Ten Quotes about Dogs

Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in your ear.
Dave Barry.


Dogs do speak but only to those who know how to listen.
Orhan Pamuk "My Name is Red."


Nothing will turn a man's home into a castle more quickly and effective than a dachshund.
Victoria Magazine.


 I confronted the fact that I was not only talking to a dog, but answering for one.
Claire Cook "Must love Dogs."


When an eighty-five pound mammal licks your tears away, then tries to sit on your lap, it's hard to feel sad.
Kristan Higgins "Catch of the Day".


You can say any fool thing to a dog and the dog will just give you this look that says: "My GOSH, you're RIGHT, I NEVER would've thought of that!"
Dave Barry


"What the fuck does he think he's doing anyway? And when has running around in a figure eight ever helped anyone?"
C.K.Kelly Martin


The greatest fear dogs know is the fear that you will not come back when you go out the door without them.
Stanley Coren.


I sometimes look into the face of my dog Stan and see a wistful sadness and existential angst, when all he is actually doing is slowly scanning the ceiling for flies.
Merril Markoe


I like dogs
Big dogs
Little dogs
Fat dogs
Doggy dogs
Old dogs
Puppy dogs
I like dogs
A dog that is barking over the hill
A dog that is dreaming very still
A dog that is running whereever he will
I like dogs
Margaret Wise Brown "The Friendly Book".



photo July 2013, grethe bachmann: Dog and Icecream , Møns Klint, "Children's Playground"

The First Day of Spring ..................

It was the very first day with a mild weather and the sun shining like I don't know what. I postponed my shopping for the week-end, this could be done to-morrow, and went down to the beach. The Marina is soon ready for all those boat-people, or as Hyacinth Bucket, excuse me, Bouquet, says: the people who are "yachting". There is a single sailboat out in the bay. It's very misty out there; the land on the other side of the bay lies in a haze. It's the peninsula Mols with the hills.  In the good old days there was a little ferry, which took you across the bay with your bike. That was a good idea, but good ideas are sometimes being removed by the politicians. You'll never know what they think of. Now they are trying to put some tax on American magazines, and I'm so grumpy, for there are some magazines I just love to be day-dreaming over, not sports, but fashion. I should have kept my old magazines. Well, 'll try to forget it now. They don't get my vote the next time.Here's a photo of a villa. I took a few shots of villas, and they are some pretty houses, situated along the beach road, some are placed up on a hill that runs all the way along the beach. I would like the red one. If I win the Lotto - but no,  I guess it would have to be a very large win, if I should be able to keep a house at all here. And then comes the expense for heating up the house in winter, and all the taxes. No, my flat is cosy and okay, and I've got no energy to move to another place.....    The kayaker looks like he's rowing between sea and sky. It must be a lovely sport. To enjoy such a morning, rowing silently along the beach.  You can see the beach road here. Two young girls are walking towards the forest a few hundred meters away. Usually people are running like wild, red or blue in the face. To walk is almost out of fashion. Or -  if you do walk, you'll have to walk with two sticks. This has a special name which I have forgotten. It should be good  for your back. I have tried those sticks, and the next day I had a pain in the back.  Here's the red villa on top of the hill. There are many long tall beeches in front of the hill houses, in summer they are not easy to see. But I'll stop this display, for they could fill a whole post. Except here is a shot of the workmen, it seems people can afford to have their houses repaired, although the rules ar being changed all the time by the politicians. I have moved up on the hill myself now, up some stairs where they suddenly have removed the steps. So many strange things happen! So I had to walk up steep on trampled earth, but I wanted to go up into the park. From the top of the hill there was a good view down to the road. A biker, then one came running, another one, they are really tough those runners. some are running 10 kilometers a day. Or more if they are Marathoners. Inside the park some sparrows were sitting in the sun in a tall bush. They were singing a little.  There are already many flowers in the lawn. This pretty white flower is what you call spring snowflake. The Danish name is Dorothea-lilje, named after some saint, a young girl who was a martyr. On the other side of the big lawn are the Donbæk-houses from the 1800s; they were once inhabited by farmers and foresters, now they are used for storing etc. by the gardeners who's working in the park.                                                                                     
The green bags protect newplant tress, but the dog had been there already, peeing up one of them. The dog had a really funny walk. The park is a good place for walking the dog. On a hill in the back of the park are some pretty trees, it's difficult to see now how pretty they are with their foliage, but here is a good view down to the bay -  and on a hot summer's day the trees deliver a cooling shadow.

view from the hill

  There is a big group of various Japan cherry in the park, which queen Margrethe received from Japan once, they are blooming in various weeks. The tree on the photo was filled with buds. In  fourteen days it's filled with beautiful flowers maybe. I like the poplars, they fill a whole long avenue. Behind them is another villa, not a normal size, it's the queen's "summerhouse", Marselisborg. Outside the castle by the driving road is a traffic circle. When the bus passes this to the bus stop after the circle, the bus driver sometimes says: "Margrethe's runddel"
( round, meaning: Margrethe's behind).  We're not always very respectful, but this doesn't mean anything bad. We like our queen Margrethe. The young bullies say she's cool.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          













On my way home a great tit was finding insects in a tree, but it flew quickly away. In the garden of the forester's house is an old kind of well,  I don't know what it's called. The lake in the Botanical garden was now without ice. 

