I saw him last night - what a good-looking dog, so muscular. What are the other 3 new ones? I didn't notice a mention in the article, although I only skimmed it.

Can't wait for the herding group!

Oh crap, I just read your other post about this - did I miss the herding group? Were they on already? Who won?

I'm bummed if they were on...I was watching this on some channel that switched to some wrestling crap at 9 PM. Ugh. I should have looked on an HD channel or something.

I just read that article. I loved it. I'm a sucker for those kinds of dog stories. A lot of Catahoula Leopard Dog partisans say the same things about them. Mark Dery's book Man's Best Friend is full of them.

Yeah, the herding group was last night. The Australian Shepherd won! Yay! (it wasn't as pretty as eekacat's two).

I know one of the others was the Finnish Spitz (which I thought was already competing, huh) but I can't remember the other two. And now Slate doesn't want to open up for me, weird.

USA showed the first hour, then it switched to CNBC.

Oh yeah, and when I saw the dog last night I had the same reaction as you, iconomy. Such a great doggy looking dog. And I love brindle-y dogs.

Something about this makes me kind of sad. A dog who wants to be out chasing bears is instead inside prancing around on a leash in front of an audience and corporate sponsorship banners.

I'm going to choose to believe that doggy lives the life of a Tennessee hound and that the dog show is just a vacation. Sort of like a spa day.

I used to walk Scottish Deerhounds when I lived in New Zealand, and their owner showed them all, and also took them out hunting. (pig hunting actually - I was always terrified for them, but they always came back.) Some dogs do get to live good well-rounded lives.

Okay. I feel better. :)

USA showed the first hour, then it switched to CNBC.

Gah.

When I saw the Rhodesian Ridgeback last night I started to cry. A long time ago (about 12 years I guess) a woman in my neighborhood had her house broken into, and their Ridgeback probably saved her daughter's life. A stranger broke in and went upstairs and took her out of her bed and was carrying her down the steps and the dog started barking like crazy, waking everybody up. The mom ran out of her bedroom and to the top of the stairs and saw what was happening, and her daughter said, very calmly, "Mommy, a bad man is carrying me away". The mom screamed, the dog went nuts and attacked the man and he dropped the girl and ran out the door (he was caught right away).

For the rest of his life that gentle, beautiful dog was the town hero. Every time I see a Ridgeback now I get all teary. They're such awesome dogs.

Not nearly the same, but the other night I was at the house some friends of the gf. They have two dogs -- a totally archetypal Jack Russell and an older, incredibly mellow, enormous pit bull mix. The pit bull, she slept on the couch next to us the entire time we were there, while the Jack Russell engaged me in a never-ending game of tug-of-war.

When it came time to leave, the gf hugged one of the women goodbye. The pit bull leapt off the couch, grabbed the gf's pantleg, and then looked up at her with this expression that said "Go ahead, I dare you to hurt her."

It was very sweet. But at the same time, I was really glad it wasn't my leg.

Dogs are awesomeness.

Woohoo! Go Weimar, go! Here's a picture I took of some Weimar buddies of mine:

≡ Click to see image ≡