It’s Follow-up Friday! We are joining Heart Like A Dog and co-host Misty Shores Chesapeakes for:
The blog hop that let’s you wrap up your week and leads you right into the weekend.
Monday Mischief–The Heckler
I suspect the honking geese have a nest on the far side of the pond and that is why they were so loud. Thunder was a good boy and although he turned to look at them, he stayed on task and made his retrieves.
Two Different Styles
It was interesting to read all of the different ways your dogs protect. Some are vocal. Some are not.
I haven’t really seen much protectiveness in Freighter yet. He will bark, (or sometimes “roo”) when he wants something or hears a noise, but he doesn’t go out of his way to watch. Of course, he is still young. The very first time that I noticed Thunder going into protection mode was when he was 18 months old. We were camping at a state park and I was walking him around the park. A woman stopped me to ask about him saying she had a Chessie as a child. (You don’t often run into people who actually recognize his breed.) She asked if she could pet him. Well he was not having any of that and stepped between us and that time he actually gave her a warning bark. I think he was a little put off because the woman was wearing a black wetsuit, (she was a kayaker). She laughed because she understood Chessies.
Wordless Wednesday–Ahh!
dogloverofmax commented that Thunder’s coat looks like velvet. I think you would be surprised if you felt his coat.
Coat s very important to a Chessie. This is from part of the AKC breed standard:
The texture of the Chesapeake’s coat is very important, as the Chesapeake is used for hunting under all sorts of adverse weather conditions, often working in ice and snow. The oil in the harsh outer coat and wooly undercoat is of extreme value in preventing the cold water from reaching the Chesapeake’s skin and aids in quick drying. A Chesapeake’s coat should resist the water in the same way that a duck’s feathers do. When the Chesapeake leaves the water and shakes, the coat should not hold water at all, being merely moist.
If you were to feel his coat, it would feel coarse and oily rather than velvety. I think the water makes it look softer than it is. After he shakes, his coat is fairly dry.
This ‘N That Thursday
Gizmo and Hawk aka BrownDog asked what software I use to watermark my pictures. I use Adobe Lightroom. I use it to crop and add color effects too.
It took me a bit to get used to it, but once I did, I decided that I really like it. When I export (or save) my pictures, I also save them with a date I took them in the label which helps me keep them organized.
Mimi Shufelt commented that they all look the same color. They are all brown, but I think some may turn out to be a bit lighter than Storm, or maybe not…lol. It will be a while before they get their final adult coats.
Apparently I missed something last week. Sue at Talking Dogs awarded us the Versatile Blogger Award and I totally missed the post. Thank you so much for this award. I really appreciate being recognized by fellow bloggers. 🙂
If you haven’t been over to visit Sue at Talking Dogs do yourself a favor and stop over and say “hi” and check out her blog!
Miscellaneous Follow-Up
The reason I have been missing posts here and there, (besides being busy) is that I am trying to consolidate my readers since google reader will be going away shortly. I haven’t been adding new feeds until I get things squared away. One of you suggested using Feedly for a reader and so far I like it. I think I may go with that one. The thing I do not like about it is how you have to add feeds. I find it cumbersome, but workable.
Our Club’s hunt test is next weekend, May 18-19, and we are scheduled to work. We decided not to enter any dogs this time around. Storm is still with her puppies, (she will be coming home on the 19th!). Thunder needs more water work and distance for sure. Freighter is at the transition between marking and handling. Our trainer would like to keep him in training mode a bit longer before entering him in tests. This test is early in the season and there will be a lot of opportunity to test him later this year. Our goal is to get him in a Senior test later this summer. Besides, we have found that it is difficult to try to work and run dogs. Our success when we work tests is pretty limited.
Have a great weekend!
Thanks to Heart Like A Dog and co-host Misty Shores Chesapeakes for hosting the hop.
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Thanks for joining the blog hop, what a great recap!! I would guess that Muddy is the front pup in the photo, lying on her side and facing her Mama’s leg. 🙂 But that is only a guess.
Congratulation on the blogging award, I think it’s nice to be recognized by fellow bloggers.
Are you excited to have Storm home? I wonder how she’ll act, do they typically miss their babies or will she just roll right back into her normal routine?
Have a great weekend (I might try working on my new feeder this weekend too.)
Storm seemed ready to leave when we saw here a couple of weeks ago…lol. I think she will be happy to be home. We want to get her back into training as soon as it is OK for her to do so.
Mom and I think you need to change your sentence to after he shakes his coat is relatively dry and his human is relatively wet 🙂 it is interesting how every dogs fur is different!