A seagull was enjoying the view from a tall tree without branches.The twigs look like an old man's hair. And some other seagulls enjoyed the sun standing in line upon stones in the lake. And then I met the sweet little tortoiseshell, the first butterfly I have seen this year. 

In the villa gardens were lots of eranthis and crocus.When I passed our local shop, three dogs were waiting outside. They did not bark.They were sitting very quiet and well-behaved. They looked so sweet, but I never go close to dogs I don't know. Furthermore I'm allergic to dogs, so it comes naturally, but I like to observe them.  

GB

 

The last photo is the Italian house, my favorite house.

click to enlarge
photo Århus, Strandvejen, Mindeparken, Forstbotanisk Have, 2 March 2012: grethe bachmann

When the Dog was a Soldier in Arms

                                                                      

The domestic dog (Canis Lupus Familiaris) is the domestic animal, which was the first to be tamed by man - and it shares the longest history with us. The dog was throughout history used for hunting, as watch dog, war dog, bloodhound, rescue dog - or just our friend and companion. It is a service dog for blind and disabled people and works for the police as their rescue dog, it is tracing drugs or works as a therapy-dog. A dog is also able to sniff his way to a cancer and to predict epileptic  seizures.


Dogs and War

Dogs and war go back a long way. More than 4.000 years ago the ancient Assyrians, the Persians and the Babylonians used Mastiffs, wearing spiked collars, to attack their enemies. The Romans were the first to train war dog-units. The dogs wore spiked collars and armour, and unleashed in the forward line of the battle they attacked the enemies legs, causing them to lower their shields and be more vulnerable to attack. Attila, king of the Huns from 433 AD until his death in 453 AD, used giant Molossian dogs, precursors of the Mastiff, and Talbots, ancestors of the Bloodhound, in his campaigns.

Assyrian

Saluki

Ancient Egyptian wall writings, thought by some to date back to 4.000 BC, depict savage dogs, straining on leashes held in the hands of Egyptian warriors, and leaping on their enemy. Ancient Egyptians raised Saluki hunting dogs. Saluki means noble one.In Iraque show the old Assyrian temple walls bas reliefs of huge Mastiff battle dogs, wearing spiked iron collars, to create fear among enemies. The regions of Rome used both giant Mastiffs and Molossian hounds while civilizing the western world, according to their scribes.  Attila the Hun used a drove of large dogs to stand as entries around his camps, so as not to be surprised by his enemies. 

A little story about the dog Delta in Pompei: It was found stretched out beside a child. Delta wore a silver collar which told that he belonged to Servenius? whose life he had saved from a wolf.

Mastiff

Pliny the Elder wrote of squadrons of fierce dogs, that fought in the ranks beside the Colophonians of Asia Minor against the Ionian enemies. After the battle was over, they were harnessed to carts hauling treasure back home. In Roman times and in the Middle Ages ran mastiffs into battle against mounted knights wearing light armour and  carrying spikes and pots of flaming sulphur and resin.

William the conqueror

Bloodhound

Bloodhounds were first imported to England just about the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, and quite possibly by William the Conqueror, who was also regarded as a great hunts man. William the Conqueror used such hounds back home in France to support his troops as well as to run down opponents of the family regime. When William took forces to England in 1066, his St. Hubert hounds guarded and defended his army camps and followed remaining dissenters to the end of any trail. 

Moss troopers

Edward I Longshanks used bloodhounds on his borders of Scotland to track down the notorious "moss troopers" ; their raids across the borders became so outrageous that the government ordered a train of warning beacons to be established and tracking dogs kept  in the various districts to assist the crown forces.
On occassions Longshank's bloodhounds quarry was of noble birth. Robert the Bruce escaped them only by wading down stream to lose his scent - and much later in history they ran down the luckless duke Monmouth after the Battle of Sedgemoor in 1685.

The bloodhound who takes his name from blooded hound or purebred, traces back to the St. Hubert hounds of the seventh century AD, when everybody who was anybody kept their own pack of dogs.In Europe the Middle Ages saw the purebred dog become the prized possession of kings, noblemen and surprisingly church officials, as a new age developed for the dog, when hunting for sport became popular. Dogs were crucial participants in the hunt, and specialized breeds were developed to fulfill  various roles. Nobles kept large packs of hunting dogs, including those that used sight or scent to hunt, and Mastiffs, large dogs, used against boar and stag. Emperor Maximilian had 1500 dogs.

In 1518 good king Henry VIII of England presented 400 battle mastiffs with iron collars to Charles V of Spain, then at war with France. The Spanish mastiffs were set on the French dogs in the siege of Valencia, and drove them from the field with their tails between their legs. The English dogs perform such splendid service in the Renaissance that they were recommended by king Charles and held up as an example for his troups.  

