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| A vision of Hellhounds [message #9611] |
Wed, 07 January 2009 19:14  |
 b_twin_1
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Registered: September 2008
Location: Victoria, Australia |
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A Vision of Hellhounds
I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder
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| Re: A vision of Hellhounds [message #9615 is a reply to message #9611 ] |
Wed, 07 January 2009 20:17  |
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Recent highlights include the sock watch. Mike ate a pair of socks.^
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Poor socks!!!
Puppy's blog name is Mike? I don't remember that. Obviously it has been too long since the last pupdate and important details are starting to slip.
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But it gives me a slight atavistic frisson seeing them acting on the instinct
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Oh, indeed. I get a similar shock with ferrets sometimes, and it's just with stuffed animals. I joke about it, but the first time I noticed all the stuffed animals with their throats torn out--that was kind of a shock. (Then I noticed they always rip out the eyes, too, buttons or beads or embroidered. It doesn't matter. Eyes and throat. Every single time.)
And I keep hearing about how domesticated ferrets (like mine, not like the actual working ferrets you have in other countries) wouldn't survive a week without humans. Sometimes I think my ferrets are goofy enough they wouldn't know what to do, and then I remember their stuffies.
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Smooshes!
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| Re: A vision of Hellhounds [message #9617 is a reply to message #9611 ] |
Wed, 07 January 2009 20:44 |
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Daisy was here before hellhounds had had their domesticating walk and they were a trifle . . . exuberant. Eventually I felt that joy in life and visitors had been sufficiently expressed, and I said so. Hellhounds subsided. Oh! said Daisy. You have trained them so well!
I what? I thought, looking around bemusedly.
Trained by gad! Subsiding on command when intoxicated by visitations! Your certificate's in the post 
It’s funny though, hellhounds’ sheer beauty messes with people’s heads.
It is a fact, not to be questioned, that the HHs are creatures of beauty and a joy to behold. I envy you, having been more accustomed to cries of "Eeuww! Look! It's not a dog, it's a pig!!!" Furious on behalf of my poor dog I would march on, pretending to ignore the taunts; meanwhile, said bullie would be grinning from ear to ear, trying to ingratiate self and gain more attention. You do know that bullies are dogs of very little brain? Bet the hellhounds would run rings round them (in oh so many ways!)
[Updated on: Thu, 08 January 2009 12:00]
Someone says "pie" and we all go on alert, like meercats. "Pie? Where?" - Blackbear
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| Re: A vision of Hellhounds [message #9618 is a reply to message #9611 ] |
Wed, 07 January 2009 21:41 |
skating librarian
Messages: 576
Registered: October 2008
Location: Vermont |
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You guys (Robin and others who own dogs) have made me curious.
Why have you chosen one sort of dog over another? The hellhounds are stunningly beautiful, but they sound awfully high maintenance. People with sheep would choose herders, hunters often seem to go for hounds or retrievers, etc. As someone who has never chosen a dog from the universe of canines, I wonder whether it's aesthetics, or personality, or what that you're looking for?
I've just re-read Spindle's End and I've been thinking about the various breeds of dog characters it includes.
My first pair of cats were presented to me by a friend who showed up on my doorstep with two kittens and who told me that my new house needed some cats. That I knew their Mom (who was a fantastic mouser and as laid back a cat as I've ever met) helped convince me that we'd do well together.
The next was a "rescue" from a blended family which acquired members who were allergic. She sold herself on the basis of a great personality which was evident from the very beginning of our "trial period."
Then came the current pair, long term shelter residents who also have great personalities. One has health challenges which had made the shelter folks very careful about the sort of home they could go to, and I was happy to oblige.
So why Hellhounds, Bull Terriers, Great Danes, or Cocker Spaniels? How did you decide?
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| Re: A vision of Hellhounds [message #9623 is a reply to message #9618 ] |
Wed, 07 January 2009 23:26 |
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Maren
Messages: 1341
Registered: October 2008
Location: Louisiana |
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| skating librarian wrote on Wed, 07 January 2009 21:41 |
Why have you chosen one sort of dog over another?
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Lola's the first one I've had independent of my parents, and I think it was definitely a case of underdog syndrome for me. She was at a shelter and had several strikes against her: heartworm positive, a known fence-climber, a rather unfortunate picture....(She does have ears--see?) She'd been there a month and no one had expressed any interest in her. Heartworm is treatable; I live in an apartment, so don't need to worry about the fence issue for now; and the picture actually made her look somewhat similar to Duke, one of my canine "brothers", although she's turned out to look not at all like him now.
The shelter was asking for donations to cover her heartworm treatment. My mom had me convinced that they might be so short on funds that they would have to euthanize her if someone didn't pay for it (this was not true--they'd already done the first round of treatment by the time I called). I gave in, and Lola has turned out to be just about the sweetest, most well-behaved dog I've ever known.
