Strider is the King of Elessar and knows it. He is a regal, social, incredibly intelligent boy. He is independent and can clearly think for himself yet truly loves to please me. We took a couple of fun obedience classes together, and Strider picked up all of the commands we taught him almost instantly. Being a free thinker, he does at times clearly question why we would ask him to do something that doesn't seem 'logical' to him, and the expression on his face if I ask for a second sit so quickly after the first makes it hard not to laugh! A truly happy dog, Strider finds great joy in the little pleasures in life - a new toy, a nice lawn, good friends and family. He constantly reminds me to 'stop and smell the roses', as life is too short to not enjoy every moment to the fullest.

Strider is a swamphound extraordinaire, preferring the beach to the dog park, running and diving through waves to running on the beach, and splashing in any form of water he can find to playing on dry land. We are very fortunate to have a couple of very nice dog beaches within a twenty minute drive from home, and Strider clearly knows the way to all of them, getting excited as soon as we start heading in the 'right' direction.

While Strider has a high level of drive, he is amazingly gentle with small children, puppies and even our cat. We learned when Strider was only a couple of months old (see puppy pictures) that he was very careful to adjust his play to other dogs or puppies. There were some extremely tiny, timid puppies including a very tiny, young Dachschund in Strider's puppy kindergarten class. Strider would see this little Dachschund puppy across the room, stop tumbling with the big dogs to run over to several feet away, slow to nearly a crawl, and let her approach him as he made himself look as tiny and unthreatening as possible so she would play with him. Strider was the only puppy in the class who was allowed to choose whether to play with big or small dogs because of this ability. Strider is also gentle around small children, and loves our young niece Maya who was very afraid of dogs until she met him. It took some time, patience and encouragement from Strider, but she now loves him, kisses him, hugs him and even calls him on the phone.

He is also very good and gentle with our cat Porthos, although he does occasionally try to share his toys with poor Porthos. There was a time when I heard barking outside and went to see what the trouble was - Strider had created a little pile of all of his toys in front of the cat and was play bowing to invite Porthos to play with him!

Strider loves to play. He likes to play with us, other people of all ages, cats, dogs and anyone else he can 'talk' into a game of fetch or 'chase the bunny'. When he is the bunny in a game of chase, Strider will generally slow down just enough to let his pals stay within range. It's fun to watch him switch gears from a fast game of chase with another sighthound to a more loping game with a bigger friend.