Yuck! Look what’s on the front cover of the AKC’s Complete Dog Book (20th Edition)

This book is nothing more than hagiographic histories of various dog breeds and their standards. I don’t know how it could ever be called a “complete dog book.”  A lot of it is complete “bull sh–.”  One edition included warnings about temperament of certain breeds of dogs, which totally ticked people off. It eventually had [...]

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One of the Noranby foundation dogs and his ancestors

Mrs. Charlesworth’s Noranby goldens were among the three foundational lines that make up the modern golden’s pedigree. Noranby Campfire was the first stud she bred.  His type is of a lithe, dark-colored dog with a somewhat wavy-coat, very typical of Mrs. Charlesworth’s breeding, although most of her later dogs had straighter coats. Her line was [...]

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What caused the brindling in the early retrievers and the St. John’s water dog?

Remember when I said that brindle sometimes appears in Chesapeake Bay retrievers? Well, brindle used to be somewhat common in retrievers. “The early specimens had frequently shown tan and brindle,” Charles Eley writes about the first wavy-coats that were bred from the St. John’s water dog in The History of Retrievers (1921, pg. 4). Eley [...]

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This is what I don’t want goldens to become

Modern Newfoundlands are slooooow swimmers. Why?  They are big dogs with lots of bone, lots of coat, and substance. Compare their swimming to this flat-coat, which is a breed with some feathering but no coarse bone: Now, both of those dogs have a common ancestor. I highly suspect that if the flat-coat were taken to [...]

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How retrievers evolved and split into their respective breeds II

This post is a continuation of this earlier one. I had previously explained how the British retrievers essentially split into two breeds. However, I don’t think that breed is an accurate term. I think the term landrace, that is a breed that has evolved to a particular purpose or environment (“a race of the land”) [...]

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Some conformation showing I might consider

Hamster Shows! Hamsters have no use, other than to be pets, pets that are routine biters. So there’s no temperament issues to worry about compromising through breeding for conformation oddities. After all, most hamsters are so surly that almost no one recommends them for children’s pets these days. I can’t say the same for the [...]

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A good page on the working golden retriever in Britain

This is from the Golden Retriever Club (of the United Kingdom). Basically, the findings and analysis on this page are pretty much what I’ve found in my experience with the various retriever breeds, although I think the flat-coat is a highly underrated dog. And the Labrador is a good dog, but it’s not for me. They have [...]

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Where do people get off saying things like this?

  “It is also one of only four breeds known to be of American origin.”   From the wikipedia entry on the Plott hound. This might be one of the dumbest statements ever written on dogs in history. I can name more than four breeds that are of American origin. If it is a breed of [...]

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An early representation of the old wavy-coat by Landseer

This painting is by Sir Edwin Landseer, and I uploaded it from wikimedia commons.  The poodle judge is based on a dog belonging to Count d’Orsay. The painting is called both “Trial by Jury” and “Laying Down the Law.” Supposedly, Landseer was looking at this poodle, and he began to think of the judges and [...]

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Answer to Name the Species (III)

Original post is here. Argentine horned frog or Ornate horned frog (Ceratophrys ornata) .  Aliases: “Pacman frog.”  Its head and jaws are unusually large, just like the Pacman video game.  This name has become the industry name for the species. These frogs growl and scream. Like this one: Video from riadue1. There are several species [...]

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