DOGS

Widget has never had pork, because Americans generally don’t feed it to dogs. Relatedly, there are not as many cases of pancreatitis in American dogs.

I hold his paws all the time, though. They are around the size of a blood pressure bulb pump so you can see the appeal?

my brother got a puppy!! he's a King Charles (ugh) Spaniel named Jack. he is pretty much the Tazmanian Devil from looney Tunres, a walking vortex of chaos. their house is a disaster area. i love him.

my old roommate's girlfriend's girlfriend did that when she met my dog... "oooh he looks just like my dogs from back home in indiana", or iowa or wherever the fuck she was from. "they love it when you massage between their paw pads like this!" and my buddy was clearly not loving it. i think i asked her politely to stop and she insisted that he loved it. i couldn't fucking stand her, i ended up moving out of that apartment because the girlfriend was driving me nuts.

(minus one 'girlfriend's')

As someone who recently adopted a black lab (from my ailing mother-in-law, who can no longer care for herself, let alone a dog), I would not recommend one.

Our other dog is a pit bull/German short-haired pointer mix, whom we also adopted. She's probably the best dog I've ever shared space with. Great personality, excellent with kids, very loyal and protective.

As someone who recently adopted a black lab ... I would not recommend one.

hardest of hard disagrees there, they are the best

Tbf, he's relatively young (three years old), and has no experience living with anyone other than an old lady and a blind, deaf Dalmatian. But he's just kind of dumb, and he's way too aggressive (barking, not biting) towards my 12-year-old's friends.

And he fucking terrorizes our cats.

I don’t dig Labs in general unless they are trained well and have a lot of room to roam and explore. Otherwise they are awful.

Like the only lab I ever truly loved lives on an island in Maine and has hardly ever been on leash and is sweet as pie. But most dogs with that kind of life would be!

weird, my black lab mostly just wanted to be around me and eat whatever i was eating. by that measure, i think he had a good life, though i felt bad that he was stuck in a cramped apartment so much of the time. he was dog reactive and pulled on the leash, so walking him could be stressful. otherwise, he was calm, affectionate, and above all patient. i've never known such a patient dog. he was not a barker rolled over for belly rubs. he was very persistent, and convincing, at asking for food. lost interest in chasing animals after 2 seconds.

i used to do the trust exercise with him where you cover your hand in peanut butter and let him lick it off, such a sweetheart. i filmed it once dressed as a lion tamer 🦁

"he was dog reactive and pulled on the leash, so walking him could be stressful"

sounds a bit like my black lab, his behaviour has got me into trouble a few times but he can also be an absolute charmer. Also his obsessive scavenging can be a problem outdoors and his endless plotting to raid human food in the house is a constant challenge and source of amusement to me. He's such a handsome rogue I can never fall out with him for long. I recently read somewhere that pouring old vegetable oil into the soil in your garden is good way of disposing of it and contains minerals that are beneficial for the soil. Only I didn't realise it would mean he would spend 10 minutes licking the soil on the spot where I poured it every time I let him out in the garden, that's how bad his scavenging is so had to put a stop that method of disposal.

Black labs are meant to be out in the fields and rivers all day long. It's what they're built for. YMMV, but in general the younger ones in particular need a lot more exercise than people realize in order to be placid in the house. When we had one, he got an hour of off-lead running around and swimming a day, plus two shorter on-lead walks around our housing estate. He was an absolute pet in the house. His favourite thing was to hold your arm in his mouth when he was sitting beside you. A real gun dog.

Highly recommend getting the 12-year-old's friends to give him chicken from their pockets whenever they see him and the barking will magically stop.

My friend has adopted a long-termer from a rescue. He's a six-year-old black lab with a murky history. She's had him for about five months, but now she is ready to let me meet him, which will mean her walking him past the gate of my house at a prearranged time. I will stand outside my house, greet her, ignore the dog, chat for a minute, then let them go on. That's meet one. Meets two and three, I will casually give him chicken from my pocket and become the magic chicken lady. Then meet four I will be allowed to talk to him and possibly look him in the eye. Man, the dedication of some people who take in dogs. I couldn't manage it.

my black lab apparently is a Drakeshead or roughly from that lineage of gun dogs or at least looks like that. I bought him from some plasterer bloke who bred his labs at home because I couldn't be bothered dealing with KC people. He's much bigger than most labs I see and hasn't got the stamina for all day countryside action. Just playing catch up with a mad springer spaniel for half an hour and he's knackered and will sleep for hours. I'd say a 3 mile walk is more than enough for him.

loads of black labs around our area. afraid I'm not really a dog person and would never own one but whenever I play golf in the early morning, like this morning for instance, will spot at least 6 or 7 during the round. golf course next to a forest must be heavenly for them and it does make me happy to see them bouncing around as long as they don't bounce up on me. if they do I find standing stock still and ignoring them usually works and most owners are relieved if you don't make a big deal of it.

only problem seems to come when they bark at people riding horses which tbf I've only witnessed a handful of times.

got a nice pic of my dog touching noses with a horse, but he might have barked at them once or twice when he was a pup.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FP_H-kXX0AYRZ3D?format=jpg&name=medium

might as well

Awww.

