The 'Post Yer Beast' thread

[Jocose]

Late to the thread. Here's Luna, the family beast from my household. She looks like a full blooded APBT, but she was a stray, so we're not sure.

The dog was the wife's idea. Truth be told, the dog was a PITA when we lived in Pittsburgh. Now that we have a large yard and woods to roam in, I think she's not too bad. The dog is quite a bit happier as well. She is the easiest dog to deal with that I've ever been around. Very friendly to people. Not so much other dogs, though.

I love the various types of bull terriers. If I wasn't a hunter looking for hunting dogs yhe smaller varieties would be near the top of my list for consideration in addition to a spaniel.

I'm sold on them, the wife more so. This dog is loyal and absolutely adores people. She obeys well, and very rarely ventures out of sight of her people (useful in a rural area). Fairly stubborn though. She's decided that she absolutely will not sit on command, and in 3 1/2 years, we have not changed her mind on this. She's learned many other things, "sit" just is not one of them.

Does she know any sign language? If not maybe look into teaching her some, you may be able to get her to sit using sign.

Good idea. She has become pretty good at knowing where I want her to go just by my pointing out her path. (Up on the couch, around a muddy spot, etc...).

Ya, look into it for sure. I had a dog for 14 years that learned several hand signs for stuff like sit, stay, speak, and even not to eat treats without the designated hand sign.

[Thunktank]

We put a deposit down for an English Cocker from the Covey Flush kennel in Georgia. The sire is named Cody and the female is Sadie. The breeding hasn't happened yet, but we expect our puppy to come home in November or December.

[Thunktank]

Somewhere in this pile we have second pick of a puppy if we want one. They were born Monday. The breeder hasn't handled them to this point in the picture, but sometime today he will. Then we'll find out which ones are male/female. Next week they get their tails docked.

[Thunktank]

There were only two males in this litter of seven pups.

The one we decided on based on the breeder's recommendation for having a stockier classic "British" conformation is the one with a mustache. It has a broader face and chest. Still only a week old. Noses and pads still pink.



The one on the left in the picture below.




We will be paying attention to his behavior over the next few weeks, though I don't think it will be a problem from these lines. They typically breed very nicely with pretty uniform results within a litter.

Tails get docked this week. A proper dock removes about a third of the tail leaving plenty of tail to wag and use as a rudder. This tail docking is important for a working spaniel to guard against the tail breaking while working in heavy cover. As a hunter, we read a dog by it's tail and how fast it wags. The faster the tail wags the closer the game. But an undocked tail could spell trouble in the cover the game is found. These little dogs fit in and under cover other gun dogs can't fit.

In Europe, thanks to ignorant animal welfare activists, they can't dock tails anymore even for working spaniels. Occasionally this leads to serious trouble.

[durangopipe]

Exciting!

[hugodrax]

Exciting!

Yes indeed. I'd like to see more pics as this fellow ages.

[Thunktank]

New pictures from a couple of days ago. Breeder said that this pup is one of the two most spirited pups in the litter with the biggest appetite. After mom is done feeding and the other pups are ready to take a nap, he goes exploring for more food. I'm going to have to watch this one!



His mustache is worthy of designating him a nickname in honor of it. Suggestions?

[hugodrax]

New pictures from a couple of days ago. Breeder said that this pup is one of the two most spirited pups in the litter with the biggest appetite. After mom is done feeding and the other pups are ready to take a nap, he goes exploring for more food. I'm going to have to watch this one!



His mustache is worthy of designating him a nickname in honor of it. Suggestions?

Lodovico.

Moustache Pete.

Rooooooooooooooooooooog.

Wilhelm.

Kaiser.

von Eulenberg.

Handlebar.

Snidely.

Whiplash.

[hugodrax]

New pictures from a couple of days ago. Breeder said that this pup is one of the two most spirited pups in the litter with the biggest appetite. After mom is done feeding and the other pups are ready to take a nap, he goes exploring for more food. I'm going to have to watch this one!



His mustache is worthy of designating him a nickname in honor of it. Suggestions?

Lodovico.

Moustache Pete.

Rooooooooooooooooooooog.

Wilhelm.

Kaiser.

von Eulenberg.

Handlebar.

Snidely.

Whiplash.

Rollie. I really like Rollie. Catfish would also be good.

