text: My neighbor recently got a new dog. I think it might be a Dutch Shepherd or a German Shepherd, I'm not sure. Beautiful dog. We have never been on the best of terms, my neighbor and me. A few years back one of his Catalpa trees was leaning over on to my property and making ingress and egress via my driveway difficult. I asked him to cut it down or have it remedied some other way, and he invited me to help him do it. He insisted he had experience as an arborist and could show me the right way to safely trim branches to prevent property damage and handle a chainsaw at height. Once I was in the tree he moved the ladder to ensure it wasn't damaged when the trimmed limbs came down and rather than passing the chainsaw up to me to "top" the high branches, he began cutting the tree at ground level. He couldn't hear me over the roar of the saw and stopped only to shout at me "Jump up and down!" and "Use your legs to get it swaying!" The tree came down and did some damage to my fence, which I repaired at my expense, and overall I just didn't feel as though I got much out of the experience. He got assistance removing his tree and I gained no valuable experience. After the tree experience we kind of drifted apart, though I would occasionally catch glimpses of him peering at me from one of his attic windows. I always sort of felt bad for the guy, like he was just staring over at a friend he wished he was closer to. I would meekly wave and he would just keep staring, clearly wishing we got along better. At any rate, at some point in the last six months he got a new dog. I think it might be a Dutch Shepherd, but I'm not sure. Beautiful dog. I have been working late hours so I don't think I saw it right when it arrived. The only reason I'm even aware he has the dog is a few weeks back I dragged my garbage out to the curb. Despite my best efforts to put on some weight, my time on the elliptical at the gym at work has actually only succeeded in slimming me down further. As such I got rid of some of my older sweater vests and corduroys that are now too roomy. I was taking the last bag out to the cans when I noticed a figure hunched over my garbage. I stopped halfway down the driveway and realized it was my neighbor. At first I thought the poor fellow must have really fell on hard times because he was pulling out some of my sweaters and my old Smokey the Bear hat (got a new one). He didn't notice me, and I was just stood there and watched him gather up his booty and hurry in to his back yard. When I followed over to my back fence and looked over, I caught my first glimpse of his new pupper. He had "Duke" tied up to a back fence post and looked to be in the middle of a training session of some kind. I felt better when I saw what my neighbor was using the old clothes for -- just as a training aid! He had made a rudimentary crash-test dummy out of burlap sacks filled with what looked like newspaper and shredded cardboard. I guess he wanted to give the dummy a more human appearance, because he put my old hat on its head and threaded its arms through my older sweater. When I looked closer I realized the dummy was actually wearing an old pair of my shoes as well. My neighbor was yelling "Go on! Get 'em Duke! Kill 'em!" and slowly letting Duke have more of the leash to get closer to the dummy. It was then that I noticed just how magnificent Duke is -- beautiful brindle coloring, strong leg muscles and pearly white teeth that locked down on the dummy's throat like a pair of huge shears -- really just exquisite dog. I think he might be a Dutch Shepherd. At any rate, what I'm wondering is if you think a Dutch Shepherd might be for me? I have been thinking of getting a pet for some time, to take along with me during my morning power walks. I tried to ask my neighbor for more information about the breed, but he insisted he doesn't have a dog and hurried off. I think he might be trying to avoid having his house insurance hiked.