I am very proud of my family. But the only one who will allow me to write about them in any detail on this blog is my dog. Daggett, yeah, Daggett with a ”d.”  

 We waited a long time to get a dog. My kids were 10 and 12. In fact a bad dog attack on one of my kids prompted us to finally get a dog. Naturally after you’ve had a dog clamp down on your knee and shake you around, you are scared witless of them. We figured the only way to neutralize the fear of dogs was to get one. The Total Canine Emmersion Therapy worked. (Yep, that’s made up, don’t try it at home.) Both of my kids love dogs… now. But this isn’t about them. It’s about Daggett with a “D.”

Daggett has made one appearance on the blog. He was marking trees at the Christmas Tree Farm.

Now if you glance at that shot you think.. that’s one gorgeous Golden Retriever. But no, Daggett is a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever not a Golden. And now you’re thinking “what the ____ ?”  Daggett is a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever.

 We picked the breed because of it’s totally friendly personality and strong affinity for its family. Daggett has that, big time. I am Polish/Irish/German/Scotch Irish. My husband is Welsh/French Canadian and other stuff. Daggett is pure bred. It shows. While our teeth had to be corrected to fit our mouths and we all have dirty blondish hair to mark our muddy ancestry. But Daggett is 100 percent Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. Daggett’s Dad actually won Best of Breed one year at Westminster. Check out Decoy.

Daggett is clearly the best looking one in our family.  The dog books said the breed was high energy, I know now that means spazzy. But the breed is highly trainable.  Tollers (that’s the shorter name) really like complicated assignments and if they aren’t challenged they create adventures. One example of Toller ingenuity: Daggett hates when I vaccum so he runs to the plug and yanks it out of the outlet. Duh, Daggett knows that if you interrupt the electrical circuit the loud thingy will stop.

So now you know the basic deal with my dog except for the often asked question right after what’s tolling? What’s up with the name Daggett? Well there used to be this cartoon show on Nickelodeon called Angry Beavers. It was about two brothers who happened to be beavers and who were prone to fly off the handle. We tossed a lot of names around. (We had brilliant ideas: Let’s call him Achilles. Get it Achilles!Heel!)  Nothing stuck… until I jokingly suggested Daggett. It stuck. Very stuck. Here’s a picture of Daggett Beaver from the Nickelodeon Show Angry Beavers.

And since our Daggett is such a star already he really has no problem with anyone popping in this blog admiring him. And sure you can rub his belly. Seriously.  Rub it.

P.S. 

So how did you choose the name for your pet?