Whenever he hits the gym, his girl always tags along, right by his side.
She can’t get enough of her fella, Bothell-based physician Evan Strahl, who loves pumping iron.
Wherever he goes she goes. When he hits the barbells to do squats, so does she. And when he starts pumping squats, she’s right there squatting beside him.
Not bad for a lady with a fur coat, four legs, and a tail.
The lovable service dog, Dooma, has also warmed people’s hearts worldwide after a viral video captured her squatting in the gym right alongside her owner from Washington State.
Dooma, a 3-and-a-half-year-old Belgian Malinois, is Dr. Strahl’s service dog and competes against other professionally trained sport dogs. He had Dooma sent to him at 15 weeks from the Netherlands, where she was trained.
When she was a puppy, Dr. Strahl, 35, also a professional fighter working on bettering his health, began training her to do squats to strengthen her legs. It took about a year for her to master the technique.
Having seen Dooma squat hundreds of times, Dr. Strahl was understandably unsurprised when she began to mimic his activities, squatting and wagging her tail excitedly in the gym.
“It didn’t surprise me at all, because it was a very typical Dooma thing to do. Dooma is always doing crazy things,” he told The Epoch Times.
Other gym-goers, however, were shocked at the unusual sight of a dog squatting beside her owner.
“They were very surprised,” Dr. Strahl said. “I just kind of thought it was a normal thing for someone’s dog to be able to do. So it didn’t really shock me that much when I saw it, but other people seemed to be shocked by it.”
Dr. Strahl video-recorded her squatting, just for laughs, and posted it online. He had no idea it would end up going viral.
Reactions to Dooma’s antics have been endearing. “Everyone has really, really liked it,” Dr. Strahl said. “A lot of people said funny things about it.”
Dooma’s life began in the Netherlands with her breeder, Hans Pegge. He breeds man’s best friend to be service dogs and help catch criminals as K9 officers.
“He’s really saved a lot of people’s lives and done a lot of good for the dog world,” Dr. Strahl said of Mr. Pegge, who trained Dooma as a puppy.
Dooma is extremely gifted. “She competes in a variety of dog sports and has won every trial that she’s been in so far,” Dr. Strahl said.
Her trick repertoire isn’t limited to squats; she has a variety of skills. “She can walk on her back legs. She can jump on top of a truck, really easy. She can do a lot of different types of detection work,” Dr. Strahl said.
And her personality? “She is very, very, extremely hyper, extremely cuddly,” Dr. Strahl said. “And she can also be very feisty.”
But police dog work is Dooma’s forte.
“She kind of is the best of both worlds,” he said, recalling how Dooma beat 40 male police dogs in competitions. “So she’s kind of like a girl power dog, yet she’s sweet at the same time.”
The future is full of potential for Dooma, now pregnant with puppies. She continues to squat with her fella, Dr. Strahl, in the gym and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.
