American Kennel Club Offers Suggestions For Obama's New 'Number Two'

When your girl brings you a "present", be sure to PRAISE her effusively. She is giving you of her best (why else should she share her prize with you? It's pure love.)

Hide your nausea until you can dispose of said chipmunk privately.

I have had my girls bring me birds that have hit the glass or fallen out of the nest. My older dog is very gentle, and the birds usually survive the ride in her mouth, and we can sometimes put them in cottonwool under a heat lamp and get them back out and about. But when the two of them are jostling for the same bird the little critter often does not survive. :-( I've had birds die in my hand from the mauling, which is really sad. But you still have to praise for the retrieve.

Got to work with my young dog on the concept of "honoring a retrieve."

Yes, Soda was truly a softie. In fact, she wouldn’t hunt at all for my husband but would retrieve anything/do anything that I asked her to do...LOL. And yes, they are very stoic and do shut down but some of them truly are hard-headed - Soda’s mom (my original Chessie) was like that. Sassy, decided that she was my ex’s dog and her life’s work (aside from retrieving) was spent trying to dominate me. However, Sassy was one of the best retrievers that I’ve ever had the pleasure of hunting over!

Rex is a softie too but his size makes him the handful....he’s incredibly powerful and an inexperienced Chessie person would have a hard time handling him, which is why I believe he wound up in rescue. I absolutely love him and he’s totally devoted to me.

My cutsie name for him is “Honey bunny” but if I call him that out in public he’s absolutely humiliated and won’t even look at me. In the house when I call him that, his ears cup back and he wants to sit on my lap and just cuddle up to me....LOL

Thanks. Sorry for the delay in responding.

I very much enjoyed your response. I hadn't appreciated the effects of breeding upon the likely behaviors!

Thanks again.

Labs don't care if you call them "Bootsie" or whatever in public, or even if you pull their ears and tickle their tummies. My Choc will actually flop down wherever she is to have her belly scratched, and she'll go and put the "Big Dog Lean" on total strangers if they look like they might give her a tummy rub. My 22 month old Black Lab just licks whatever exposed skin she can reach, especially faces . . . .

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