Dog of the Day: American Akita Inu and Unknown Mix

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Adam Lang

Not sure about the victim’s breed, but the one on top is definitely an American Akita. Never realized until recently how big those guys actually are: they average more than 100 lbs! In fact, they’re the only breed that averages over 100 lbs that lives, on average, longer than ten years (according to the best survey I could find). And so pretty!

Plus we have a bonus white foofly dog. Autumn and I always have trouble identifying them.

Akita Inu, Unknown Mixed Breed, and Small White Fluffy Dog

Watching dogs play can be so disconcerting when you've never owned one. When the teeth are out, it looks scary as hell, even though every other indicator says that they are having a blast.

American Akita Inu and Unknown Mixed-Breed Dog

I love the placement of the akita paws.

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Dog of the Day: Umm…

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Adam Lang

This is one of the very few pictures that I haven’t been tempted to edit in one way or another. I just like it.

But I wish I could figure out what it was of! He looks like a bigger, rangier Tibetan terrier, or a maybe smaller, slimmer Old English sheepdog that’s growing out a close clip. But he’s right in between size for the two of them.

Dog

I just realized something: it's hard to tell: he's actually standing on top of a wall. Maybe he really is small enough to be a Tibetan terrier after all?

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Dog of the Day: Moe the Basset Hound/Australian Shepherd/Golden Retriever

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Adam Lang

No, Moe isn’t from the dog show. He’s another leftover from last summer’s Bay to Barkers. And according to my notes, he was getting his canine good citizen certification when I took these. So a belated congratulations to Moe, the good citizen!

Basset Hound/Golden Retriever/Australian Shepherd Mix

Awww. Someone sure loves his mom.

Basset Hound/Golden Retriever/Australian Shepherd Mix

I guess this must be the 'playing peek-a-boo' part of the test?

Basset Hound/Golden Retriever/Australian Shepherd Mix

This is the 'behaves well on leash' part. That one was pretty easy for Moe.

Basset Hound/Golden Retriever/Australian Shepherd Mix

He did get a little confused by the signposts though.

Basset Hound/Golden Retriever/Australian Shepherd Mix

Goofy face for a pretty goofy dog.

Basset Hound/Golden Retriever/Australian Shepherd Mix

God, that tail is ridiculous.

Basset Hound/Golden Retriever/Australian Shepherd Mix

This is the 'stay' part of the test. As I recall, Moe did pretty well at that, too.

Basset Hound/Golden Retriever/Australian Shepherd Mix

Mom might've been a bit nervous, but the pup was delighted with the whole process.

Basset Hound/Golden Retriever/Australian Shepherd Mix

He sure knew that there was a lot of attention on him, and loved every minute of it.

Basset Hound/Golden Retriever/Australian Shepherd Mix

And then it was off to the corner of the ring, for a well-earned bowl of water and some treats.

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Seen in the City: Dog Statue

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Adam Lang

There’s a shop near Union Square (on Post between Mason and Powell) that has a bunch of dog art in it. I haven’t been by when they were open yet, but this guy was in the window.

Dog Statue

That’s quite an expression.

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Dog of the Day: Lilly (Lillyput Gulliver) the Chihuahua

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Adam Lang

I was totally overwhelmed by the dog show, so it’s going to be a while before I post any pictures. Plus, ye gods, it’s DARK in there. With things that move around as much as dogs do, it was murder to get decent pictures.

So here’s Lilly. I took some pictures of her last week. She’s got a facebook page! And her mom’s boyfriend is running an organization called SharingPet, which is an attempt to help prevent a million pets from being euthanized over the next year. Check it out, see what you think.

In other news: these pictures were taken on my iPhone, because I wanted to see if the HDR (high dynamic range) mode on the camera helped with pictures taken in the bright sunlight. As it turns out, HDR is not well-suited for dogs… see the last image for why.

Chihuahua

The handy travel-size! (Just don't put him in the overhead compartment.)

Chihuahua

Incidentally, that is not 'I'm terrified' body language, that's 'I'm in the middle of sitting down' body language.

Chihuahua

And this isn't 'I'm annoyed', it's 'Help! I've been frozen in the act of shaking myself!'

Mutant Chihuahua

And this, as promised, is why you don't take pictures of dogs with HDR cameras. Even lesser movement screws things up, although perhaps not quite as... dramatically.

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Roving Reporter Post: Golden Gate Dog Show!

Posted on January 28, 2012 by Adam Lang

Just checking in from the dog show, where the dogs are all awesome! (The show itself? Perhaps a bit silly. But that’s not news. 🙂

Whippet

Dog ball. This pup was a little overwhelmed.

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Caturday Supplement: Happy Kitty!

Posted on January 28, 2012 by Adam Lang

A cat that Autumn and I cat-sat a while back in Berkeley. Super-affectionate greet-you-at-the-door-and-beg-for-skritchies kitty!

Cat

Some cats are just as good affection sponges as any dog. Aloof? Hah!

Cat

I need more cat pictures. Getting low again.

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DoggiEvent: Golden Gate Kennel Club Dog Show Saturday & Sunday

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Adam Lang

I should’ve posted about this earlier, but it slipped my mind to do so until now. Tomorrow and Sunday, the 28th and 29th, there’s a big honkin’ all-breeds dog show at the Cow Palace (which I like to call ‘The Center for Performing Kine’). Yours Truly will be there tomorrow (Saturday) to take pictures of some pups and pet a whole bunch more.

Also, got some pretty exciting (for me, anyway) site news coming up in the next week or two, so stay tuned!

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Dog of the Day: Rhodesian Ridgeback

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Adam Lang

I always forget how big these guys are. They’re rangy!

Also, prong collar. Which brings up an anecdote about one difference in the way Autumn and I approach life sometimes. I often wondered if prong collars like that were painful. Eventually, I looked it up online, and I found a bazillion conflicting answers. And I figured, okay, well, sometime I ought to find some credible people, and see what they have to say.

Meanwhile, Autumn was wondering the same thing. So she went to a pet store, put one on, gave it a few yanks and a long, sustained, hard pull, said, ‘meh, it’s not bad at all’, and went home.

The original quote is ‘sometimes six months in the laboratory can save you fifteen minutes in the library.’ But that should probably be amended to ‘sometimes fifteen minutes in real life can save you six hours on the internet.’

Rhodesian Ridgeback

I wonder if Rhodesian ridgebacks get tired of people running their fingers down their ridges. (Nope, probably not.)

Rhodesian Ridgeback

Aww, big goofy grin. Any ridgeback owners want to chime in on what they're like? I've never met any that weren't goofy-friendly.

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Dog of the Day: Border Collie

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Adam Lang

Because we haven’t seen one in a while.

An anecdote I ran into on reddit recently (here):

Yeah, my border collie totally gets that I control the car. On days when I come home without the kid, she gets concerned and tries to herd me back out to the car like, “Okay, you forgot the kid somewhere. No big deal, we’ll find out where if we go look for him. You drive, I’ll sniff.”

She paces and looks worried until I tell her it’s time to go to school to pick up the kid, then she gets all excited and relieved-looking.

Border Collie

I was at a dog park after dark the other day, and I spent a good two minutes 'dancing' with a border collie. I'd jump right, and he'd jump over in front of me. We never touched each other, just mirrored each other's movements. It was fun.

Border Collie

What's black and white and well-bred all over?

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