animals

This week I have two Golden Retriever facts to share with you.

Fact 1: Golden Retrievers fall into the Sporting category of dog breeds. Some other breeds that meet this classification are Pointers, Setters and Spaniels.

German Short-haired Pointer

Irish Setter

Saint Usuge Spaniel

Our Golden, Oshie!

Dogs that fall into the Sporting Group are alert, smart and very active. They are also excellent swimmers and can navigate through a forest without a second thought. Many of these breeds are still used for hunting. Being active breeds, sporting dogs require plenty of exercise and and plenty of space to do it in. Don’t worry, you can still own a Golden Retriever without owning a farm. Just make sure you have somewhere they can get plenty of exercise like a park, or hiking trails.

Fact 2: Golden Retrievers are very smart and love to please. The first 3 AKC Obedience Champion titles won were won by Golden Retrievers. According to the AKC:

“Obedience trials demonstrate the dog’s ability to follow specified routines in the obedience ring and emphasize the usefulness of the dog as a companion to humankind. The objective of obedience trials is to recognize dogs that have been trained to behave in the home, in public places, and in the presence of other dogs in a manner that will reflect credit on the sport of obedience at all times and under all conditions”. ~American Kennel Club

Obedience work with a young Golden Retriever.

So if you are just looking for a loyal and happy companion or a dog to compete or go hunting with, Golden Retrievers can pretty much do it all. Hopefully these facts were interesting and you learned something new. Come back next Wednesday for a new Golden Retriever fact!!

Sources:

http://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/groups/sporting/http://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/groups/sporting/

http://www.akc.org/events/obedience/what-is-obedience/

Oshie Loves Getting Pampered

Oshie loves rolling around in the grass. It is probably one of his favorite things to do outside. Of course when we had the dusting of snow a week ago he couldn’t help but roll in it. The result was a wet and muddy Golden who needed a bath. So after his bath Oshie was ready for a little pampering.

Due to the crazy amount of fur that Oshie has, air drying can take a long time so we usually speed the process up using Nancy’s hair dryer. We take this opportunity to get a thorough check of his body for any abnormalities and to get a good brushing done. Using the dryer also helps prevent wet hair from tangling and matting in places like his armpits. Here is a short video of Oshie completely enjoying the salon experience.

You Can ignore the video intro. The VLOG is has already been posted 🙂

March 22, 2017 4

VLOG #1 Q&A

We have finally posted out first VLOG to Oshie’s YouTube channel. You can see it below. It was a bit awkward being in front of the camera so don’t be too harsh on us ;). We will hopefully get better as we do more of these. Also, sorry if the volume isn’t the best. It was our first time using this setup and I need to dial it in better for next time.

March 21, 2017 2

Golden Retriever Fact of the Week! #1 Origin of The Golden Retriever.

I have decided to start posting facts/history about Golden Retrievers every week for as long as I can find facts to post! I hope you all enjoy it and maybe learn an interesting thing or two along the way!

Origin of The Golden Retriever

The Golden Retriever breed was born in the Scottish Highlands in the late 1800’s. The founding of the breed is credited to Dudley Marjoribanks (picture below) who was later known as Lord Tweedmouth. Quite the name, right?

Lord_Tweedmouth,_Naval_Secretary,_portrait_bust (1)

Lord Tweedmouth was an avid hunter and owned an estate in Scotland called Guisachan where he kept his hunting dogs. On a trip to Brighton England he came across a cobbler who had been given a yellow wavy-coated retriever as payment. This was the only yellow puppy from the litter and Lord Tweedmouth purchased him, brought him to Guisachan and named him Nous.

nous20r — Nous and the Lords Gamekeeper.

Good old Dudley…I mean Lord Tweedmouth, was very interested in the breeding quality of his livestock and dogs. His goal was to create the ultimate retriever, one that would be perfect for the Scottish weather and terrain. He decided the best way to achieve this goal was to breed Nous with his Tweed Water Spaniel, Belle (tweed water spaniels are an extinct breed).

Tweed_Water_Spaniel — This painting is of the extinct Tweed Spaniel.

The combination resulted in a litter of yellow pups which would become the base for the breed as we know it today. Lord Tweedmouth also mixed in a few wavy and flat coated retrievers as well as a red setter with the descendants of Nous and Belle and he predominantly kept the yellow dogs in order to further his line. The results are the Goldens you see today!

29568556125_464437ac4c_z — Only fitting to use an image of Oshie in front of an Estate and wearing a bow tie when discussing Lords, right?

Comeback for a new fact next Wednesday!

March 15, 2017 7

Oshie Has Finally Seen Snow!

The past couple of weeks here in North Carolina have been pretty warm. Temperatures have regularly been in the 60’s and 70’s with a few cold days mixed in. The weather has been so nice that the trees have decided it was time to start blooming (featured image is the neighbors peach tree in full bloom). We were beginning to think we weren’t going to see any snow for the second year in a row. So you can imagine how shocked we were to wake up to snow falling on Sunday morning!

When Oshie finally managed to get us up, (we thought he let us sleep in for once but forgot about the time change) we opened the blinds to find big white flakes falling from the sky. Oshie had never really seen snow before Sunday. The first year we had him we woke up one morning to the yard covered in frozen rain/ice and that was the extent of his experience with wintry weather. I quickly grabbed the camera and let Oshie loose to experience his first snow.

He had an absolute blast! He was a little confused when it started to stick to his tennis balls (it was a very wet snow) but overall I think he really enjoyed it. Proof is in the pictures below!

Unfortunately the snow only lasted for an hour or two and by mid morning there was no evidence that the snow had even come. It would have been nice if it had stuck around for another day or two, although to be honest I am happy it wasn’t a major storm. The good folks of North Carolina have no idea how to handle snow. At least Oshie has finally experienced the white stuff, even if it was just for a short time.

Here is short video of Oshie enjoying the snow!