Dogs

[~]

[skyhook77sfg]

a good german sheperd is my all around all time favorite.

had a wonderful HUGE doberman once...second place.

but both are best solo....

[Demon of Undoing]

For some reason, I always got the impression that Dobermans worked well in groups . Of course, that impression was largely informed by watching Magnum PI , as I have never been around them .

Speaking of Magnum PI . True story ;

I went out to this severely rich guy's place one time with a friend that had just bought a car off said well-provisioned individual. In light of the fact that the Willys Jeep he bought was in generally good shape but not running, he needed a lowboy trailer that I had to get the thing home . We made it over to the estate at first light, got buzzed through the gate , and found the Jeep ( there were probably fifty cars in various states of restoration, a hobby that the big man was now getting too old to pursue) . As we back up to the Jeep, a beautiful Asian lady of a certain age showed up, immaculately dressed , and made sure we were finding everything alright . We said we were and went back to work .

After she left, I remarked to my friend that I had seen her before , and that she was always not just well turned out but outright artful in appearance . In addition to being beautiful, she was talented and made her own clothing, he said, and I had not a doubt that if she were to take her things to NY, she'd be a hit .It was her touch I noticed in the property, the loads of flowers and entire swaths of magically arranged topiary and orchids and all manner of other living things . It was like a game preserve or a garden , my friend said , as I went under the Jeep looking to make sure of the state of the driveline . As I near tore my6 scalp on a suspension part, it occurred to me that it was more like the estate from Magnum PI ( the place was huge) .

Just at that point , it occurred to me that the estate on TV had those three Dobermans that were always trying to chew a hole in Tom Selleck . For some reason , I felt an urgent need to know if a similar pack inhabited these grounds, just out of the blue, essentially trapped under the Jeep .

Have you ever felt eyes on you ? Interested eyes , staring , at close distance, eyes you didn't know were there until too late ? Yeah, that's what I felt, strongly, so strongly that I got out from under the Jeep very slowly and quietly. My friend had gone silent , and for some reason in the air, i knew it was the thing to do . As I back crawled out from under the Jeep, my friend was standing with his back to the rear tire , to my left as I stood up , not even daring to dust off . Turning around, thinking for sure I was about to get dogbit , I was greeted with this sight .























All images selected for both breed and general demeanor observed when I turned around . It was the last little guy that kept us from leaving for another twenty minutes. Here I am expecting to have to do hand to dog combat , and got ambushed by a truckload of cute .

[Sennacherib]

Vintage silent film on training bird dogs, ca. 1940s:





Personal anecdote (with appended rant):

Back in the 1990s, Mrs. Sennacherib and I were at the English Setter Association of America national specialty at the Denver Hilton. An elderly couple buttonholed me as I was escorting my avatar around the grounds.

"Are we allowed to watch?"

Please do, I replied.

It turned out that the gentleman was a retired farmer from Missouri and, in the 1940s and 1950s, had been a keen hunter with English setters. After enquiring about upland game birds in Alberta (chukar, Hungarian partridges, several grouse species, wild turkeys (introduced), ringnecked pheasants (introduced), etc.), he related his experience.

"I used to camp, read and fish for two or three days until my setters settled down. Then we got down to serious hunting."

That is the clearest insight into the psychology of the breed that I've ever come across. The English setter rescue regularly has dogs that were ruined through the use of shock collars and then abandoned because their owners lacked patience in training and lacked patience with their dogs in the field. If you want a good hunting dog, you have to invest the time to bring it along. They come with the instinct but you have to bring it out. Lay off the bloody shock collar and quick fixes: they don't work. </rant>

[noddy]

Uploaded with

half staffy, half whatever her escaped mother shagged, we suspect blue heeler, rescue mission from abused home.

she is an unstoppable force, if it didnt work the first time you didnt go at it hard enough.



Uploaded with

half labrador, half shepard - my big black wolf, smarter than me, nicer than me and massive, can put his paws on my 6"2 shoulders, hes another rescue mission from people who had little fluffy toy dogs and got scared about how big he was getting.

[jerryberry]

Dogs decoded, Nova

[Sennacherib]

[CgDs]

[Sennacherib]

[Demon of Undoing]

I couldn't make this up if I tried.

My moms 160 lb Great Dane just died from probably a coral snake bite ( all neuro symptoms). I get to drag him out of my moms bedroom and bury him. At 2:20. AM. And then work tomorrow.

Oy.

[noddy]

:/

[Demon of Undoing]

Update and plot thickens; dog may have been poisoned, alleged threat made to neighbors. Dogtopsy is complete , toxicology report back in days. So now I have a war on my hands.

Oy oy.

[Colonel Sun]

Posted in the "dogs" thread? You're going about this wrong.

[noddy]

[noddy]

[Colonel Sun]

[Colonel Sun]

[Colonel Sun]

[Hoosiernorm]

[Colonel Sun]

[Colonel Sun]

[CgDs]

[ansuchin]

[Sparky]

Now if you could train this fellow to draw a swastika...

[noddy]