Childhood (and adult) Influences

SUMMARY: How did I end up with the breeds I did?

As a kid, I loved German Shepherds from Rin Tin Tin reruns and Lassie from, yeh, Lassie reruns. Hence, wanted:

• A German Shepherd  (GSD)
• A Collie

So my parents started getting me Albert Peyson Terhune books, which I read and reread (and it was his Grey Dawn that made me decide I wanted a blue merle when I grew up). So I wanted:

• [Replacing "Colllie"] A blue merle Collie

I also read all the other dog fiction in the elementary school library (oddly, although I read all of Jim Kjelgaard's dog fiction, I did *not* decide I wanted an Irish Setter. Maybe because a neighbor down the street had one and although he was sweet, he was also a gangly doufus). Everyone knew they could get me a book about dogs or dog breeds as gifts and I'd be happy. I could list all the AKC breeds in each of the groups from memory. (Wish I'd known that non-AKC breeds even existed back then! Americans are so unaware of the other few hundred breeds out there!) So it was confirmed that I wanted:

• A dog of any kind

When I was maybe in 5th grade, we got a big yellow Collie/Shepherd mix (who was more like a big yellow collie in coat and shape). She was really smart and a lot of fun.  Oddly, I didn't have any interest in training of any kind.  I'm pretty sure that that had *no* influence *whatsoever* on my interest in:

• Big yellow mixed-breed dogs

Then when I was in college, I saw a Golden working on obedience practice at a local field and fell in love with Golden Retrievers. Talked with his human quite a bit. So I added Golden Retriever to my Big Three list (including a GSD and a blue merle Collie):

• A Golden Retriever

 THEN I saw a border collie working and learned more about them and so of course I wanted one of THOSE, probably more than I wanted a Collie collie (my sister got a tricolor Collie collie. Very smart. Demonstrably of the Lassie Come-Home ilk. But ugh, those heads and huge huge coats). So I wanted a:

• [Replacing "Blue merle Collie"] A blue merle Border Collie

And eventually learned about Aussies and loved them, too, but that was after I grew up and had my first 2 dogs already, but before I knew about dog agility. And my sister had one, a beautiful red merle, smart, too. So now I *also* wanted:

• Blue merle Australian Shepherd

After I started agility and realized that *everyone* had Border Collies or Shelties or Goldens or Corgis or whatever, I realized the great value of mixed breeds, which is that they don't look like anyone else's dogs! So I wanted

• Emphasis on mixed breeds

After all those exposures, I've had:

• A big yellow shepherd/golden mix (knew the parents), so I got a twofer
• a blue/gray husky (my ex's choice, but my colors!), 
• a sheltie mix, 
• another big yellow Shepherd mix, 
• a blue merle Aussie/husky mix, 
• a blue merle border collie, 
• and now two random mixes that fit only that qualification. (One is supposed to be a tricolor BC mix. Other supposed to be a big yellow whippet mix. Not sure whether I believe either of those.) 

How about you?