Widget (a whippet, and small for a boy) is intimidated by black Labs and saves his angriest barking and lead pulling for any he randomly meets. I attempt to mitigate his behaviour to onlookers by reining him in and calling him a wanker, so at least they know I also find it unacceptable. However, he is fine off the lead apart from an initial ‘challenge’ to determine whether the retriever before him is The Enemy. Two related problems:

RNIB walk a lot of guide dogs through my neighbourhood because their offices are nearby. You can imagine what Widget thinks about this, and he also despises the other guide dog type - any shepherd breed.

Rupert Everett lives around the corner from us and recently added a black Lab to his household.

there is this lovely white whippet I see in the park who my lab is sometimes friendly with. The whippet is a bit skittish and was trembling once while Douglas cautiously approached him, but has got a lot braver since and will bark at him sometimes now from a safe distance, they are both as bad as each other. Can never predict if they are going to be friendly or have a shouting match.

Widget is bolshy as fuck, for a whippet.

Thanks for the advice, trishyb. He does get a lot of time outdoors, although probably not enough. He has bonded quite well with the other dog, which helps.

Honestly, we took this dog in as an act of kindness, and I want it to work. My son (the 12 year old, the only one still living at home) adores him.

Only I didn't realise it would mean he would spend 10 minutes licking the soil on the spot where I poured it every time I let him out in the garden

omg DYING 😂🤣😭
sounds about right.

that picture is gold! Douglas is indeed a handsome boy.

My dog is a black lab. He weighs about 80 pounds. He seems to attract a lot of barking from other dogs as well. He also pulls a lot on the leash and barks loudly at just about anything that he doesn't like (which includes trucks, delivery people, other dogs, construction workers, etc.) So he is kind of a pain in the ass. He also is an incorrigible garbage eater. He can smell a pizza crust from a block away and will dive into the gutter to grab one (usually dislocating my shoulder in the process). Very loyal and affectionate though.

lol they are such incorrigible fuckers when it comes to scavenging food. I have to keep mine on the lead in areas near houses where I know stupid people throw big piles of bread over the wall in spots where birds will never eat it because its in prime cat predation territory. So this bread turns into a disgusting mouldy blue mush and he will eat the lot of it. And pizza crusts, yes he waits until I am out of sight and does bin raids if he smells pizza crust in there. If he didn't make me laugh so much I would be completely exasperated with his behaviour.

Mine has now figured out how to bypass the strap we hooked to the basement door to keep him away from the cats' food and litterbox. They are now even more terrorized (and hungry). This dog has pushed me into an arms race; in addition to the baby gate I put up in the hallway to keep him out of the back of the house, I now have to install a cat door.

I'm sure I've shared the story of our emergency trip to the vets one night with our black lab foster who found his way into the food press and inhaled so much dry dog food so quickly that it completely blocked his innards and changed his body shape.

I do remember that one trishyb and have retold it to other ppl in the Lab network.

I was talking to this Lab owner who in desperation unscrewed her living room and kitchen door handles and fixed them back them upside down - lol, like that was going to defeat a Lab!

his behaviour has got me into trouble a few times but he can also be an absolute charmer. Also his obsessive scavenging can be a problem outdoors and his endless plotting to raid human food in the house is a constant challenge and source of amusement to me. He's such a handsome rogue I can never fall out with him for long.

This is my white Swiss shepherd to a tee. Her whole days are spent trying to win food of us with her dashing good looks and manners, or trying to steal food from us when we are unaware. She also will trust that absolutely anything we give her in her mouth is a treat (mostly as a toy), so me and my wife have a great time giving her our torn up envelopes, pumpkin ends, empty chip packets, cardboard boxes, for her to run outside with it immediately and try figure out what it is we gave her. Probably not the best for training but very good for entertainment.

