to suggest some of their fond memories of Ditzy Roxy and I’ll share them here:

There was the time Roxy got locked in the basement storage room. A dog that clearly knows how to bark, but yet she was quiet as a mouse the entire time we searched for her, inside and outside the house.  For a couple of hours we roamed the neighborhood and drafted friends to drive and walk the streets.  Rachelle finally found her in the basement about the time we’d given up hope.

One year we had several giant fifteen gallon plastic planter pots in the back yard, leftover from growing tomatoes.  Roxy would play with the pots (this was before we rescued Apollo).  She would throw them all over the yard, chase them, pick them up and shake them.  Sometimes the pots would end up over her head and she would just keep running around the back yard, growling and shaking her head, until the pot fell off and she would start all over again.

The real icing on the cake (or rather the mud in this case) occurred in May of 2007.  We received quite a bit of rain, which resulted in our sump pump running frequently.  The pump is located in the basement, in the same storage room where Roxy had gotten lost in.  The pipe exits the foundation in the northwest corner, still within the fenced in back yard.  Whenever the pump would kick on, if Roxy happened to be outside, she would run to the pipe, and start barking at it.  On the day we took the photo below, she had not only barked at the pipe, but dug down around it and even managed to disconnect the pipe in the ground from the pipe in the foundation.  The result of her misadventure is clearly visible below.

So why did I nickname her a Ditz-Weiler?  Simply because she really should have been a blonde.  Roxy trusted us implicitly and enthusiastically.  Being a family of practical jokers, we could not always resist the temptation to pull one over on our gullible Rottie (see my previous post on Derek taunting Roxy).  And she rarely pouted, forgiving us instantly, showering us with her affection (and sometimes her slobber) unstintingly.

Click here for a page of memories and photos dedicated to Roxy.

Until we found the Tuffie Toys web site, the typical life expectancy of any dog toy we purchased at a regular retailer amounted to perhaps ten minutes.  Roxy had a particular fascination for brown hedgehogs.  She usually  managed to rip open the stuffing and find the squeaker within a few minutes of receiving the new toy from us.  The duck shown in the photo at right did not last much longer than the ravaged hedgehogs.

Since we were dog toys about as often as we bought dog treats (like rawhide chews, dog biscuits, Beggin’ Strips, etc.), Terry and I thought we should approach this problem from a different angle.  Eventually, we found the Mega Ring via some Googling and we bought one to try.

But first, let me give you some information on the Mega Series from Tuffie Toys so you can understand why we thought these dog toys would be the best fit for Roxy:

The Mega series toys are by far our toughest and most durable dog toys. These interactive dog toys are tough high quality pet toys that are lots of fun and will provide hours of play for you & your pet.

MEGA CONSTRUCTION: Seven Rows of Stitching. Each toy’s seven layers of material are sewn together with two rows of linear stitching and two rows of cross stitching. The four rows of stitching are protected with an industrial grade luggage material that is sewn 3 more times. Seven Layers of Material. Three layers of 600 Denier industrial grade material, three layers of plastic coating and finally one layer of soft fleece. All seven layers are rolled together and then sewn with a one inch cross pattern to prevent layer separation. Protective Webbing. Additional industrial grade luggage material is sewn around the outside edge with three rows of stitching to cover and protect the first four rows of stitching. Squeaker Safety Pockets. Each Squeaker is safe and quiet because they are sewn into a nylon safety pocket beneath seven layers of material.

When Terry and I found this site, the home page displayed a tiger playing with one of the Mega Rings.   Tuffie Toys proudly proclaimed their dog toys were tiger tested.  Currently, they display the Mega Rings gripped firmly in a Rottweiler’s jaws.  And I can confirm, these dog toys are nearly indestructible.  We still have the last two we bought, and they are at least three or four years old.  The only thing that has given out (eventually in all of the ones we bought) was the squeaker.

Apollo would tease Roxy to no end.  He would pick up one of the rings, sneak around behind her through the kitchen, and taunt her with it until she tore off after him.  They would play tug-of-war in the middle of the great room, loud enough that if Terry and I were watching television, we would mute and pause the show we were watching until they wore themselves out.  Apollo could only get the ring out of Roxy’s deathgrip if he cheated.  He would bit her ankles, hocks, neck, ears, anything he could to get her to release her jaws just long enough to snatch it up and run off with it.  Roxy would then chase after Apollo,  latch on to the ring again and give her shoulders a shake, easily twisting it from Apollo’s weaker jaws.  If Apollo really tried to pull it from her grip, Roxy would drop down on all fours and become so much dead determined stubborn Rottweiler weight and there was nothing Apollo could do at that point.  So he would let go and walk off (to a neutral corner).  Roxy would spend the next few minutes, cleaning her toy.

At other times, Apollo would simply lay on the ring, hiding it from Roxy.  The first few times he did this, we couldn’t figure out what had gotten into Roxy.  She would start circling Apollo, who lay innocently with his head cradled on his front paws.  Roxy would get more and more agitated, first whining then barking at Apollo.  Terry and I laughed when we figured out what Apollo was doing, but scolded him for being so sneaky.

Click here for a page of memories and photos dedicated to Roxy.