In 1599 queen Elisabeth dispatched her court's favourite, the Earl of Essex as "Lord deputy of Ireland" with an army of 22.000 men, including a large force of bloodhounds, to put down the chieftain rebellion. Dogs had long been used against individual Irish, Scot and Welsh dissenters, but the Essex force of 800 hounds and their handlers may have been the first use of official war dogs in England.

During the Middle Ages were war dogs outfitted with armor and frequently used to defend caravans.
The Great Dane and the mastiff  accompanied their masters into battle fitted with spiked collars and occassionally their own suit of armor. A number of breeds were developed for a sport of another kind, bull and bear rating as well as rat catching and pit-bull fighting. To protect dogs against the hazards of antlers and tusks would the owners protect their dogs with padded quilt wests and on rare occassions plate and mail armor.

The English Mastiff and Greyhound became standardized recognizable breeds this time, as did a few of the herding breeds. The lap dog finally became popular in Europe, as the ladies of the court took to them as "comforters".  Even the dog collars became a measure of the dog's importance, some examples being made of gold, silver, white leather and velvet. Church documents show that it was common of the parishioners to bring their dogs to services with them as footwarmers. They became objects of a number of laws. The ownership of a Scottish deerhound or Greyhound was kept off limits from all but nobility.Gifts of war dog breeding stock between European royalty were seen as suitable tokens for exchange throughout the Middle Ages.



In the early part of the 14th century the French navy started to use attack dogs in France to guard naval dock installations. These were used up till 1770, when they were abolished after a young naval officer was unfortunately killed by one of the dogs.Battle between war dogs of opposing armies took place on several occassions, once during the Swiss-Burgundian war of 1476, and another during the battle of Merta - the Swiss dogs destroyed the canines of Burgundy.The Spanish conquistadors used armoured dogs that had been trained to kill and disembowel when they invaded the land controlled by South American natives.
The first official use of dogs for military purposes in the United States was during the Seminole Wars.  The American Pit Bull Terrier was used in the American Civil War to protect, send messages, and as mascots in American World War I propaganda and recruiting posters.

The dog is still used as the soldier's helper and rescue dog. The latest example from 2011 is unique: United States Navy Seals used a Belgian Malinois war dog named Cairo in Operation Neptune Spear, in which Osama bin Laden was killed.







Sources: K-9 Military History, War Dogs; Documentary History about Dogs; Wikipedia, War Dogs.








Yesterday I was a dog. Today I'm a dog. Tomorrow I'll probably still be a dog, sigh! There's so little hope for advancement.

Snoopy.

Dogue de Bordeaux / French Mastiff

I saw a huge dog the other day. I remember this race from the Tom Hanks movie "Turner and Hooch", but I had never seen it in real life. We had found a resting place for our coffee break by a river at Kolindsund. The dog was fetching sticks in the water, and it was a fine sight to see the muscles work in the shoulders of this big dog. When it came up with the stick it was so extremely proud! And its owner was also very proud! Unfortunately we had to leave because of my allergy. I must not touch dogs at all. Dogs want to talk to you, and they are so disappointed, if I walk away from them; they simply don't understand that I won't talk to them, so it's better to disappear at once. I take photos at a distance and then leave. But it was a wonderful dog with a friendly face.

What a face!

I found the name on Mr. Google, when I came home. And it was a mighty fine name! Dogue de Bordeaux, also named French Mastiff (or Bordeaux Bulldog); it's a big and heavy dog, who reminds about the bullmastiff, but it is centuries older. The Dogue de Bordeaux origins from the Roman molosses and was used as a watchdog against ravening dogs and wild animals,  but it had also other features, like shepherd dog, war dog, big game hunter and drover. The breed has been utilized in many different forms, from using their brawn to pull carts or haul heavy objects and used to protect castles of the European elite.

The race is still used as a watchdog in France and is considered their national watchdog.

Its past as a fearsome fighting dog has been replaced with a gentle and friendly family dog. It is intelligent and does not tolerate to be treated badly. It can also be stubborn, arrogant, and dominant. Early socialization for this breed is an absolute must. It is very attached to its family and loves children. It is a good watchdog, but it can be somewhat aggressive towards other dogs.

The massive head is a crucial breed characteristic. The Dogue de Bordeaux is claimed to have the largest head in the canine world, in proportion to the rest of the body.

The history of this dog is interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogue_de_Bordeaux


photo Kolindsund: 6. August 2011: grethe bachmann

The Water Dog and the Little Sissy....

This is a real water dog, but what about the little one? He won't go down to the water no matter how much he's being drawn. Stay off my neck!



I hate water! I don't care how much "Goldie" shows me how to do it!

She runs into the water like a freak.

I won't do it. I might get wet.

If I hadn't got that silly leash on I would run away and find home myself!

But I can hide behind Mum and Dad. I wish they would understand. I'm not a sissy. I can do other things.

Mum tells me not to worry. We are going home now.

Oh Goldie is so wet and Mum tells her to behave. Ha! 
















photo Horsens fjord : grethe bachmann