A Disturbing Thought
When I married the Mrs. she came as part of a package deal. I don’t mean kids, but I did acquire a giant size step-dog. He’s half golden retriever and half husky. Mostly he looks like a giant size extra fluffy golden retriever. He got his warm fluffy undercoat from his husky father, as well as half of an eye. It’s very eerie. One eye is nice golden retriever brown, and the other is half brown and half pale husky blue.
He’s also an unremitant beggar. The dog weighs 100 lbs, but he acts like he has never been fed. The presence of any sort of people food immediately causes him to drool and he’ll follow food anywhere. For some reason the other day I started wondering about his behavior.
I hear that this gluttonous, always hungry attitude is pretty typical of golden retrievers. But what would he be like with that size and appetite if he hadn’t been trained not to steal food as a puppy. I know you aren’t exactly likely to see a feral golden retriever in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains, but it's fun to speculate. If he grew up wild he would have the size and the skills to hunt his own food. I could almost see him taking on a bear or a person and winning when he got hungry enough. Of course he’d also eat so much of his first kill he’d be too slow and fat to hunt anymore.
Fortunately for people, cats, bears, and kitties throughout middle Tennessee he’s way too well trained for that. The Mrs. did her job well. He can even be commanded not to eat food when you put it right down on his paw. I always feel guilty doing it, but it’s pretty amazing to watch this pitiful looking dog not eat until you give him permission.
He’s also an unremitant beggar. The dog weighs 100 lbs, but he acts like he has never been fed. The presence of any sort of people food immediately causes him to drool and he’ll follow food anywhere. For some reason the other day I started wondering about his behavior.
I hear that this gluttonous, always hungry attitude is pretty typical of golden retrievers. But what would he be like with that size and appetite if he hadn’t been trained not to steal food as a puppy. I know you aren’t exactly likely to see a feral golden retriever in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains, but it's fun to speculate. If he grew up wild he would have the size and the skills to hunt his own food. I could almost see him taking on a bear or a person and winning when he got hungry enough. Of course he’d also eat so much of his first kill he’d be too slow and fat to hunt anymore.
Fortunately for people, cats, bears, and kitties throughout middle Tennessee he’s way too well trained for that. The Mrs. did her job well. He can even be commanded not to eat food when you put it right down on his paw. I always feel guilty doing it, but it’s pretty amazing to watch this pitiful looking dog not eat until you give him permission.
posted by W at 1:38 PM
2 Comments:
You just called our beautiful boy "eerie". I'm telling him to wake you up with some of his patented fish breath tomorrow.
Well from one retriever owner to another....aren't they just the best damn dogs on the planet?..we have Lucy a 9-year-old, now we never taught her to not eat something before we give permission....but she must have it in her blood....honestly, she won't begin eating until we say.
"You're welcome". Seriously, she just stares at us, tail wagging and won't dig in until its said. but come think of it, she was always more interested in a pet or hug from us than her dinner so I guess that's how it got started...hmm, go figure.....hey, go west young man (and mrs.) and visit me in my blog...I'm an ol' Memphis girl. Jinks.
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