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Brag (or Bitch) About your Dog
I got to the office today, and a co-worker had sent an email offering free golden retriever pups, with a picture of an impossible-to-resist litter of warm, fuzzy furballs. There's no way I could take another animal at the moment living in an apartment, but offers like that always make me seriously consider it just for a second before I have to talk some sense into myself. 
Later in the day, I saw this Arizona Republic story about a Lab who ate a pair of Super Bowl tickets totaling $1,900 in value. That helped get me off my new puppy kick as well. Apparently as punishment, the Lab, a 3-year-old named Buddy (at right with the incriminating evidence), isn't allowed to watch the game.
I've been wanting to write a dog-blog for a little while, and kept looking for a good news story to give me an excuse to do so. But considering that we're passed the time of year when a great dog-saves-duck-hunter-from-drowning headline is likely to pop up, I figure this ticket mishap will have to do.
So now's the time for your best and worst dog stories -- from great hunts to utter training disasters. Remembrances of past companions are also welcome (the first story I ever edited for Field & Stream was a one-page piece about the death of a bird hunter's favorite retriever - it's amazing how upset you can get over stories like that when it's not even your dog!). -K.H.
I'm an Owner/Handler/Trainer and future Breeder of Treeing Walker Coonhounds. It is awesome to take a pup out hunting and then watch them slowly release their natural born instincts that have been bred in them for centuries. While I do a lot of pleasure hunting with my hounds I also compete with them.
You might think it's a little weird to go out in the middle of the night chasing raccoons, or more so yet, yelling out "Strike Teddy!" then "Tree Teddy!" but man it gets your heart going!
For every Coon your dog tracks and trees in two hours you get awarded so many points per track and tree. (First Position Track is worth 100, and First Tree is 125.)Meanwhile up to 3 other dogs are turned loose also and only one can come out a "cast" winner. If your dog trees and doesn't have the coon it's called a Slick tree, and it's awarded Minus points, but if they have the coon, Plus them. One night when my dog Teddy was 2yrs old I was trying to get the last win on him to make him a UKC Nite Champion. He did his thing and ended up with 1300 Plus Points! It was an awesome night for me!!
You can also enter them into a Show. The dogs are gaited around and then put up on a Bench where the owner or handler stands them up and each is looked over and compared to it's Breed Standard. A judge then picks which one they feel is the best on that day.
I can go on and on about my dogs, they make me Proud!
You can check out my website to see them and read about some of our hunts!
Posted by: Laura Bell | January 30, 2008 at 09:36 AM
My golden was meant to be a pheasant dog, honest. He loved the birds; still freaks out over grouse and duck, too. But he's turned more into my social coordinator- somehow introduces me to a lot of the people in my life that mean something to me. His trainer, Andrea, is now my best friend. The first duck he ever got was Peter's, who a year later became my partner.
The Zo-dawg's brought a lot more to my life than friends. He's taught me unconditional love, patience, self discipline; he fully embodies "hope." He hasn't hunted as much as I'd've wished; moving here, changing that, etc. So this spring we're getting him a little sister. When Andrea trains our new griffon pointer, Zoe will have a friend that I"VE introduced him to- one that'll give him a run for the money on birds and be a new play pal during down times!
Posted by: Genevieve | January 30, 2008 at 03:59 PM
I have a black lab that my family bought four year's ago. We should have known the day we got her she was trouble.I'm having trouble picking one story to write about her,so the first one I'll write about happened when she was about six-months old and we were keeping her in our garage and I went check on her one morning and found a whole case of 20 Gauge shotgun shell's on the floor with BB's all over the place and my puppy looking at me like the one that chewed up the superbowl ticket's.The second one was when my uncle was building his house right next door to our house and the construction crew had went home for the day,When I went to check on her she was gone and when she came back there was a worker's glove and there was my dog with a bottle of blue chalk. The next time I went to the garage and found two fishing rod's chewed up.Now that she has passed the puppy stage she's the best dog anybody could ask for and the best fishing companion(even though she try's to catch the fish for me).
Posted by: Jasmyn | January 30, 2008 at 06:59 PM
I have only owned one dog my entire life... a rat terrier-blue heeler cross. He lived to be 14 years old. I had such a hard time loosing him that I opted not to get that attached to another. I too go through the "aw, I gotta have it" moments.. but I held strong. It is not that hard when you are a cat person... I cannot pass up a stray cat, if I can get my hands on it. :)
Posted by: | January 30, 2008 at 09:52 PM