Norwich Terrier

Snorkles, our Norwich Terrier, can't get enough of our pool; one of us has to physically get in and pull him out. This, of course, sends Snorkles into a bit of a snit. "Get over it," we tell him - and he rapidly does. He is not a dog who can hold a grudge for long. At first, he dove in just to play with the kids and their friends during the summer months of hot weather. But now it doesn't matter if it's hot or not, or if the kids are swimming or not. If we leave the pool gate open, he's taking a swim.

Sometimes, even with the gate closed, Snorkles found a way to get in. Other than that, he's about the best family dog the kids could have grown up around. In fact, he adores them to this day even though they're all grown up.

True to his Terrier nature, he loves to be the center of attention, so he can be a bit resentful if he doesn't have center stage. Like a young child, if he can't get attention doing something good, he will simply resort to doing something bad. We just try to ignore his bad behaviors so as not to encourage it as a means to get us to notice him. He then will sulk and again, we say, "Get over it," and he usually does in relatively short order.

Snorkles has abundant energy that keeps him steadily going all day long, from one adventure to another without much of a break. He seems to need as much mental stimulation as he does physical activity and he can't sit still for very long. Since he thrives on attention, he really needs people around, so raising him in a home with plenty of kids worked out fine because he was never alone for very long. My vet told us that if we couldn't take him along on family vacations, we should hire an at-our-home dog sitter, because these little Terriers are absolutely miserable if they are kenneled. Of course, that never came up for us. We travel to warm places with either beaches or pools -- and we take our little swimmer with us.