On Wed, 1 Dec 2010 00:59:11 -0500, "Robert Green"
wrote:

wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 24 Nov 2010 18:01:30 -0500, "Robert Green"

stuff snipped

And by the way, they're fearless. Here's a story about a Jack that treed
a
mountain lion:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11747293

My first thoughts too: "He said the cougar was probably not hungry enough
to
attack Jack." ;-)

Of course, fearless often equals incredible stupidity since they do tend
to
try to boss around dogs that could easily eat them if they could catch
them.
When they play with my neighbor's Golden Retriever they work him over
like
"good cop, bad cop" - one lets him get *almost* near enough to grab and
then
the other comes flying out of nowhere to blindside the poor Golden. It's
clear from watching them work that the wolf genes are still alive and
well
in there somewhere . . .

Goldens aren't very bright, but they're great family dogs. I've had two
(one
part border collie).

Grew up with a Golden and an Irish Setter. Great family dogs but ot-nat
oo-tay right-bay. The Golden had many trips to the vet for ingestion of all
sorts of hazardous objects. Birth control pills, sponges, rope, entire
shoes, money ($60+!!!) and more. The Setter had hyper lightning phobia.
She would climb in the tub at first hint of thunder and shake so hard the
tub would ring like a bell. Vet eventually put her on Valium which made her
less scared of the storms but had other bizarre effects.

Oh, yeah. At the first thunder clap our Golden would *dive* under the nearest
table, scattering everything on it, under it, and with ten feet of it. As it
got older the dog went deaf (constant ear infections) so thunder was no longer
a problem. OTOH, it didn't hear the bear in the back yard, either. I had a
hell of a time getting the stupid dog in the house.