I’m currently training for a marathon and my god the girl can run! Anyone have any experience long distance running with their dog? I have worries in the back of my head about seriously impacting her health with it, but placate this by telling myself I’m not running her any harder than she runs herself at the off leash dog beach (she goes hard). Any advice is appreciated

Squeezing dog paws is very poor. Holding your dogs paws at every conceivable moment though? Absolutely classic. Hold hands with my dog more than my wife these days

We dogsit a brown lab for some friends every so often. The last time he came, within 20 minutes he'd found my bag and managed to open the sealed Tupperware full of dates and raisins I keep for long walk emergencies. Phoned the vet who said we needed to bring him down immediately. She fed him an emetic and delightedly told us he'd eaten 30 raisins and nine dates. And charged us £220.

my dog does give me left paw, give me right paw over and over again -it's so cool when dog gives you their paw

I have a latch on my kitchen door, because I have to keep mine in the kitchen with me while my son is eating and if I need to go out the side door for any reason he will burst through that door on a raid. Because my son's autistic he will sit there with an amused look on his face while the dog strips his plate clean in about 9 seconds and not make one attempt to stop him. In fact he finds it hilarious.

lol

Your son is right, that is hilarious.

Peach (my dog) has recently figured out how to open the cupboard where we keep our trash can. Heard a weird crunching sound at midnight last night; it was her on the kitchen floor eating all the chicken bones from our dinner which we obviously don’t give her because we are good dog parents. Thankfully no vet visits necessary

oh christ, chicken bones are a nightmare. My dog already had to have major surgery when a sock he ate got stuck in his small intestine and it was touch and go whether he survived at one point. I have to put them straight out into the outside bin.

I hold Widget’s paws all the time. They are about the size of blood pressure bulbs, and he doesn’t mind people touching them.

for her to run outside with it immediately and try figure out what it is we gave her.

Awww, this sounds really cute.

I have worries in the back of my head about seriously impacting her health with it, but placate this by telling myself I’m not running her any harder than she runs herself at the off leash dog beach (she goes hard). Any advice is appreciated

I only know what most people know, that shepherds are prone to arthritis, so you need to be careful with their joints, but I don't know how running might affect that.

oh christ, chicken bones are a nightmare.

Our lot sometimes get them from the seagulls who live on our roof and who seem to think it's funny to throw their used chicken bones and crab shells down and watch our dogs try to eat them. "Here, peasants, you can have this," very much seems to be the attitude.

Now that Lulu is gone, we only have the three smallies, and the imbalance is ridiculous. My friend brought her yorkie round the other week and said "if you put the four of them together you'd nearly make a proper dog". I love my small dogs, but I miss having a proper dog.

She is verrrry cute (and pretty!) for a big dog. Don’t think I could ever get another kind of dog from here on out (was raised with Labs and Golden), the white Swiss is just so loyal, pure, fun, sweet, and yeah she looks like a “proper dog”. Love her to absolute bits (she’s snoozing right next to me as I write this).

Tangent: I feel icky for my semi-eugenicist views of dogs. I definitely do have a “proper dog/slight-genetic-monstrosity dog” paradigm in my head. You just see some small dogs and wonder how good their quality of life really is…. That said my parents just got a dachshund and he is the cutest little guy (so obviously not all small dogs). Whatever your thoughts, you can’t help but look at a shepherd and think “now that’s a dog!”. Obviously no owner bias present in this view

Looking at her right now I’d have to say she’s probably my best friend. Going to be absolutely devastated the day she’s leaves

My mother recently adopted a pug. It's the cutest, weirdest dog I've ever seen. He looks like Peter Lorre.

all the annoying things like the food raids and barking at postal workers or anyone who walks past the house, it feels so empty and sad when doesn't happen anymore:)

lol meant a :(

:( I hope she never stops woofing. My wife and I have a lot of fun imitating her woof in a dumb voice to her (hey peach? Who am I? Woof woof woof woof woof). I think every healthy marriage needs a dog; someone you can both pick on in a loving-mocking tone so you don’t take it out on each other (though we still take it out on each other, in love)

when you go through difficult times having a mad pal for life who giddily bounds about fields and woodlands with a perma smile every morning when you take them out. That helps you stay alive.

Photo popped up from a local shelter of a 3 month old puppy whose muzzle looks very Anatolian Shepher to me but their description says he'll top out at 50 pounds. I suspect some adopter is going to have a big surprise.

I feel guilty whenever I am not taking my dog to the beach due to the pure joy she gets from being there. How could I ever withhold that from her!

She’s currently woofing at the neighbours cat, bless her

when you go through difficult times having a mad pal for life who giddily bounds about fields and woodlands with a perma smile every morning when you take them out. That helps you stay alive.

― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Friday, July 28, 2023 9:36 PM (twenty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

otmfm god knows i get into the pits nowadays but when my boy faces a new day and a trip to the park with a 'YES I AM GOING TO RUN FOR NO REASON now, what can i smell?'attitude the fact of living seems a solid good.

woof otm

Argh, everyone stop, you're making me miss my dog, even though I still have dogs.