So...I'd say in my family, we choose based on personality and life situation (of the dog). But we do seem to keep ending up with terriers, without knowing why we do that to ourselves.  Lola and Duke (who's also very sweet) are anomalies--Schroeder the Schnauzer mix and his purebred predecessor Minnie are/were both holy terrors in their own ways.
[Updated on: Wed, 07 January 2009 23:33]
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| Re: A vision of Hellhounds [message #9627 is a reply to message #9618 ] |
Thu, 08 January 2009 00:35 |
katinseattle
Messages: 377
Registered: November 2008
Location: Seattle |
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| skating librarian wrote on Wed, 07 January 2009 18:41 |
Why have you chosen one sort of dog over another?
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I grew up in farm country. Most of the dogs in the area were collies and/or German shepherd mixes. Nice dogs, smart, with a reputation for protectiveness. By the time my own daughter started agitating for a dog, we were living in the city with a small yard. Neither of those dogs would do. I researched smaller dogs, read up on them, went to a big dog show and looked around. I ended up with - surprise, surprise - a Sheltie. Looked like a miniature Lassie. He died years ago. I can no longer give an active dog enough exercise, but I still look wistfully after a Sheltie prancing down the sidewalk. A happy Sheltie doesn't walk, he dances.
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| Re: A vision of Hellhounds [message #9630 is a reply to message #9611 ] |
Thu, 08 January 2009 05:27 |
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Lucy Coats
Messages: 223
Registered: October 2008
Location: Northamptonshire, UK |
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And then I remembered: Daisy has a four month old puppy. She’s not herself. And her judgement is seriously frelled.
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Ah. I sympathise with Daisy, since I have just taken a deep breath and said a big YES to one of these....
Kerridwen the Goddess Tekel (who will have another and more shoutable kennel name) was born five days ago. This is her uncle. See next post for the uncontrollable squirrel catcher she will grow up into. I can't wait for the mayhem to begin...
Attachment: Tekel.jpg
(Size: 39.93KB, Downloaded 406 time(s))
[Updated on: Thu, 08 January 2009 05:37]
Lucy xx
"'Thou shalt not' might reach the head, but it takes 'Once upon a time' to reach the heart."
http://www.scribblecitycentral.blogspot.com
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| Re: A vision of Hellhounds [message #9633 is a reply to message #9632 ] |
Thu, 08 January 2009 06:09 |
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Lucy Coats
Messages: 223
Registered: October 2008
Location: Northamptonshire, UK |
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| AJLR wrote on Thu, 08 January 2009 11:05 |
| Lucy Coats wrote on Thu, 08 January 2009 10:42 |
Did I mention that I may be even more mad than previously thought, since AT THE SAME TIME I am also acquiring a small and wriggly black cocker spaniel puppy.
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Lucy - four dogs (two of whom will be puppies)!!! *faints*
*remembers Southdowner's 11 - faints all over again*
It's so good to keep online company with mad people - including those who have just two nice, quiet, intellectually-minded hellhounds
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Mad. Yes. That was the word. Still, on the plus side, not as mad as Southdowner. Yet. 
Lucy xx
"'Thou shalt not' might reach the head, but it takes 'Once upon a time' to reach the heart."
http://www.scribblecitycentral.blogspot.com
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| Re: A vision of Hellhounds [message #9643 is a reply to message #9637 ] |
Thu, 08 January 2009 13:21 |
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| Black Bear wrote on Thu, 08 January 2009 11:48 |
it’s a reminder that anyone who keeps a cat for its mousing abilities is entirely familiar with.
Even those of us who don't necessarily keep them for that purpose are confronted with it regularly. All of mine have been big on the fetch-the-toy-mousie game at various points in their lives, and the catch * flip * grab * toss * smack * bite sequence before bringing the toy back is so obviously a neck-breaking ritual; I find it endlessly fascinating to watch.
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Our cats occasionally bring -actual- mice into the house and play with them. And leave them around in various states of semi-to-entirely dead for us to deal with.
As far as dogs go, I don't have any and didn't grow up with them (have never lived long-term with a dog). If I were to get one, though, I'd want one that was intelligent, mid-to-large sized (never been much for small dogs), and long-furred. I want to be able to bury my hands in fur ^^
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| Re: A vision of Hellhounds [message #9645 is a reply to message #9618 ] |
Thu, 08 January 2009 13:58 |
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shalea
Messages: 785
Registered: October 2008
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina, ... |
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| skating librarian wrote on Wed, 07 January 2009 21:41 |
Why have you chosen one sort of dog over another? The hellhounds are stunningly beautiful, but they sound awfully high maintenance....
So why Hellhounds, Bull Terriers, Great Danes, or Cocker Spaniels? How did you decide?
