I have the biggest dog on my block. I don’t want that to sound like I am bragging. She is a really big dog. Think polar bear size. I talk about her on Facebook a lot and you may have heard me tell stories about Mazzy on the air in the morning. Every day is an adventure when you own a 130-pound giant white dog that looks like Falcore from “The NeverEnding Story.”
“What kind of dog is that?” I hear this more often than you’d think. People love dogs. There is something about seeing a friendly-looking dog that makes most people drop their normal New England stand-off-ish-ness. They see a dog with floppy ears and they want to run up and pet it.
Mazzy is from a line of dogs called, Anatolian shepherd dogs, specifically, an Akbash. Are you googling “Anatolian” yet? I could write a book report about her breed. In short, they are independent, intelligent work dogs from Turkey. Most often, they are found on farms where they watch over livestock and protect flocks from predators like wolves, coyotes and (in other countries) leopards. They are not aggressive dogs, but they are protective and they are big. Ok – very big.
They are not a “sit/ stay/ fetch” type of dog. I was once told you can throw a ball for her and she might chase it… but if you throw it a second time, she will assume you are throwing it away and don’t want it. Have fun with training!
I am sure we are very entertaining to watch as we make our lap of the neighborhood. I am all of 5’3” and 120-something pounds… Mazzy, weighing in at 130 pounds, walks slowly along beside me with her shoulders as tall as my hips… She is proportioned well, so sit can be difficult to gage her real size until you are face to face with her – really- face-to-face. One time a car pulled up next to me to tell me I had the second biggest yellow lab he’d ever seen. I politely said she wasn’t a Labrador. He wasn’t convinced and said he was going home to get his 80-pound yellow lab to prove it. I smiled and said that Mazzy weighed a little more than his dog, and again explained she wasn’t a Labrador. It was as if I insulted both him and his dog… he muttered something and drove away.
Normally, Mazzy walks very slowly on our walks. At times, I have compared our walks to walking an elephant. Slow and deliberate. Squirrels will catch her attention as will rabbits, but if you want to really see her perk up, leave your sprinkler on. I am pretty sure one of my elderly neighbors deliberately turns his sprinklers on when he sees us coming. Picture if you will, me, attached by a leash to a giant white dog who is dragging me through hedges to stick her face in the jet of water coming up though a perfectly manicured lawn… Our walks will provide plenty of entertainment for all.
And speaking of lawns, if you want to keep your yard like a putting green, do not pick a dog like Mazzy. Most dogs have an instinct to dig. Anatolians excavate. There is a story on one of the Anatolian rescue websites where a farmer refers to the holes his dog dug as “tank trenches”… One day he accidently drove his John Deere into one – and got stuck! These dogs can use these trenches to help protect their flock. Mazzy, without having a flock, will dig a hole big enough for a Smartcar and simply hunker down in the dirt and watch the world go by.
Do you have a good fence? Mazzy will either use her excavator skills to dig under it or simply scale it – especially if it’s chain link. Five feet? Not a problem. I have had to search though the neighborhood for my escape artist more than a few times. I realized a few years ago she seems to go exploring when the coyotes are active. Mazzy rarely barks, but if there is something in the area that shouldn’t be, she has a bark that will let you know.
There are plenty of other fun things about Mazzy: She sheds enough fur on a daily basis to knit sweaters for every other dog in the neighborhood. She is a picky eater and grazes her meals like a cat. If she doesn’t want to move from a particular spot, she will simply sit or lie down and not budge… She isn’t food-driven, and even a hotdog will not convince her to move.
Now, put all of this aside. Remember when I said Mazzy looks like the luck-dragon from the NeverEnding Story? I have friends that are convinced she IS a luck dragon. With her slow deliberate movements, her calm demeanor and sense of awareness, Mazzy has changed lives. She has helped trainers work with difficult dogs. She can take the energy level of an entire out-of-control dog park from a 10 to a 2! (I recently left one park as soon as I realized the other dogs aren’t getting the exercise their owners had hoped for). Mazzy has also taught me a great deal about patience and being social. She is my companion and my roommate. She keeps me grounded and makes me laugh. I cannot imagine my life without this giant stubborn white mule. She is like family: a little difficult, but with a giant heart.
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