Pretty sure that one in the back is our Friend Burpo!
The smushed face was for bull baiting.
I’m not sure what that is, but it sounds terrible.
Of course it was exaggerated to the extreme.
Long ears and skin folds in Blood hounds to catch scent more efficiently.
Long legs and bigger chest cavities for racing dogs in the Sight hounds.
Squishy rib cages for the dogs meant to go underground.
Stubby fat tails with a white tip(flag) in Beagles. To be seen easier in the field.
Webbed toe pad for swimming breeds.
Oilier coats for retrieving breeds.
Probably hundreds more.
Notice it always comes from Hunting and Field work.
ETA…after all that’s what man ever wanted dogs for. That they became our housemates(sleeping in our beds)and friends and family members is amazing in itself.
Same with Huskies. I had a husky girl-dog after i moved out, she was super active. We had a SCA Fighter practice in our back yard (it was a triplex, and my buddy on the top floor was a Knight). The knights ordered their squires- four of them to tire out Kazan- several hours later, we had 4 tired out squires and a husky wanting more play time. And she was an escape artist.
6 years ago when my soul needed a Siamese cat we had to hunt and hunt for a traditional (apple head) one, like the precious one 50 years ago in my youth. I had to drive over 250 miles each way to pick her up from her breeder. Now that breeder’s apple head Siamese are $600-$800 and you sign a contract and leave a deposit agreeing to not breed them.
I used to have a Shiloh Shepherd (RIP…old age…think long haired German Shepherd without the GSD problems) and two cats. The dog would try to herd the cats but she never got the memo that herding cats is a well known difficult thing so mostly it didn’t work.
Nope. But if your friend had been named Farto, we might have a match. Sometimes that dog gasses me out the room
Our current cat was a rescue - caught in a fan belt teying to get warm under a car hood when a kitten, it took several surgeries and his bomes were already setting wrong when he was found, so now he’s a little slow to move around and sort of scuttles instead of running, but totally game to play with Ruby, our red Border Collie. The two play constantly. He’ll let Rny herd him a bit, then give chase. Then vice vers.
I’m happy the animals amuse each other - takes the pressure off of us.
I once had a Pit Bull/GSD cross named Dina-- I got her the week of the parsha about Jacob’s daughter Dina. She was a very smart dog, who knew upwards of 100 words. She was mostly Pit in personality-- very affectionate-- didn’t just want to sleep on the bed-- wanted to spoon. Very playful, high energy, and hard to train at first, when she was under a year, because of her energy, but once she hit about 18 months, she slowed a bit, and suddenly all the training I’d poured into her took hold.
She would heel off-leash, she had a beautiful lie-down stay-- I could walk away twirling her favorite toy, and get a hundred feet away, and she would stay down until called-- then, the best reward was a few minutes of tug-o-war with the toy, not treats.
She loved to play with other dogs, and at the vet, would play in the waiting room-- except once, when she went with two of the cats-- suddenly, she was all GSD. She parked herself in a lie-down across the carrier, and growled at any dog coming near “her” cats.
I tried to train her for the AKC Canine Good Citizen test, but she couldn’t pass the separation part-- unfortunately, probably because she was separated from her mother too soon (5 weeks) she always had separation anxiety. I tried to talk the people who had her mother into keeping her for 8 weeks-- even offered to pay them-- but they wanted the puppies gone. I gave her formula in a bowl in addition to her water and puppy food, until she was 10 weeks, and it seemed to be good for her physically, but didn’t help her with separation anxiety.
She did well on all the other tests, though. When she wanted pet, she walked up to people, and sat patiently at their feet. I usually had to explain what she wanted. When she was little, I know she would be a big dog some day (80 muscular lbs), so we worked from day 1 on not jumping on people.
I lost her to cancer in 2005, and I still miss her.
Awww. That’s a nice tale (tail)
I liked reading it.
Bayliss does the wait in front of people asking for pets(or maybe car rides, he loves to ride in cars).
Thx
No problem.
Training them to sit for pets is such a good thing, and so funny when people do get it-- then you explain, and they say they never saw such a polite dog before.
I even have a rescue I got when she was 2 & 1/2 who was a jumper, and I managed to teach her to sit for pets.
When we got a Shiba Inu, we chose a breeder that emphasized how much she prioritized demeanor and personality, and damn I’m glad we did. Shibas, outside their beauty and charm, are known for being dim-witted at best, downright vicious at worst, and inevitably stubborn and disobedient.
Through breed-based social networks, I learned that reputation is well earned. Fortunately, our Kirin (RIP) was clever, gentle, and took to training like my childhood Golden Retriever. Stay:
So please, Shiba Inu aficionados, stop worrying about the perfect tail curl and ear shape. Give me a dog that won’t maul the vet tech during vaccinations, or become a V-2 rocket if you drop the leash.
Good on you.
All of our cats are rescues. One was a feral, but now she is actually a lap cat. Okay, only sometimes, but still- feral to lap cat is rare.
I think mutt animals/rescues are better. We did get a Asian leopard cat once, but even he was a sorta rescue- the breeder gave him to us if we promised to neuter him- he was an F3 and a throwback, with wild features (occipital ridge, largish fangs, etc)- but his spots were very pale and subtle so he couldnt be sold or bred. He was also a lap cat, and very mild mannered. She was thinking about putting him down, but hated the idea.
Fiat!!!
But just think of the hours of fun(?) she had fulfilling her inborn herding need!
My current dog is a Shiba Inu/Labrador cross. (Daddy was big for his breed.)
He is very definitely not vicious. He is I’d say of at least average brains. Stubborn and disobedient – that, I’ll give you. But he is a genuinely nice dog.
My mom had a feral living at her house for years (outdoor only-- She would panic if she ever had a door close her in) who loved humans so much that she literally would not allow you to feed her until after you’d petted her.
I wouldn’t call that feral; I’d call that an outdoor only cat. I think feral or non-feral has to do with attitude towards humans.
My guess is that she’d been originally been a barn cat somewhere that the humans patted the barn cats a lot. Some barn cats will panic if shut into a room – they’re only used to spaces that they can get in or out of at any time (which applies to a lot of farm barns even if the main doors are sometimes shut as there are often cat-sized gaps; and of course to all open sheds.)
She was born on our city-lot property (underneath a small playhouse/shed in Mom’s backyard) to a cat who was definitely feral, and who had no contact at all with humans other than the one time she was caught to be spayed (we obviously didn’t get to that one quick enough). We know her entire history, and she didn’t get petted until she started demanding it. Though she wasn’t far from being a barn cat: Mom deliberately encouraged her to stick around, because she did a good job of keeping rodents away from the chicken feed.
That’s interesting; and now I’m curious about the details. How old was she when she started asking to be patted? Was her mother around at the time? (Human-avoidant cats usually try to teach their kittens to be likewise.)
Although i know a number of cats who were offspring of feral cats who are themselves quite tame. They were mostly taken from their mom when young, or the mom died, or (in at least one case) they were kept with their mom, but volunteers handled them several times a day anyway.
I foster cats for nearby shelters, so i know the backstory of a lot of litters.
Me too. I’ve tamed many tiny little scratching, hissing, puffed up feral kittens.
It’s funny. When removed or abandoned by Mom that warm milk bottle is a great equalizer.
The rest comes easily.
Jojo, my feral was very sick, required weeks of care to get fixed just to live.
He tamed easy enough just being handled. We figured he was 6 mos to 1 year old at the time.
Now he lives in my garage with Haricot the gypsy cat who just showed up and moved in. Neither like being in the house. They are welcome and have a cat flap from the garage into the mudroom. Rarely they come thru.