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27th August 2008
Lucky The New Dog Cannot Possibly Be a Labrador Retriever 2 replies
I’ve been so focused on work at home and work at the office, that I feel I’ve recently been neglecting Lucky, the new dog. I rescued Lucky as she ran in and out of traffic on busy High Street in Clintonville, OH about a year ago (November 2007). She was and still is extremely energetic - in fact that is the best way to describe this dog. Most people state when they see her jump around - “That dog has a LOT of energy!” She does settle down, eventually, and in fact is becoming a better dog with a heckuva lot training and patience.
So what kind of dog is Lucky? What kind of breed, you say? Many think she’s a black lab - in fact, almost 99% of people that run into her think she’s a lab mix. If you see this dog run, you can tell that she’s in another category - some have said Greyhound or Whippet mix. Here is another Whippet dog reference. This Whippet reference talks about how they are happiest curled up next to their owners on a couch - which is truly the way Lucky is. She wants to sleep up against you. She nestles in pillows much like a cat would - or perhaps beyond a cat. In fact, my cats Monroe and recent rescue neighbor cat Bentley adore her! They follow her, play with her, and play hide and seek.
Lucky is truly liquid fast when she runs. She tucks her legs much like you see dogs in cartoons - I can just hear the cartoon sounds of a Scooby Doo animation! She runs in small circles and does this often, to get whatever excess energy she has out of her system.
She is definitely a sight hound. I’ve never seen a dog lift her head straight up into the sky to watch a plane fly overhead. She also has quite the nose. When I was showing my house, and would leave with her and come back after a realtor showing, Lucky would follow that new scent wherever they’d been. I could depend on Lucky showing me wherever there was a change in scent.
So, I often think she might have some whippet in her, moreso than Lab, as they are also sight hounds.
Lucky - on recent walk with her friend, J.J.Okay - so why is this breed stuff so important? Well, because the more you know about your breed, the more you know what is good for a dog to do? What are their natural traits so you can exercise them, right? We’ll call my little lake exercise a failed exercise in testing her for Lab traits.
SO, I took Lucky to the park, hoping to introduce her to some dogs and a little lake water action. Lucky doesn’t enjoy getting bathed all that much - but how about a spin at the lake?
Well - Lucky has now swam, sank, and had to be RESCUED by a quite nice looking young man at Antrim Lake the other day. Pretty funny in hindsight - only ’cause she had a good ending of course - and yes, she’s fine.
I had her on a new harness (the third one at least), and lead and let her jump around in the water. Once she got the hang of it, she frolicked in the water. But then she caught sight of the other big dogs running around in the water, retrieving their kongs, or sticks or whatever. So, Lucky followed - why not? She jumped in and realized soon that she was swimming. I have seen many dogs swim, and somehow Lucky did not look like she was doing all that great. I mentioned my concern through a few giggles to the guy standing next to me, that somehow didn’t look quite right. He dismissed it and said his dog looked just the same when he was learning to swim.
Lucky seemed to do more swimming in vertical motion, without forward progress to me. But she eventually made it to where we stood and jumped around as if she’d discovered something grand! I asked the guy if she went in again, if he’d be willing to run in and rescue that dog - considering I’m approaching 7 months pregnancy and not sure I should really be jumping into the lake to save my dog in my current state. But Lucky progressed again, seeing another dog, out into the water and began to swim out. The other dog came in, but Lucky seemed to be moving nowhere fast, other than possibly beginning to sink. She was thrashing about. Her paws stretched upward, and her nose tipped upward in such a way that distress was beginning to settle in. I could see that I was going to have to go in for her. The nice guy to the right of me, who’d just said he’d rescue her if anything happened - yeah - well - he just stood there. I threw my leash and keys on the ground and began to take off my shoes - not yet believing I was about to go in, in my popped belly pregnant state, and have to swim to get my dog out of the water.
Now play the Chariots of Fire theme in your head for the next part of the story. So, along comes this gorgeous blond young man, out of the blue, from behind me - saying - Does this dog need to be rescued? I exclaimed “YES!” He threw off his shoes, charged into the water and swam out to Lucky. Within seconds, they were both up to their necks in the water - and Lucky hopped onto him like a baby with her front legs stretched out around either side of the man’s neck. I was a little concerned for a moment that she could pull him down a bit, but they were fine and moved into the gravel shore of the lake. I thanked him enormously - and at that point, noted his dog and girlfriend, and then watched him walk off with them trying to squeeze out the water from his shorts. Yes, sigh, nice view! I turned back to my dog who was already running around and having fun with the other dogs. It took alot to get Lucky to come back to me again, as she was so excited by this attention and crisis of the moment, that she simply wanted to go back and play with the other dogs in the water.
I finally collected my dog and decided that she was Lucky again to be alive, and that the next time, if ever, we jump into the water, we’ll have a doggy life jacket on and some way to retrieve her, as opposed to allowing her to retrieve doggy balls in the water.
So much for my trip to have Lucky dog swim. Yep - anyone tries to tell me that dog is a Labrador Retriever - not so sure about that. I’ll have to check her for webbed feet - like Labs are supposed to have for swimming ease. Poor girl!
Cody, my chow of nearly 13 years, she was not a swimmer either - she hated the water. She liked to frolic at the shoreline and that was it! Some dogs are just not meant to be swimmers.
2 Responses to “Lucky The New Dog Cannot Possibly Be a Labrador Retriever”
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More from Laura Thieme:
Kristi says:
August 27th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
OH my gosh, what a NICE guy! I’m SO happy he jumped in for you.
Katy Alter says:
May 27th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
Hi my name is Katy!
I definately think your dog is a cross between a black lab and a whippet and I say this because I also have a rescued black lab/whippet named Kobe who, I swear could by Lucky’s twin!!
Everything you describe is just like Kobe!
He was rescued actually in New Zealand by my sister who later adopted him and shipped him home to Canada.
He has a white marking on his chest and under his chin. His face looks like a lab, but his body is more muscular and Whippet-like and he runs like the wind (his hind legs also look like a racing dog when he runs). His favourite thing to do is to cuddle up into people and pillows and any soft blankets (he whines until you let him get into a bed) and like Lucky, he chases other dogs into the water and thrashes about, but won’t fully swim….however… we bought him a doggy life jacket and it alleviated his fear!!!
I would love to show you some pictures because it is scary how similar he looks to lucky! Does lucky use his hands alot because Kobe does, and he can also be quite vocal at times..it also seems like he’s got an endless supply of energy…until of course a long day at the park. They are very smart animals these dogs!!