I've got one, my first, and will never live without one from now on. Wonderful dogs. My boy's name is *technically* Orien, but unless he's in BIG BIG BIG trouble, it's just Rien. I've always been kind of a one syllable girl ... and o-ry-an suddenly switches it to THREE. How that works, I'll never know.

The landscaping Ri does in our backyard is referred to based on size: either Tiger or Elephant traps. We stopped him digging at our foundation with chicken wire and tent stakes.

As for his size, he's only about 65 pounds or so on a good day because he had an awful run in with a cat toy when he was 5 months old, right smack dab in the middle of his big growth period. He was sick for a good month until he finally threw up the fabric mousey... He's fine, but stunted and had only one testicle. We had him neutered at one year old: if not for his incident, I swear he would've finished within three or four weekends. He's a gorgeous open faced grey and white with EFFORTLESS movement. Perfect amount of reach and PLENTY of drive.

But I'll stop bragging. Rien will turn four on July 14th and he's in his summer-mellow-mood right now anyway, so it's hard to tell if he's growing up and settling down or just plain hot. He's still plenty noisey when he's awake, though. I've lived with a lab, a farm collie, and a few small dogs and Malamutes are quite possibly the best dogs I've ever met. IMHO, there are dogs and there are Malamutes.