The good dogs

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Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn does not usually send campus emails. In the past year, Hillsdale’s commander-in-chief sent only two. Both regarded the rascally escapades of his playful boxer, Gus.

“Gus, as foolish as he is handsome, has escaped from our back garden.  He is a brown and white boxer, eight months old, very friendly.  We have looked for two hours without effect.  If you see him, bring him home please,” Arnn wrote. “Sorry to disturb your Sunday evening.  He is enough trouble to be highly regarded around here.”

Luckily for the Arnns, dog-lover and senior Annie-Laurie Setten stumbled across Gus, named after Augustus MacRae, a character from the Lonesome Dove books, nibbling on the remains of a squirrel on Hillsdale Street. She took him to campus security who then brought him to the police station. Later, she discovered the identity of the pet.

“My stomach sunk a bit as I put two and two together and realized I had unwittingly kidnapped the president of the school’s dog,” Setten recalled.

After Setten notified the Arnns as to the whereabouts of Gus, they were extremely grateful, and embraced her with hugs. Larry emailed the entire campus again, explaining Gus’s adventures in prison, and his friendship with an equally friendly and foolish pit bull.

Larry’s love for boxers began in his college days, and through the years, this friendly breed has been by his side. A staple at Broadlawn, his dogs delight, comfort, and entertain his family, students, faculty, and friends.

When working as a steelworker in Florida during a summer of undergraduate school, he bought a puppy boxer and named him Thor.

“We’ve had several since then, who’ve all been great family dogs. But Thor was always the legend and the one to whom all the other boxers have to measure up,” Penny Arnn said. “He was still going strong when Larry and I married. When we were in England he was with Larry’s parents in Arkansas. When we married and moved to California, Thor came to live with us. He was a real character, very great with people, and very obedient. His one failing was other dogs, with whom he would pick a fight. He never wounded them. He just wanted them to understand that he was boss.”

According to Alice Arnn ’11, “Thor once fought with a horse, chased a mailman who was found hours later hiding on top of his truck, and would sleep under my sister’s crib every night when she was a baby. Gus is a lot like him, I’m told.”

Alice has experienced the love of five boxers while growing up: Libby, Sam, Jack, Gus, and Millie. Millie, born nine months ago, was first exposed to the Hillsdale campus when she greeted every freshman in September as they entered Broadlawn for the annual freshman dessert.

Arnn dogs are used to interacting with large numbers of guests. Anyone who has attended a dinner at Broadlawn knows that Gus and Millie, along with the two cats, Echo and Tashy, roam the house and interact with visitors.

“We’ve never hidden the dogs away unless there’s someone who is really afraid of dogs. They’re part of the household, and people do seem to enjoy them,” Penny said. “They’re an asset when you have people who are nervous or shy because almost everyone can talk about dogs or cats.”

The dogs are very well trained not to ever eat or expect human food, and besides a few instances where they have come “roaring into the room at top speed in the middle of dinner,” they are quite helpful at welcoming guests, Penny said.

Besides being excellent hosts and hostesses, Gus and Millie aid Larry in exercise and relaxation. Larry will hit tennis balls into the woods for extended periods of time while his dogs retrieve them.

“One tennis ball is heaven, two is a real conflict, and if you have a whole lot they don’t know what to do,” Penny said.

This winter, Larry plowed a snow run, which Millie particularly enjoys running in circles around. On weekends or quieter days when Larry does not have meetings, he will bring the dogs into his office on campus.

“(Gus and Jack) loved being around campus,” Administrative Assistant to the President Victoria Bergen said. “They would get up on the windowsills and watch people outside and run around.”

The Arnns got their two pups from a breeder near Kalamazoo. Gus and Millie’s mother are sisters, and they share the same father. They were hand-raised and carefully bred to have good temperament, and trained by the Arnns in conjunction with an obedience school.

Currently, Gus is on bed rest with a broken bone in his foot, and Millie is recovering from a fight with Echo the cat, which left her with a bleeding ear.

Despite the dogs’ tendencies to engage in scuffles with other critters, Larry said that the pups are merely playful and harmless companions.

“Boxer dogs are distinguished by their beauty, energy, sympathy, and foolishness. They look fierce. This is a lie. They are capable of just about any ridiculous action. They provide more amusement in a small package than we have seen elsewhere.”