Natural History

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Labrador retriever, retriever behavior | 7 Comments

7 Responses

1. on April 11, 2009 at 1:06 am SmartDogs

   When I lived on my sister’s farm we found a black lab that we at first thought had been dumped along the road. But when I put him in a spare kennel for the night while I called around looking for his owner, he tore one of the chain link panels open and was sitting (unhurt) at my back door in the morning. We called him Houdini and he ended up living with the daughter of my then boss.

   
   
2. on April 11, 2009 at 2:15 am flattie-n-Labbie

   To say that Labs are quite social is a bit of an understatement.

   True story: A long time ago, an acquaintance had a black Lab that rode around in the back of his red Ford pickup truck (not something I condone, but it’s part of the story). He went into a convenience store, and when he came out, no dog. He searched and searched, posters, ads, etc., but no dog.

   A year later, in front of him, at a stop light, was a black Lab in a red Ford pickup truck. He got out and knocked on the window–
   Is that your dog?
   Well, I guess–I got home one day, and there he was, lying in the bed of my truck, been with me ever since…
   They got it straightened out–dog went back to the original owner, none the worse for wear. Thankfully this was just two single guys, so it was easy enough. Apparently, the dog got out of one truck, and fully intended to get back in, but just chose the wrong truck–and the new owner suited him fine, so he stayed. They were parked at the same convenience store, but didn’t know if they were there at the same time.

   Another true story–when I was single and young and feeling a little vulnerable, I had to have some work done on my apartment, which was not in the best of complexes, to say the least. I made a big deal with the office manager that yes, I had a big dog, and he wasn’t real friendly to strangers (only partly true–he would bark and growl pretty convincingly on command or at an unknown noise when I was home), and usually he was loose in the apartment but I’d have him locked up just that one day so they could do the work. The office manager looked at me kind of funny and said, “You’re in 403? That’s strange–maintenance is in there all the time, never had a problem.” Good ol’ Strider the black Lab was plenty protective of me personally–but if I wasn’t there, apparently everyone was his friend!

   
   
3. on April 11, 2009 at 2:22 am flattie-n-Labbie

   Strider would scale kennel fences, and was adept at flipping up the standard fence latch; and Atticus (another Lab) at one time could and would jump a six foot chain link.

   Because of this, I’ll never board a big dog if they don’t have a covered run, and I check what kind of latch they have.

   
   
4. on April 12, 2009 at 3:16 am Shirley

   My Goldens have all excelled at flipping latches. We put a chain around a gate — that Golden worked that up and off, too. My brother’s Golden separated chain link with his paws after the gate had a padlock put on it. None of my Goldens have ever liked to climb. My second Golden tried to dig under the neigbor’s fence to play with his Aussie. So the neighbor just asked if he could let him in. That worked out fine for all of us.

   My biggest diggers have been English Pointers. We had to bury chicken wire under the fences & gates. Then they climbed then. One old girl buried 23 ‘yard shoes’ in the backyard!

   
   
   • on April 12, 2009 at 3:44 am retrieverman

     Goldens like to open doors and gates. Every golden I’ve had has been able to open doors by turning the knobs simply through watching people do it. They are quite observant dogs. Goldens are really good at learning from people through observation. That’s why they are so easy to train, and why you must train them. They are sometimes too clever for their own good. I have yet to have a golden that can’t figure out the doors.

     My grandpa’s beloved half black elkhound/half gray elkhound was also good at opening gaits. (Black elkhounds are an entirely different breed of Norwegian Elkhound. They are far more mischievous and wolfy than the grays.)

     
     
5. on May 24, 2009 at 4:09 pm Jane H

   Our chocolate Lab is also an escape artist. I started a blog and you can read about our trials and tribulations at http://www.dogsdontlookbothways.com.

   He’s going to be 10 next month. He’s gotten out so many times and this was the first time he got hit by a car. He went to play with some dogs he saw on the promenade and a woman walking her dog tried to pry him away from the other dogs, and trying to get away from the woman, he bolted into the traffic.

   He is still male, not neutered, but he’s successfully gotten out even in the dead of winter! It took a bit of detective work to figure out how he’s gotten out. What he did that time was to find one place in the chain link fence where one tie that connected it to the top horizontal rail was missing: He thrust all his weight on the chainlink until it lowered to the ground, with him on it, and launched himself across and under the top horizontal bar. We found his footprints in the snow, starting about 6 feet from the fence. (To figure out how he had gotten out, we had to ask ourselves, “Did he fly out?”)

   By the way, I’d love to link to your site…Or to have you link to ours.

   Can you tell me how to link to this? Just use a permalink?

   
   
   • on May 24, 2009 at 5:36 pm retrieverman

     Just use permalink, and yes, I’ll link to you!

     
     

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