Teddy (Bernese Bouvier male, 2001 - 2013)

Since we knew of Astors disease was for my wife observed: "There is no new dog". At breakfast the morning after Astor's death it was said by her: "You want a new dog I see it in you, you want to ...!?!." And then we get invited by my sister to a weekend in the Eifel in order to get away from home. Happened to be on a neighboring farm there were eight week old Bernese bouvier puppies.  Then suddenly a naughty pipsqueak was so ahead of me and looked me in the eye. When my wife stated then: "It looks like a teddy bear." the dog had a name and we return with a new dog.

Bernese bouviers are difficult to compare with Collis and that is a good thing. The only thing that shocked us first, was the short life expectancy in the books with 8 - 10 years was specified. But Teddy was almost 12 (minus one month), one year older than Astor has become, and the life expectancy of a Collies is 13 - 15 years estimated.

While Astors illness I had exposed with dog training, but this time took the school were a computer network was built by a colleague and me.  But that turned out to be not so relevant. Teddy had no hunting instinct and was (from small age follies aside) not dominant. In addition, it sat down at the outset when we stopped somewhere and came immediately on demand. You only had reinforce this behavior to get a obedient dog.

A Bernese bouvier is not designed for running, but Teddy has been with me from his 13th month of life every morning while running. It was a little slower than Astor and 6 km were enough for it, 10 km took it a bit out of breath. Teddy was nine years old when we moved to Wildenrath. In the winter of the same year it stopped running. In the summer of next year, it was barking at the door when I put on my running shoes and it ran from there again for six months with me. Then there was enough to make longer walks, but the last were dramatically shorter until it finally could not go any further.

A water rat like Astor Teddy was not. It looked at the water pragmatic. It needed water for drinking and now and then to cool down. Well, if mom or dad went into the water, it swam for decency's sake with a round, then it twisted back to land.

Kids loved Teddy, especially our granddaughter Janina. Compared to children and puppies it could be just as careful as it appeared opposite us robust and clumsy. I still have the horrified faces of the owner of a Maltese puppy in front of me who thought that Teddy would crush her puppy with his weight. But if you looked closely, you could see that Teddy held with considerable effort so low to the ground that it carefully enveloped the puppy with its hair.