Canis lupus hominis

Posted in Absolute Piffle, golden retriever | 28 Comments

28 Responses

1. on April 22, 2010 at 9:33 pm Djanick Michaud

   Well well, it seems I can’t get enough of those pups… we have 13 of them (same litter) with us. They’re 3 weeks old now so lots of action here like on that video !

   Thanks for sharing !!!

   
   
   • on April 22, 2010 at 9:44 pm retrieverman

     We had 14 puppies in one litter.

     The bitch was out of a litter of 15.

     
     
     • on April 22, 2010 at 9:56 pm Djanick Michaud

       12 and 13 were our biggest… 14, that’s a handfull !!!

       
       
2. on April 22, 2010 at 9:35 pm Laura

   What lovely grass.

   
   
   • on April 22, 2010 at 9:57 pm Djanick Michaud

     I don’t know where you live Laura… but here, we still have little snow around and lakes are still frozen !

     
     
     • on April 23, 2010 at 9:40 am Laura

       I am in Louisiana, but live on a sandy hill. Sparse grass, especially since we don’t go in for fertilizing, watering, etc… That just means more work. But I appreciate their lush, green grass.

       
       
3. on April 23, 2010 at 7:25 am amhairc

   Love the revolution…

   They grow up so fast! The pup in my avatar was born 8 months ago… he is now 70 lbs… sweet, lovable, and driven to retrieve!

   
   
   • on April 23, 2010 at 8:10 am retrieverman

     Excellent!

     Going to be a bigger dog.

     But not giant.

     
     
4. on April 23, 2010 at 8:24 am araidh

   Oh, identity crisis here… my gravatar didn’t show up in my browser so I created a new identity… This is it

   I had him out in the field the other day chasing tennis balls. I used the “chuck it” and the ball really flew and bounced up high. Logan jumped and caught it. You could see the look come over his face as if to say, “Wow, I’m really up here” he looked down and did a forward flip and just kept on going, ready for the next throw… I was so sorry that I didn’t have it on video. He really knows how to make me laugh!

   His Mom is a smaller golden but his Dad is 80 lbs and I think maybe he will be his Dad’s size… Hard to say. He was the baby of his litter… last one born out of 9 beautiful pups (aren’t they all?)

   
   
   • on April 23, 2010 at 8:25 am araidh

     In case you didn’t realize, I am Jan from previous posts… was unable to post this morning using Jan so I created a Word Press profile… The Word Press trap was set and it caught me!

     
     
   • on April 23, 2010 at 8:30 am retrieverman

     Jan,

     I can see your gravatar.

     And I knew it was you from the e-mail.

     That was the first time you’ve described your golden to me.

     
     
     • on April 23, 2010 at 8:39 am araidh

       I also have a Golden who is a female and is 60 lbs and who is a dynamite swimmer and retriever… she’s also smart and looks like the photo you posted of Michael of Moreton : http://retrieverman.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/michael-of-moreton.jpg She is the daughter of a golden who hunts but who doesn’t do field trials… just a regular dog… ;-D

       
       
       • on April 23, 2010 at 8:54 am retrieverman

         Sounds like an awesome dog.

         My first dog looked like Michael’s daughter, the dog in my gravatar (Noranby Diana).

         However, my dog wasn’t as read as Diana.

         When I first saw Diana’s photo, I almost got tears in my eyes by how similar she was to my first dog.

         
         
         • on April 23, 2010 at 9:02 am araidh

           I was just looking at Micheal’s k-9data page: http://www.k9data.com/pedigree.asp?ID=2664

           It lists his owner as Mr. R. L. Kirk…

           I thought that interesting after finding the cemetery listing for a person named Lady Kirk in the Lady Kirk Cemetery in Lady Kirk Scotland…

           
           
           • on April 23, 2010 at 9:15 am retrieverman

             I’ll have to get my golden retriever books out before I can say anything on this one.

             
             
           • on April 23, 2010 at 9:17 am araidh

             Michael is father to Speedwell Pluto who is on my girl’s pedigree… I guess those genes came though!

             
             
           • on April 23, 2010 at 9:46 am araidh

             Elma Stonex writes: In Lord Tweedmouth’s stud book, three dogs are entered as Tweed Water Spaniels, but I do not see Tweed Water Spaniel written anywhere… I wonder where she saw that? I have a copy of the stud book and Tweed Water Spaniel is not written there…

             
             
             • on April 23, 2010 at 9:50 am retrieverman

               http://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/golden-retrievers-and-dogs-of-the-tweedmouth-strain-from-the-early-twentieth-century/

               
               
             • on April 23, 2010 at 9:51 am retrieverman

               Read the comment MRS says about seeing the records in the KC archives in London.