Good point! If you notice, in some pictures the handler is wearing rain pants. I have seen people teach their dogs to wait to shake until after they are finished with their portion of the test and leave the line. We are lucky just to get our dogs to wait to shake until they release the last bumper. 🙂
Love the follow ups. That last photo looks like Thunder is taking a sip from a water bottle. hehe
Blessings,
Goose
It does…lol.
Ditto Emmadog. We were going to say that. Have a fabulous Friday and great follow up.
Best wishes Molly
LOL sometimes the human welcomes the shower and sometimes not. 🙂
I like the way you use the photographs in your posts. Watermarking them is such a great idea. Have a wonderful Friday!
Thanks Finn! Have a nice weekend.
What a great follow up! I’m terribly behind in my reading :-0 Have a great weekend!
I hope I can do some catching up this weekend. 🙂
Love the Lightroom picture of Storm- there’s just something about the look of the whole picture that I like 🙂 Great recap of a busy week! Hope you have an awesome weekend and you and those pooches have the chance to get out and enjoy the weather!
I like that one too. I have a few more nice ones I need to dig out and share. 🙂
The color variations are interesting…it’s like yellow Labs going from white to dark gold (I remember one breeder trying to market something called a “silver Lab” doh!) I’ve downloaded a free program called Easy Watermark Studio Lite and I’m going to give watermarking a shot (anything Photoshop has always confused me 🙁 ) I’ve tried 3 readers apps: Feedly, Bloglovin’ and Old Reader and so far I haven’t gotten comfortable with any of them but time is getting short so I better make up my mind Have a great weekend!
Color genetics are really interesting. I have only a basic understanding of how coat color expresses in Chessies. I do know that Thunder’s silver brown color is due to dilute brown. It is a recessive gene. If he is crossed with a female with the dilute brown gene then you can get tan or ash pups. From what I understand the tan/ash color has been in our breed since the beginning, unlike labs.
I’ve always known Chessie’s to have course coats, but I must admit, some of those pictures do make them look a little velvety! Has to be the water… either way, you’ve got beautiful babies! 🙂
Could be the water, but another reason may be that the water pictures are taken in the summer when they are generally out-of-coat. I have a picture of Storm taken two months after the one I posted from 2011 when she had the woolly coat. She looked like a lab…smooth and straight coat. Our dogs blow coat right down to skin roughly two times a year. Although Thunder held his coat nicely this year with our cooler Spring.
Thanks for following my blog. Hope to stop by and say “hi” sometime this weekend. 🙂
Great FUF, thanks for the info about google reader going away. Thunder was a big boy, he is all balanced out now. Gambler has a big head and a skinny body right now. Congrats on your award. I can’t tell with of the little puppies was muddy. They all look the same color. I had a pup form 2 of Nellies litters that was brindle color and it didn’t show up for a week and then it kept changing. Have a great weekend.
Wow you have a lot going on! Gosh I want to find a Chessie real bad now just to pet one! I think I still will be shocked because they do really look so velvety! Thunder sure is awesome about not getting distracted! Maybe me and Max do so well as a team because we are both a bit A.D.D. 😉
I have nominated you for the Sunshine Award. You can read all about it here: http://thek9harperlee.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/you-are-my-sunshine/. Thanks for getting me through the week on BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday!
Thank you for the nomination. 🙂
My pleasure. 🙂
Storms same color puppies make me think of this episode of Nature about the white horses. They are all born brown and their coat takes 3 years to turn white. Even Yuki has cream through out her yet and he true white won’t come out until after a year. It’s crazy to think of the changes mammals go through as they mature. I love science and all it’s wonders! ^_^
Working means you’re still going to your club’s test? I know I get super excited when stuff like that come up, and I get really bummed out when it turns out I can’t participate. Julio always makes me go and photograph and that really does the trick! It’s great practice, and it always makes for a nice getaway weekend! 🙂
We are working at the test. It takes a lot of people to put on a test and it can make for long days. Not sure I will be able to take any pictures. 🙂
Excellent FUF! I bet Storm will be glad to get home. I always love when the dogs decide to shake right next to me…NOT! Worse I think is when they don’t shake and come right up and rub against me as if I am their towel 😉
Great photos!!
What a wonderful wrap up. I am really liking FUF because, as busy people, we may scan other’s blogs but only get to comment on one, like today. You did a great job with explaining the color problem with puppies. No way I can find Mud in that litter. And the Chessie coat, well I did not realize that but it makes sense. Thanks and have a wonderful weekend.
Our Chessie is Ash colored thus the name Ash! Her coat is very coarse and has never looked velvety like your Chessie’s coats look in the pictures!!!! Bet you will be glad to get Storm home! Have a great week!
There are various coat styles for Chessies. Perhaps yours has the kinkier styled coat?
I finally feel like I’m starting to catch up – the pups are just so cute {almost as cute as the grown up puppies}!