Monday, June 02, 2008

It's hard to home black dogs


Apparently nobody wants them. Particularly large ones. I find this kind of funny given how funny they are to look at when they try jumping into the air; we derive much amusement these days from watching Woody fall over himself when he leaps after a kicked football.

Guys, big dogs have less energy than small dogs. Sure, they can reach more stuff and you have to put things like pot scourers and chopping boards up on high shelves out of their reach. And okay, their tails can sweep your coffee table clean with one swipe. And they are at the perfect height to dip their noses into your tea, coffee, or beer when you're relaxing on the sofa.

But they are relatively easy to exercise if you like walking for hours and hours, and they have satisfyingly heavy heads when they put them in your lap and sigh heavily at you. Plus, when you're playing tug rope with them, they look really cool when you lift them up off the ground and swing them around. And they keep the horrible young people away from you.

And you can't hurt them when you step on them, or when they slam their heads into doors. This is not the case with small dogs, who yowl vigorously at the slightest provocation. Big dogs save that kind of nonsense for when it's needed. Such as when another dog somewhere within a 50-mile radius is saying hello.

4 comments:

ian said...

I blame Nick Drake and his associating of black dogs with depression.

I have also heard that it is very hard to rehome dogs with names like Butch, Tyson, Savage, etc., and the first thing dog shelters do with such animals (and black dogs) is rename them things like Fluffy, Cuddles, & Tumbles.

susan sabo photography said...

I was recently told this by a shelter employee, and was really surprised. I wonder what the problem with black dogs is.

Ammonite said...

Black dogs have a long history of sinister associations. And back when we had a black dog and a brown dog I noticed that other dogs would go for it aggressively, but ignore the brown dog who was the same breed, age, sex and size.
It was odd.

Trish Byrne said...

Yeah, interesting. I always assumed that the reason Cody got into more trouble than Milo was because he was a bit more arsey, but now you mention it, other dogs do seem to react badly to him from the off (if at all). Maybe he just looks like a huge crow to them.