The Hobbit Hole V - Where Many Paths and Errands Meet...

ecurbh

[ecurbh]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Where Many Paths and Errands Meet...

• First thread: New Zealander builds Hobbit hole
• Second thread: The New Hobbit Hole
• Third thread: The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads! (Congratulations, we filled it up!)
• Fourth Thread: The Hobbit Hole IV - The Road Goes Ever On...

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

[Darksheare]

Itis?
Darn!!
I'll have to give it a shake, a kick, and a good beating..

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Should we expect Bear to be showing up in about 2-3 posts?

Nah... once my string was broken, I lost interest. I need to find another odd number combination to obsess over.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Hello! I've been meaning to ask, did you have pics from the AustinMoot? I remember someone taking a group shot, but I didn't know if that was your camera or not.

[AnAmericanMother]

You only think she looks houndy because her ears are prolly a little too big.... makes her look eternally a pup.

Well, that's certainly consistent with her behavior! :-) With her small size, people are constantly thinking she is a puppy, the ears probably have something to do with it too. She does have a double coat, the outer coat is coarse and oily and sheds water (AND dirt!), but the undercoat is sparse given that she sleeps inside in a nice warm kitchen on a sheepskin bed . . . (I told you she was pampered!) . . . and of course it rarely gets cold in the South. She is a very dark chocolate in person, in a bad light she looks almost black.

We went looking for a black Lab, and I was looking at a somewhat mellower black girl in the same litter, but this girl chose my children and wouldn't let any of the other pups (4 black and 4 choc) near them. When they choose you, you have to take them home!

[HairOfTheDog]

Here is one of those big huge Labradors the field trial people are breeding. Belonged to a friend... He was a nice dog, but he scarcely resembled a Labrador. My Logan on the right, who was technically too big for the standard at 25 inches and 90 pounds was dwarfed by him. It is at this point that the breed needs to make a decision to create a new one and stop calling them the same dog.

[HairOfTheDog]

When they choose you, you have to take them home!

That's true! I don't know what I will come home with!

[Pippin]

LOL!

Yeah, that'll do it!

[AnAmericanMother]

Good God! That looks like a cross between a mastiff and a bloodhound! He's a monster (does he weight about 120?)

My Shelley-Dog would be insufferable at 90 pounds (she has her insufferable days even at 42-43 pounds!) She is just so full of energy and run. We kept her on the beach from about noon until dark the day after Christmas, and she was still full of get up and go - ran a very nice English Setter off his legs, retrieved logs of driftwood, swam in the ocean, chased seagulls . . . she did sleep very well that night, but at 8 a.m. the next day she was ready to go out and run around my parents' island looking for squirrels . . .

[AnAmericanMother]

And Logan sure was a classic Lab, even if a bit on the big side. Was he as sweet as he looks? You sure must miss him.

[Darksheare]

Umm.. I think I broke it good.
It's scrambled now.
Hmm..
*boot*

[Wneighbor]

I got 2 good photos only. The groups didn't work. I got one of you and Rose and one of MBY. They were good though. Will post later from work. They're on the laptop and I'm not. :-)

[HairOfTheDog]

Logan looked good at 90 pounds... Too heavy for agility, but the nice full loins the show-dogs have. When he turned 8 he started injuring himself over the high jump in AKC obedience and I couldn't finish him. He got through CDX.

I don't know what Jazz (that Chocolate) weighed in his prime when that picture was taken. He just died of old age and thin, stuck with cancer... a month ago, he was a couple years younger than Logan.

[Pippin]

UH! OH!

[My back yard]

I have a soft spot for the blacks too. My new baby is a yellow, but I sure love the blacks. If I were in your climate I would definitely go with black. Down here the yellow have less skin problems.

As far as changing to meet the demand, it seems like it is more the other way around. In the 60's and 70's a lean field conditioned dog could compete in a conformation competition. Now, the winning dogs are getting thicker boned and heavier every year, to the point no dog in field condition can compete, and this is 'working' group, not 'cuddle' group.

I agree about the longer legs and thinner coats is a, uh, uh, schism. :)

[My back yard]

create a new one and stop calling them the same dog.

Wow, what a hugh dog. I agree totally that is not the breed. But, a 65-70 lb lab in field condition could not compete any more than that one could.

[My back yard]

Logan was a beautiful lab.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Saved for posterity! Or something...

[HairOfTheDog]

I do miss Logan, and all old dogs now gone... he was pretty in his prime, and the sweetest most honest dog I ever met, if not the sharpest tool in the shed. Zulu (my little Cocker mutt) was his brains.

This is the two of them the way they lived.... Two days before he died, and about a month before she did.... makes me teary to see them again. I avoid sometimes, the pictures of the old version of Zulu, but never the old version of Logan... He was happy to be young, and happy to be old.

[My back yard]

I was wondering if any of the pics taken came out. Didn't Rose take one or two also?

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

At least some of the photos turned out! Ours didn't turn out well at all, unfortunately.