Coppertop.
The best dogs that I have owned--dogs primarily to hang out with--are ones that I just lucked into: Blackie,a Cocker Spaniel; Bodie, a poodle that might have been half Cocker; Baldy, a Pit/Pointer cross; Hawg, a part Shar Pei; Stretch, a dog that I judge to be a Pit/Italian Grayhound mixture....
When I was some 18 years old, I went to a going-away party for a member of our youth group at church. They were moving away. The party was in his backyard, and lots of kids were there. They had their Cocker chained to the back of their house, and he was in a total rage at all those strange people on his turf and at his restrain. I walked over to the back steps, sat down just out of his reach so he could not bite me, and started talking to him. Before long he calmed down, quit trying to bit me, and let me pet him. A few days later the young man's father called me and said, "I saw you with the dog the other evening, and I wondered if you wanted him? Our only option at this point is to take him to the S.P.C.A." I explained that I was leaving for college in Texas in a few days, but I agreed to take the pup and find someone to give him to. The few days--less than a week--passed, and I had not found anyone to take him. I left him at my mother's--she was a "dog woman" for sure--and left for school. When I returned at Thanksgiving, the dog welcomed me as if I had owned him for years. He was MY dog for the next several years. We had a lot of good times together. He was an excellent car dog. One hot day, he sought some cool under a parked milk delivery truck. The driver returned, started the moter, and Blackie made a run for it. He didn't make it: a wheel caught him.
A few years later, I bought Bodie from an elderly woman for $10. He had been given to her, but she really didn't want him. We were raising poodles and pek-a-poos at the time. He was an excellent stud dog. There was no fence that could stop him and no female that he wouldn't go to. He climbed like a Monkey. But he was an even better dog--just a dog. He was my dog, but he was also my son's. One Saturday, my son was playing with another kid, and the two of them went into the other kid's house--through the front door. Bodie sat down on the porch to wait. The kids, forgetting about the dog, went out the back door. Sunday morning, as we drove down the street to church, there was Bodie waithing by that front door. He saw us and did a double take. My son was in the car. Bodie looked at him in the car, looked at the door to the house, looked back at the car, looked back at the door. He couldn't figure out how Marcus got out of that house without him knowing it. Bodie, too, was ran over. After that, I quit letting my dogs run loose except in safe circumstances.
Then there was Baldy.
If you wanted to drive over to Oklahoma, I could give you your choice of a couple of good pups. Both are half Labs.
I would suggest checking at the pound or nearest rescue group.
Perhaps look in your classifieds for dogs offered for free. There are usually such dogs in the Tulsa paper.