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I have a greyhound and not Hellhounds, but greyhounds are in my experience anything but high maintenance (despite my current boy's being nearly blind). I chose the breed primarily because of the personality: they're sweet and affectionate but very low-key about it for the most part, they're very low-energy 95% of the time, and they're very smart (but independent enough to make training tricky -- the human has to work to figure out how to make it relevant!). But there are other plusses as well. Greyhounds are generally healthy dogs with very little of the genetic baggage you get with some breeds (no displasia, low incidence of allergies, virtually no heart problems, etc.). And they're beautiful!
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| Re: A vision of Hellhounds [message #9656 is a reply to message #9618 ] |
Thu, 08 January 2009 18:12 |
judith
Messages: 249
Registered: October 2008
Location: United States |
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| skating librarian wrote on Wed, 07 January 2009 21:41 |
You guys (Robin and others who own dogs) have made me curious.
Why have you chosen one sort of dog over another? ... As someone who has never chosen a dog from the universe of canines, I wonder whether it's aesthetics, or personality, or what that you're looking for?
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Different people have different reasons. I love all dogs, but have certain aesthetic preferences, certain personality preferences, and certain lifestyle compatibilities. Aesthetically, I like BIG. I never outgrew the childhood belief that bigger is better, whether it's dogs, horses, cars, buildings, men, whatever. So I'm drawn to the giant breeds. I also don't like to spend time grooming or cleaning up hair, so I look for short-coated wash 'n' wear breeds. And I don't lead an active lifestyle, so I don't want high energy breeds; I look for the couch potatoes who can get their exercise running laps and playing with each other in a large fenced-in yard. And I like to love and be loved, so I don't want aloof. And I want something pleasing to the eye, and much of that is subjective. So far, I've had Great Danes and Mastiffs. I'm hoping to adopt a retired Greyhound racer in the near future as well as adding another Mastiff after the Grey has settled in.
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| Re: A vision of Hellhounds [message #9657 is a reply to message #9611 ] |
Thu, 08 January 2009 18:21 |
judith
Messages: 249
Registered: October 2008
Location: United States |
Senior Member |
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Mike ate a pair of socks.^ Yes. Apparently the first one was so tasty he had to go back for the second too. The vets said, if they don’t reappear in x amount of time . . . but they did. ^^
^ Whose idea was it that small children and puppies are a good plan? You can’t reliably train a seven year old not to leave her socks lying around. At least this means they’re really little socks.
^^Granddaughter, however, has been informed that she is to remain barefoot until Mike grows out of the sock-eating stage. He’d probably be happy to eat mittens instead though.
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This can be cute, and it can also be dangerous. They can get away with it a number of times, and then the next time it can kill them. My Mastiff girl ate a bunch of my socks before I learned methods of keeping them from her. My husband wasn't quite so diligent, and my sweet Mastiff boy got a pair of his underwear -- and died from it last May. You never know which time will be the fatal one. That pair of underwear had been in his GI tract for a couple of weeks. He was asymptomatic until he suddenly became VERY symptomatic, and his intestines were so damaged that the vet doubted that surgery would have held them together for healing. He ended up dying on the table from cardiac arrest. So although many of these surgeries for foreign bodies go well, in many other cases they don't. I almost lost my first Dane in a similar surgery when she ate a bunch of her bedding; two strings holding two pieces of it together had almost sawed a hole through her small intestine, and the toxins released into her bloodstream almost killed her, but the same wonderful vet team pulled her through that time.
Anyone who has a dog with these propensities just can't treat it as a joke. Closed hampers, careful toy selection, periodic checking -- in short, constant vigilance is necessary.
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| Re: A vision of Hellhounds [message #9672 is a reply to message #9618 ] |
Thu, 08 January 2009 20:21 |
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| skating librarian wrote on Thu, 08 January 2009 02:41 |
Why have you chosen one sort of dog over another?
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| Robin wrote |
You fall in love.
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I grew up with a terrier, and I promised myself a dog immediately I left university.
During those dog-less years I was sadly struck down by madness; while sitting on the top deck of a bus lumbering to the top of one of Sheffield's 7 hills, as Robin so succinctly says, I fell in love.
In love with a pirate of a dog, with the unsteady gait of a sailor newly landed, patch askew over one eye, mouth gaping in a foolish but joyful toothy grin. And so I sought one for myself.
A bullie owner? A masochist with a sense of humour. But worth every moment. Bullies love more wholeheartedly than any human has a right to deserve, they amuse and console with their comedic souls and they have hearts and characters so large that I am at a loss as how to imagine life without (at least) one.
I love my shaggy grey mixtures of dogs, my shepherds (bright, brave and utterly faithful) and adored my standard poodles who were clever, charming, immensely loyal, and sparkled with fun.