               
               
               • on April 23, 2010 at 10:43 am araidh

                 Thanks, I went and looked. I wonder why there isn’t a digital copy of the stud book made available to the public. There are a number of us Golden Retriever enthusiasts and it seems very secretive to not share with the community. I see no need for secrecy with this piece of history. It doesn’t seem fair and leads us to faulty speculation for having the truth hidden away.

                 Oh, well…

                 Aside from thst, the owner listing of Michael of Moreton being listed as R. L. Kirk …. R. L. Kirk a lot like Robertson of Lady Kirk… The repetition in the naming conventions is interesting. Of course, the k9data information is not necessarily true… look at the photo of Nous…

                 
                 
                 • on April 23, 2010 at 11:31 am M.R.S.

                   R.L.Kirk has no known relationship with either David Robertson or Ladykir. Kirk is a not uncommon name in the U.K.

                   K9data does not pretend to be the “ultimate source”. It is dependent upon individuals to input the information, and sometimes errors do occur.

                   If you want “the source”, go to either the Kennel Club in London, or to the Cleveland Public Library in Ohio to see copies of the published stud books of KC registrations. Buy Valerie Foss’s five books of British Champions, which have wonderful chapters on early history.

                   The Guisachan record book is at the KC Library in London, but access to the original is limited in order to preserve its integrity. The physical process of manipulating the book for scanning could damage the fragile pages. You are fortunate to have a photocopy.

                   Nobody is being “secretive”.

                   
                   
                   • on April 23, 2010 at 11:45 am araidh

                     Yes, I didn’t think that there was a relation to the R. L. Kirk, I just was pointing out that the repetition in the naming conventions make things more confusing and at times more interesting. (I felt it was a “curiooddity” just as the Lady Kirk buried in the Lady Kirk cemetery in Lady Kirk, Scotland.)

                     As far as the original stud book. I have experience in art restoration and do understand the problems of UV light and the pages, However, the stud book isn’t that old and the pages can be electronically digitized at a high resolution using natural ambient light.

                     I also really don’t mean to suggest that there is a “conspiracy” when I use the word secrecy. I am just pointing out that we all understand that this subject matter isn’t such that secrecy would be involved. I think that there would be others such as myself who would be interested in reading a good copy.

                     
                     
                   • on April 23, 2010 at 12:50 pm M.R.S.

                     The biggest problem with reseaching those early years of what would become the Golden Retriever, is that there simply are so few records available. Many of the people didn’t keep records of their dogs. Many other possible records have been lost or destroyed over the years.

                     Some have come to light, due to the extraordinary efforts of some Golden historians in the UK. Such as the Culham pedigrees. But unfortunately there is still so very much that we will never have concrete proof of.

                     In the 1870s, having a three generation pedigree was quite the exception, even for a registered dog!

                     
                     
                   • on April 23, 2010 at 2:20 pm retrieverman

                     Yeah, but goldens have better historical records than most other breeds do.

                     I tried going through curlies, but I kept getting lost.

                     I can’t imagine trying to a really in depth historiography on some supposedly ancient breed.

                     
                     
                   • on April 24, 2010 at 8:27 am araidh

                     I have found in doing human genealogy that looking at the repetitive names can give you a lot of “dead ends” but it can also give you your best clue. That is why I harp on the repetitive names…

                     Was the Tweed Water Spaniel ever a breed or were they dogs that were seen hunting along the Tweed River… ? How many of these dogs were seen? Could they have all come from the same group of dogs and were observed hunting regularly… Was the Lady kirk breed this dog seen along the Tweed? …or was it derived from these dogs by Robertson and that was what called the Lady kirk breed? Was that piece of paper referring to these dogs as being derived from Tweed water dogs? …or was it saying that they were water dogs from the Tweed area?

                     Trying to think of as many questions as possible. That is how I learn things….

                     
                     
                 • on April 23, 2010 at 2:37 pm retrieverman

                   I don’t think there is any kind of conspiracy at all.

                   If you want to see a conspiracy related to golden retrievers, have you ever really thought through the Russian circus dog story?

                   Basically, Col. Trench made up the whole thing with “evidence” from a keeper at Guisacahan. The photo of Nous (the real one) was actually used as evidence of these Russian dogs. Trench even claimed to have gone to Russia in search of new blood.

                   He had his own line of “yellow Russian retrievers” that he competed against “Flat-coats (yellow)” (what became the goldens).

                   
                   
5. on April 25, 2010 at 6:41 pm Bridget K

   Are they real?!? Too cute to be true!
   Ans see how much they use they noses at that age! Sad that in many cases the tendency will degenerate when they’re not given the opportunity to work it.

   
   
   • on April 27, 2010 at 12:47 pm labpack

     How do you mean?

     Sniffing scents on surface starts immediately when the pup is born to find its way to mom’s milkbar!

     Sniffing various scents continues through the dog’s whole life, be it working bred or just a pet!

     
     

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