DOGS

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.

I was digging around in a bunch of old bookmarks and found this. Magnificent images.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/bigpicture/2016/03/15/iditarod-trail-sled-dog-race/8Me5cEOCaPVFMN5fVLn8JN/story.html

I had an odd dog encounter last week. The new neighbour a couple of doors up has two dogs that she leaves at home all day while she's out at work, but she leaves the upstairs windows open a bit so that they can both look out. One is an old labrador-type thing, the other is a rottweiler, and they spend all day long just barking and barking at the slightest provocation, like a seagull farts three streets away and they just go crazy, woofing and yelping and growling. Obviously it's been all over the street whatsapp, you could imagine. Anyhow we've had the guys from the water company replacing people's meters over a few days and that's just made these rogues go absolutely crackers. So I get out of my van one lunchtime, and these two poor engineer lads are on their hands and knees on the pavement, sheepishly trying to work, while above their heads there's this big black rottweiler leaning right out of the bedroom window fiercely barking away like a lunatic and I want to stop and take a photo of it silhouetted against the window frame while up above its head the sky is all stormy and dark from all this rain we've been having - I swear it's a sight straight out of a horror film - but I dont want to provoke it any further so I just keep walking and not making eye contact. But the guy coming along behind me is obviously not so cautious, he stops and starts talking to it, and then I hear a yell and I turn round to see this dog fucking leaping out of the upstairs window at him, a dark shape hurtling past the pale sun, then it lands on the front path and starts charging up and down the road snarling at everyone, obviously a bit shocked by it's fall from the skies but still seemingly in a fighting mood. The water guys just drop their everything and jump straight in their van. Me and this other guy are just left looking at each other wide-eyed and I briefly have visions of carnage flashing thru my mind - we live a few doors up from a school and I'm just thinking of this dog rampaging about with bloodied children in its mouth as a SWAT team leap out of a helicopter to take it out. And then I just snap straight into this instinctive response mode - and i run straight into my house and send my wife out to deal with it instead. And she just walks up to it calmly while talking gently to it, and this previously furious dog meekly turns around and walks back to its own house and scratches at the front door with a whimper, asking to be let back inside (my wife then has to sit there for 30 minutes with it until the owner comes home, while I valiantly make her a cup of tea; the dog is actually quite nice, she's called Doris or something iirc)

I take my hat off to this acrobatic rottweiler, sounds like a lovely dog.

Not sure whether or not her icarus-esque flight will have put her off future attempts or if its just going to encourage her

I reckon the landing might have hurt a bit, even if she wasn't visibly injured.

She had a bit of a grazed and bloody chin so I think the front legs must've collapsed a bit on impact

my mum brought me a fancy farm shop steak pie today. She says these pies are incredible and made with lard and no artificial additives or preservatives. I thought great - having a day off cooking will be nice. I was about to put it in the oven and then my dog started barking and I went to see if someone was at the door. It was a leafleter and the prick had left the gate open. I went out to shut the gate. And then when I got back into the kitchen there was an empty space where there previously was a pie :(

Congratulations, it’s a Labrador retriever.

where's L'Rain when you need her

he's sleeping like a log now - tough work is retrieving. Also there was probably enough pie there to feed 3 humans, it was big!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0ZsMG48C7Y

there is something truly hilarious about seeing a dog during a very naughty feeding frenzy, classic really.

the pure helpless disgrace of it

A couple of weeks ago Widget broke in to a kitchen cupboard and liberated a big bag of pine kernels. It was a caterer’s pack with 350g left in it. Which he ate.

For the next 24 hours, he crapped nothing else but undigested pine kernels. He keeps trying to revisit the crime scene because surely there must be another bag in there? DOG LOGIC.