At 2 and a half years old Hank is a handful. He's also a blend of breeds that may have something to do with his most prominent personality trait. He came from the dog pound in Pierce County and "They thought he was an Akita and Irish Setter mix but we had a DNA test done and he's actually Golden Retriever, Poodle, Border Collie, and Doberman," his owner Beth Vonbargen said.

That hybrid mix of bloodlines makes him unique but it is his absolute love of rocks that really sets him apart. "He loves to bat them around and on a lawn he will try to get grass at the same time." Vonbargen speculates that "he was neglected as a puppy and left in a backyard with nothing to play with and he decided rocks were going to be what he played with. Isn't that funny?"

Hank doesn't actually chew the rocks, he just isolates one and then bats it with his feet, picks it up with his mouth and plays.

Going to the beach is like heaven since his choice of playthings there is endless. He will select a likely rock (usually one that he can carry in his mouth) and then do a kind of digging motion as he moves backward across the beach. He's also a big fan of those handheld lasers, chasing the light endlessly until you turn it off.

Hank lives with Vonbargen and her boyfriend Ryan Reeve. "The first time we got him it cracked us up. We took him down to the beach and he would take the rock and dig in the sand, tossing it between his legs and then running around. It was hilarious to watch.

He's got a pretty normal diet, "We give him AvoDerm dog food," said Vonbargen," We get it at Petco and it's supposed be good for their fur and their skin." He eats between 5 and 6 cups a day and he weighs in around 100 pounds. He enjoys Newman's Own dog treats too.

His best friend is a lab mix and they are "inseperable when they are together. They get down low and wag their tails and one of them runs the other one chases. It's pretty adorable."

That energy means he's good with younger dogs. "Some older dogs are like 'Really? I don't want to play with you' and he's like 'come on, doesn't every dog want to play?"

Hank is normally a very quiet dog, "He's an angel inside (...) but one time our neighbor walked through our back yard to get to his car at like 3:00 in the morning and he got up and barked at him but otherwise he is perfect inside."

He's great with children and Vonbargen suggested it was because, "We think he was in a neglectful situation and the children were nice to him. So he's mistrustful of adults at first but now that he's lived with us for awhile he's starting to realize more and more that adults are nice too.

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