Pastimes
Walk
Run
Play
Laying in the sun
The personality of my common walking companion and best pup pal, Lyam, eluded me for a long time. The german pinscher personality is quite strange if you're used to straightforward, goofy dog-dogs. Pinschers are focused, steadfast, and can be rather intense at first and Lyam does meet this bill. After spending more time with Lyam he started to do things that would melt my heart; it seems it just takes some time for their affectionate nature to be recognized and for them to really let it show.
Lyam has a fenced in backyard in which he can run, a rare luxury. When we're not going on a long stroll together, we romp together in the backyard and when we romp, we romp hard. He's a goofy boy who particularly enjoys being chased. To initiate his game, I need only to jump once in his direction and he shoots around the back yard like some sort of maniac on fire! That sleek body of his sure packs some intense power! During our walks together this energy does translate. It took an very long and hard regiment of training to get him to refrain from pulling for the duration of the walk. He still would prefer to troll with a sprinter, but now he's happy to go on as long a stroll as his companion is willing to take him on.
After a hard romp or a long stroll he gets very affectionate and lazy. He loves laying as close to his people as possible if not directly on top of them. If we're just taking a brief break in our playtime he will come over and lean his whole body weight on me.
Though he has largely grown out of it (partially I attribute this to the amount of exercise he is now getting), he used to have a problem with getting into trouble during his parents' time away: getting into the trash, ripping up pillows, etc. This is a testament to the amount of energy that the old boy is wound up with. It seems that in every aspect of the German pinscher, there is a certain amount of intensity whether it is play, love, sleep, or trouble.
Overall, he's a handful, but after spending a good amount of time with him, the true nature of his personality has absolutely won me over. He is unlike many other dogs that I spend time with and this is a welcome change. It's nice to be challenged to speak a new dog language every once in a while.
