On the Subject of Dogs

My dogs are a big part of my life. I’ve lived with pets all my life. When I was born, my parents had two cats and a dog, so my sister and I grew up with pets in the house. Thinking about that made me curious about whether or not dogs were a part of my ancestors’ lives.

I already knew about some of the dogs my grandparents had. So, I went looking through the various boxes of photos I have from both sides of my family to see if I had photos of them. Sure enough, I do. Here’s a gallery of some of the images I found.

I found photos with dogs from the Hocker family that go back to my great grandfather William H. Hocker Sr. On the Greulich side, the photos only go back to my grandfather Russell R. Greulich’s youth. I don’t know if his parents’ families had dogs and didn’t have any photos of them, or just didn’t have dogs. The Snyders were farming folks, so maybe they had one.

Looking at the photos, I noticed that dogs played a very different role in the Greulich family versus the Hocker family. The photos of my grandfather Greulich’s dogs show them as pets, companions. These dogs lived with the family in the house. The choice of dog breeds—Boston Terrier and American Eskimo Dog—is also indicative of their roles.

The Hockers’ dog were hunting dogs as shown by the “catch-of-the-day” style photos. That the Hockers chose hounds (Beagles, I think) is further evidence that their dogs were working dogs. They lived in a dog run in the yard. It wasn’t until my family’s dog Major, a German Shepherd/Elkhound mix, went to live with my grandparents when my Dad was stationed overseas that they allowed a dog to live in the house with them.

Today, we have Golden Retrievers. While they’re trained to be hunting and retrieving dogs, they’re family pets. They perform in agility and obedience competition, and serve as models for my sister—an excellent dog photographer. And they rule the house.

“Trey and I,” featured image shows author and her Golden Trey. Photo © Karen Hocker Photography. 

• Category: Family
• Tag: Dogs, Family Photo, Family Research