Posted on 07/14/2005 7:15:45 AM PDT by libstripper
Not too long ago, Labrador retrievers were considered a tad exotic. In the 1950s, the sporty mid-size breed was a suburban rarity, popular mainly among upper-crust Anglophiles who liked the idea of owning a dignified hunting dog. Today, however, Labs are the Levi's jeans of purebred dogs. They've topped the American Kennel Club's list of registered canines for 12 years straight. And not just topped, but dominated: The number of registered Labs is nearly three times the number of golden retrievers, the second most popular dog on the list
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
I'll take my Rotty. He and my Glock keep me company.
I agree with you. The best dogs are mixed. People need to neuter and spay also. I don't think people should be allowed to have a dog or cat unless they neuter and spay. There are clinics that specialize in free or inexpensive neutering and spaying, even in my small rural community.
Harm, my Malamute/Husky/Lab mix was intentionally bred. Apparently a lot of people wanted that type of dog. My children got Harm for me when my Golden/lab cross was killed right after my husband died. Harm's dad belonged to a neighbor and used to spend the days with me while they were at work. I loved that dog, so the kids thought I should have one of his pups right after Skippy died. Not a good idea at the time, but I love Harm completely now. Still, he isn't Skippy.
They were probably all too conditioned, having been trained specifically, to go over walls! They wanted to do it the way they've always been told to do it! Obey!
My Shana outsmarted all my aunt's Border Collies IN THEIR OWN HOUSE which she hardly knew.
Their house had an old door w/windows you could close between rooms, basically on 1 side of the house down the centerline. The house layout was like a perfect rectangle - you could walk around the whole perimeter of the house unless you closed that 1 door to block the route. My cousin started thrown balls thru the door to the other side of the house. After a while he decided to tease them and close the door when they ran to get it. All the BCs stopped at the door, looked forelorn, and sat down looking thru the window at us on the other side. My GS came back, saw the door was closed and us thru the window, then promptly ran to the other side of the house to get around the back way to us! :D
(God I loved that dog.)
LOL! Then get a yellow lab, but go to an animal shelter to get one!
No -- the SF SPCA is a "no kill" shelter.
LOL...I never noticed the similarity!
My mutt is half Lab - half Border Collie, and he has the single best temperment of any dog I have ever known.
Really, Labs are IMHO one of the finest breeds of dog there is. Reliable, even tempered, very good with children, extremely loyal.
Wow, your dog is sensual and erotic! :) I find myself strangely drawn...
All kidding aside, I don't recall seeing that painting before. I'm a fan!
Our Lab is about 5 years old, and is the best dog I've ever known. We often call her the "World's Friendliest Dog" because she absolutely loves people, loves to meet new people, and acts as though she's never met a person she didn't like... which is true. I would trust her with children of any age, including newborns. In fact, she played the role of mother once to a new kitten we had, allowing the kitten to suckle (the Lab has never bred and has been spayed) and sleep curled up in her bosom.
I would not trust our German Shorthair with small children until I had a chance to see how they got along. She's far more "suspicious" than the Lab, and requires 30 seconds or so before she passes judgement on a human. She's never bit anyone, but she has barked at and backed away from a few people if they're strangers to her and they just come out of nowhere.
Waiting for the signal to start the course. ("Have fun - run naked!")
Tunnel rat
Happy Flying Dog
Absolutely gorgeous. Bless him. He is waiting for you on the other side of that bridge you all talk about. Just like my Skippy is.
That's funny, cuz most GS are stubborn - a good thing. They are highly intelligent and stubborn and thus usually somewhat tough to train (contrary to popular belief). They largely want to do things their way unless you make it clear you're boss. I had somewhat stubborn dog in training - she was definitely a dominant dog - but by God when you got it thru to her, she obeyed and *stubbornly* stuck to her lessons like the dickens! She even self-disciplined where I didn't have to tell her to heel - she did it herself when seeing dogs and the like.
Unlike the not-so-hot GS I have now! :-\
My Harm will do that, and if I don't pay attention, he starts to tell me what he wants. That dog can talk, I just can't understand the words! I know what he wants usually, though. He will also bring a toy in a put it on me when he thinks I should play with him. I have even waked up to a large squeaky bone being placed on my head. LOL!
You do wonderfully with your dogs and your son. :~D
I love the flying dog photo! What do you feed her to keep her sleek and shiny?
This is a pic of her at her goofiest (which is pretty goofy). But you can see that she is small, has a broad chest, and her muzzle is narrower and her head rounder than is typical for a Lab. If somebody was thinking "Labs are great big dogs" and couldn't place her as a Lab, you could see them thinking she MIGHT be a PB or PB mix -
. . . if they're idiots. But you see what I mean.
But the fact that ANYbody could even THINK this is exactly why I hate the "evil pit bull" legislation. In order to get the unpedigreed mixes, the legislators think it's a good idea to let the gummint pick up and destroy anything that somebody says looks like a PBT. And since the idiots tend to gravitate to government employment . . .
They have three kids, all under the age of 9, and we see them all the time in the yard, and he's got his eye on those kids. Most importantly, he's got his eye on anyone who might have their eye on those kids. Nothing gets past him. I talked to the little girl once, she said that their dog never lets anyone in the house (any man, that is) when their father isn't there.
Now this is just speculative, but labs have always struck me as being a little more dominant than Goldens. We always said that if a burglar broke in, Tycho would not only lead them to where our valuables were, he'd make them a sandwich and play a few games of tug of war.
Big'ol did really well picking a breed for his parents. They got an older, and trained, Welsh corgi. He has a darling temperament and the perfect size for condo-living.
Cute dogs! (Is your Chocolate as nutty as my Chocolate?)
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