No other breed however makes me want to run across parks and roads to crouch down and hug them in the way almost every bullie I've ever seen affects me.
Short haired, willing to walk for hours or be total couch potatoes, medium sized, bribable, trainable - great family dogs; stubborn, disobedient, horribly frustrating and delinquent, needing firm consistent (nonaggressive) handling - not a novice owner's dog by any stretch of the imagination.
Rational choice? No. Love? Definitely 
Someone says "pie" and we all go on alert, like meercats. "Pie? Where?" - Blackbear
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| Re: A vision of Hellhounds [message #9690 is a reply to message #9617 ] |
Fri, 09 January 2009 01:53 |
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Diane in MN
Messages: 2758
Registered: October 2008
Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA |
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| southdowner wrote on Wed, 07 January 2009 19:44 |
I envy you, having been more accustomed to cries of "Eeuww! Look! It's not a dog, it's a pig!!!" Furious on behalf of my poor dog I would march on, pretending to ignore the taunts; meanwhile, said bullie would be grinning from ear to ear, trying to ingratiate self and gain more attention.
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One of the show vendors last weekend is a bookseller. Prominently displayed on his table was one called Pigs Can Fly! Training the Difficult Dog (or some such subtitle). I regret to say that the cover picture was of a white Bull Terrier in full extension going over a bar jump.
Now if they'd really wanted a dog that looks like a pig, they should have found a picture of a Shar-Pei.
"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich
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| Re: A vision of Hellhounds [message #9707 is a reply to message #9672 ] |
Fri, 09 January 2009 15:28 |
judith
Messages: 249
Registered: October 2008
Location: United States |
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| southdowner wrote on Thu, 08 January 2009 20:21 |
In love with a pirate of a dog, with the unsteady gait of a sailor newly landed, patch askew over one eye, mouth gaping in a foolish but joyful toothy grin. And so I sought one for myself.
A bullie owner? A masochist with a sense of humour. But worth every moment. Bullies love more wholeheartedly than any human has a right to deserve, they amuse and console with their comedic souls and they have hearts and characters so large that I am at a loss as how to imagine life without (at least) one.
I love my shaggy grey mixtures of dogs, my shepherds (bright, brave and utterly faithful) and adored my standard poodles who were clever, charming, immensely loyal, and sparkled with fun.
No other breed however makes me want to run across parks and roads to crouch down and hug them in the way almost every bullie I've ever seen affects me.
Short haired, willing to walk for hours or be total couch potatoes, medium sized, bribable, trainable - great family dogs; stubborn, disobedient, horribly frustrating and delinquent, needing firm consistent (nonaggressive) handling - not a novice owner's dog by any stretch of the imagination.
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You know, this belongs in a book dedicated to the breed. I have to admit I've never even considered this breed, and yet reading it made me want to run out and get one!
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| Re: A vision of Hellhounds [message #9755 is a reply to message #9751 ] |
Sun, 11 January 2009 01:40 |
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Diane in MN
Messages: 2758
Registered: October 2008
Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA |
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| shalea wrote on Sat, 10 January 2009 19:58 |
| Diane in MN wrote on Fri, 09 January 2009 01:53 |
...
Prominently displayed on his table was one called Pigs Can Fly! Training the Difficult Dog (or some such subtitle)...
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Um, it's When Pigs Fly: Training Success with Impossible Dogs, and it's actually quite a good clicker-training book!
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Those folks at Dogwise (the vendor) have their new books largely sealed up in plastic wrap, probably to keep them from being grimed and slimed by exhibitors and their dogs. So I could only be struck by the title and picture on this one--even though it was a white Bullie, I thought of Hazel right away! I'm glad you know the correct title, thanks.
"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich
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| Re: A vision of Hellhounds [message #9765 is a reply to message #9755 ] |
Sun, 11 January 2009 17:31 |
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| Diane in MN wrote on Sun, 11 January 2009 06:40 |
| shalea wrote on Sat, 10 January 2009 19:58 |
| Diane in MN wrote on Fri, 09 January 2009 01:53 |
...
Prominently displayed on his table was one called Pigs Can Fly! Training the Difficult Dog (or some such subtitle)...
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Um, it's When Pigs Fly: Training Success with Impossible Dogs, and it's actually quite a good clicker-training book!
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Those folks at Dogwise (the vendor) have their new books largely sealed up in plastic wrap, probably to keep them from being grimed and slimed by exhibitors and their dogs. So I could only be struck by the title and picture on this one--even though it was a white Bullie, I thought of Hazel right away! I'm glad you know the correct title, thanks.
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Yeti says training is exhausting - just reading about it made her fall asleep...
... and you can just see the "pigs" book disappearing underneath her
Someone says "pie" and we all go on alert, like meercats. "Pie? Where?" - Blackbear
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