Posted on 11/10/2006 9:09:58 AM PST by AnAmericanMother
Progress report - Candlewood Rock 'n' Roll Ruby is now just over 12 weeks old . . . and boy has she grown!
Shelley is actually o.k. with it all now. They play together (mostly tug-o-war) and explore things peacefully side by side, although Shelley still will take a toy away from Ruby just to show that she can . . . and Ruby submits gracefully with a sit and a lick on the face.
Kid's got BIG EARS.
"Mom! Not while I'm on the john!"
Vanity Puppy Ping.
Lucky dog, I wish more dogs had a happy home. It is luck of the draw to get a loving home or be thrown on a grill and literally starved. My dogs have all been lucky also.
Handsome dog. Is that Shelly with her?
What a beautiful girl. And she's so big :)
Yep, that's Shelley doing her best to not be jealous . . . she still gets to go to hunt tests (and sleep on the bed) so she feels superior. And Ruby is now very deferential (after being chomped on once or twice. Fortunately doesn't look like any permanent scars!)
Her feet aren't all THAT big, so hopefully not quite that big. A friend of Shelley's who's no bigger than she is weighs 55 pounds -- her back is longer. This little girl is going to be very long in the back (and legs).
I want to get an Irish Wolfhound. But I need to move, (need more outdoor space), for that to happen.
What a doll!!!
I'm late finding out about her. Are you going to train her and show her in field trials also?
Rugy = Ruby
We didn't start Shelley on retrieving til she was almost 3. This pup is getting bumpers and duck wings thrown for her already, and palling around with some big time retrievers so she can see what to do (it's amazing how much they pick up from watching the Big Dogs.)
Hard to find a cheerful one, 'cause they're all so sad. We thought about "A Dog Named Sue," but as the breeder pointed out, Sue was a boy, not a girl. Also, one of our club members just lost an outstanding dog named Sue, and I would never want to hurt his feelings.
"Rock 'n' Roll Ruby" is a very upbeat, rockabilly number -- so un-Johnny Cash like that he eventually sold the rights to Jerry Lee Lewis. It is one of the songs in the Walk the Line film with Joaquin Phoenix. Rock 'n' Roll Ruby
It fits this little girl, 'cause she's a pistol and very full of herself.
There are a couple of them that attempt to run agility at the AKC trials . . . they certainly are big and handsome, but let me put it this way, they aren't exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer.
I've never been to a hunting trial for wolfhounds, so I have no idea how they do at that. It just may be that they're not suited for agility.
Suits her much better than "A Dog Named Sue".
Not to be facetious, or a wise guy, but for the same reason I bought a Jeep - I just prefer that model.
And maybe perhaps for sentimental reasons, as I hold a soft spot in my heart for Ireland. In addition to guarding my home.
Was Ruby's sire black coated? Any chance of Ruby's coat turning similar to Shelley's, which is absolutely beautiful.
Not to bore you with Lab genetics, but the way it works is that a Yellow Lab is really a Black Lab with a recessive gene that turns the coat yellow. So if you breed yellow to yellow, all you will ever get is yellow, but a black dog can "throw" yellow or black. The chocolate gene is the wild card - it is recessive to black but dominant over yellow. So if a black dog is carrying the chocolate gene, he can throw all three colors, depending who he's bred to.
Shelley's father is a black lab who throws all three colors - her mom is a chocolate. Her litter was 50/50 black and chocolate, just as predicted by the little charts.
Ruby's father is a black Lab, his dad was black and his mom is a chocolate (and a hideously ugly dog, BTW - but one of the best female Choc retrievers ever) so he theoretically could have passed a chocolate gene on to Ruby. Ruby's mom however is a yellow Lab and of course yellow all the way back. So it's possible that Ruby could throw all three colors.
The reason you didn't see very many chocs until recently is that the conformation rules will not accept a "Dudley" -- that is, a dog with the chocolate gene and a yellow coat. Those are the yellow labs you see with the pink eye rims and noses that stay pink all the time (some yellow labs get "winter nose" -- pigment loss from cold weather, but it's not permanent). So almost all chocolates were field type . . . but now breeders just are keeping the chocolate lines separate from the yellow, and you see plenty of chocs in the show ring.
De gustibus non disputandem and all that.
I wound up with a Lab because I had small kids when I got Shelley - and the Lab was voted Least Likely To Take Offense When Pestered By Small Children. But once we got into it, we REALLY got into it . . . and here we are with a high-powered field dog puppy.
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