[Thunktank]

New pictures from a couple of days ago. Breeder said that this pup is one of the two most spirited pups in the litter with the biggest appetite. After mom is done feeding and the other pups are ready to take a nap, he goes exploring for more food. I'm going to have to watch this one!



His mustache is worthy of designating him a nickname in honor of it. Suggestions?

Lodovico.

Moustache Pete.

Rooooooooooooooooooooog.

Wilhelm.

Kaiser.

von Eulenberg.

Handlebar.

Snidely.

Whiplash.

Rollie. I really like Rollie. Catfish would also be good.

Love it.

[durangopipe]

I like Rollie.
If you don't use it, I might steal it for my next pup.

There's the risk of "fingers" jokes from buddies, but not nearly as bad as the catfish hunter jokes you'll have to endure when your bird dog points something that isn't a game bird.

My wife named one of our setters Freckles at 8 weeks and I never heard the end of it when he was a pup. My buddies figured that was a sissy name for a field dog. My good friend, Jack, had a setter named Nacho at the time and another named Spot (how original!), but did I make fun of him? Never! Well, hardly ever. Well, not as much as I could have. Okay, yes, I did.

Of course, the fact that Freckles outhunted any dog he was ever paired against once he grew up silenced the jokes pretty fast.

Rollie looks like a star. That mustache is awesome. I wish you many, many years of great hunting!

[durangopipe]

Dang it . . .

I can't look at photos of setter puppies without

1) getting mushy (to then point of being choked up)
2) getting nostalgic
3) wanting another setter puppy!

Fortunately, my wife loves setters, too.

If you can stand it, here are few more photos of ours:

The very regal Freckles:


Freckles & Buddy, in the rig after a hunt:


Quinn on point:


Panda catching scent:


Panda at home:


If truth be told, Freckles was by far the best bird dog I've ever known. Incredible blood. Extraordinary nose. Amazing "bird sense". Buddy was good, incredibly loving and biddable and wonderfully eager if not as gifted as Freckles. Quinn and Panda are rescues who were advertised as great bird dogs needing a loving home (their owner had died). We love them to death, but "great" bird dogs exaggerates their hunting ability.

[Jake]

Fergus



Pokey

[durangopipe]

Fergus



Pokey

Beautiful pups, Jake!

[Jake]

Beautiful pups, Jake!

Thanks! They play together nicely, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvHK3il ... e=youtu.be

[durangopipe]

Beautiful pups, Jake!

Thanks! They play together nicely, too.

http://www.facebook.com/jacqueline.hart ... =3&theater

I think I have to be on your friends list to see the video, Jake, and I don't use Facebook.

(I only have an account because my publisher requires me to have an "author's page", but the publicist maintains it and I don't friend anyone--it can get awkward when you're teaching college-age students.)

[Jake]

Beautiful pups, Jake!

Thanks! They play together nicely, too.

http://www.facebook.com/jacqueline.hart ... =3&theater

I think I have to be on your friends list to see the video, Jake, and I don't use Facebook.

(I only have an account because my publisher requires me to have an "author's page", but the publicist maintains it and I don't friend anyone--it can get awkward when you're teaching college-age students.)

Oh shoot. I tried getting it to embed here, but it didn't work. I'll put it on YouTube and edit the link.

[Jake]

Beautiful pups, Jake!

Thanks! They play together nicely, too.

http://www.facebook.com/jacqueline.hart ... =3&theater

I think I have to be on your friends list to see the video, Jake, and I don't use Facebook.

(I only have an account because my publisher requires me to have an "author's page", but the publicist maintains it and I don't friend anyone--it can get awkward when you're teaching college-age students.)

Oh shoot. I tried getting it to embed here, but it didn't work. I'll put it on YouTube.

[Jake]

Beautiful pups, Jake!

Thanks! They play together nicely, too.

http://www.facebook.com/jacqueline.hart ... =3&theater

I think I have to be on your friends list to see the video, Jake, and I don't use Facebook.

(I only have an account because my publisher requires me to have an "author's page", but the publicist maintains it and I don't friend anyone--it can get awkward when you're teaching college-age students.)

Oh shoot. I tried getting it to embed here, but it didn't work. I'll put it on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvHK3il ... e=youtu.be

[durangopipe]

Love those wagging tails!