My childhood friend, Robert, always had a wild imagination. As a youngster, he dreamed of having a Pointer, but his family wouldn’t allow it. So he made one up. An imaginary dog named Shadow. Everyone in the village knew Robert and his imaginary Shadow.
The neck is one of the functional components of the dog: the others being the spinal column, the forelimbs and the hindlimbs.
After lengthy, unsuccessful negotiations to line up flight arrangements for his return to Norway, it finally happened in grand style last June. Actually, that trip probably rivaled the thrill of winning the Iditarod. By then, everybody in Alaska knew about this Norwegian guy stranded with 16 dogs.
Some breeds are recognized as “head” breeds, where the head conformation and components are valued above other characteristics. Other breeds are definitely not, with many other features prioritized over head details. Some breeds have experts saying their breed “is a head breed, but…” Experts in other breeds say theirs is not a head breed, but… heads are important, but so is the rest of the dog.
The Isle of Skye is a distillation of all that is wonderful about Scotland. It’s often mist-shrouded scenery is dramatic, some would even say moody; it possesses towering stony peaks and an emerald green landscape splashed with lakes and thundering icy waterfalls.
Yea, it’s time to go to the dog show! The dog is bathed, lunch is packed, dog snacks are included, station wagon is gassed up, and the three kids are anxious for an adventure! Oh, yes, grooming supplies are included….one brush, a water bowl and enough dog food for the trip! Maybe, after becoming addicted to the shows, we might include a grooming table, and a wire crate.
As many sporting, hound, terrier and even a few Poodle owners decide they owe it to their dogs to give them the opportunity to do what the breeds were intended to do, hunt, the odds increase that someone in their circle of friends and acquaintances will regard the dog owners as rating somewhere below child molesters and axe murders. And, the odds are also good that the dog owners will find themselves in hostile conversations with anti-hunters and quite possibly awkward ones with non-hunters. So, you need to have some idea of how to deal with these folks.
It’s pretty well established that many health-related breakthroughs result from researching canine diseases. Our meticulously documented pedigree data makes them the ideal species for tracking suspected genetic disorders, many of which plague both our species.
As we near the end of arguably the worst year most of us have ever lived through, we have hope that the future will be far kinder, happier, and safer for all of us.
Dogs were inseparable from the entertainment business long before Hollywood started cranking out screen idols like Lassie and Strongheart.
