Lauren Aquino got her dog Amen, a German Boxer, from a breeder in Federal Way, Rachel Traore who specializes European and German Boxers. He's five years old and his name came from the breeder.

He weighs 85 lbs right now, eating Blue Buffalo dog food twice a day and, "he's usually food motivated," said Aquino. She said he's surprisingly low maintenance. "I've lucked out because he's a white Boxer. Most people think that white Boxers are deaf and blind but because of his good breeding and he's not an American Boxer he's had great health his whole life." Amen gets Turkey training bits for snacks.

"One thing that he likes to do that I love about him is that if I'm watching TV and he's in on his bed he will eventually, to get my attention just lay upside down. If he doesn't get my attention he will fall asleep. It's really funny. I have way too many pictures of him upside down."

One time he had what I call The Chocolate Incident. I had made a batch of chocolate chip cookies and I left the room for one minute and I came back and he had gotten into a two pound bag of high quality semi-sweet chocolate chips. He nearly at the whole thing."

He of course got sick because chocolate is not good for dogs. According to WebMD "Chocolate is made from cocoa, and cocoa beans contain caffeine and a related chemical compound called theobromine, which is the real danger. The problem is that dogs metabolize theobromine much more slowly than humans, Denver veterinarian Kevin Fitzgerald, PhD, tells WebMD.

“The buzz we get from eating chocolate may last 20 to 40 minutes, but for dogs it lasts many hours,” he says. “After 17 hours, half of the theobromine a dog has ingested is still in the system.”

Aquino monitored him and an hour later he was pacing up and down the house and his heart was racing. She took him to the veterinarian. They kept him overnight, treated him and he's been fine ever since.

Amen is a tugger and loves ropes of any size to tug against, "that's his favorite thing" though he also likes squeaky toys and one specific ball that floats on the water. Most of his toys come from Pet Pros.

Poggie is a good friend, next door, a French Bulldog/Boston Terrier mix and Leo, a Golden Retriever is also Amen's pal.

Amen is strong but not terribly ambitious. He will tow Aquino on her long board on Alki, "until he gets tired and then I kind of pull him along," she said. "He's been lazy since birth," she explained, "Most people complain about how Boxers are very high energy. He's very low maintenance, low energy.

They also go to Westcrest off leash dog park.

She sums Amen up as, "loving, affectionate, devoted, exuberant, vibrant and fun."