Bonnie Looking Very Serious!

Bonnie looking BEAUTIFUL :o)

Hi ya, how are you and yours today? She looks very majestic here, our dogs have so many different expressions, dont they?

Hello. Bonnie's coat looks shiny and lovely.
All well here thanks. Bonsai in his knitted coat ! :o)

bonnie is a beautiful dog

They are all beautiful arent they, Meg, Bonsai, Conker etc. etc.

Hey, Terratoonie, what's this about you liking wellies, lol. Please see Tasteyg's comment on my photo: Me On The Felled Ash Tree, lol

Great shot, I truly have a soft spot for labs!

Hello Wohlibuli, get one! Our Lab is lovely, no aggression at all and very loving. She was a naughty puppy though but she's 4 now and settling down. We love her.

I have a 12 year old female now named Bella. She and I both suffer from arthritis, so are kinda slow getting around, but she is truly a sweetie. Had my first lab at 15 when my father bought one and paid me to train it everyday. Rip was his name and he and I were best buds. When we bought our first house after marrying we got 2 labs named Smith and Jones and they both lived to be very old dogs. I worked with them every day and I will brag and say they were some of the best behaved dogs around. Labs are so easy to train and so calm and gentle, but can be very protective if necessary. So I guess I have every reason to have such a soft spot for them.

Hi Wohlibuli, just looked at your photos and saw Beautiful Bella - she looks really well for her age. You have lots of experience with Labs then, this is the first one I've had and I obviously need to spend more time training her as Bonnie is very boisterous, not very calm and not very gentle, ha ha. We think she should be a boy! She does respect my husband but not really my daughter and I but she is lovely but has a mind of her own. She does worry me though because she likes to escape. We have around 3 acres of land but that's not enough for Bonnie, if I turn my back she goes through the hedge and goes off across the fields and once she gets the scent of something she's away, which is of course very worrying, naughty Bonnie!

Well Dawn, it does sound like your Bonnie is one of those dogs that has a true rogue streak. Jones was like that and he did take more work then others, lots of activity was the key with him. We used to go into the National Forest near our home and spend all day long hiking with the dogs just to tire him out.
That was when we were both much younger and could go for that long. Even after years of daily training, if he wanted to go chase a rabbit or another dog, he just ignored me when I told him to stay.
Smith was the opposite, he got so trusting that I could tell him to sit and stay and then get in my car and drive around the block and he would still be there.
Some dogs just are more independent than others! In my experience labs are some of the most loving and intelligent dogs around, unfortuntely the breed, in the US has become rampant with hip dysplaysia and it is difficult to find a dog here without the problem.
Your Bonnie is quite a looker, good luck and good health for her!

Hi Wohlibuli, well one of the reasons we had a lab was so we would have a calm dog, she is getting better though. She was from a working dog background so I wondered if her naughtiness is in her genes. Of course, I hope she stays healthy, we havent had her hip scored but hope she's one of the lucky ones regarding this problem. Sounds like Bon is like your Jones! She's just ripping all the fluff off a tennis ball at the moment. I must admit, when she's had a day outside she does take to her bed for the evening, flat out. Is Bella OK today?

She is doing okay today thanks for asking.
She takes daily pain meds,(just like me) for the hip and knee pain and so most days can function okay. The very cold keeps her indoors but today it's about 65F outside so she's happy!
I notice your Bonnie is just like every other Lab I've known in that she loves the water. The vet said swimming was very good for Bella, so I try to take her to the lake as often as possible,but now that it's fall those trips will have to wait till spring!

Pleased Bella is OK today, thank goodness for pain killers - for you both that is. I guess the cold weather affects the arthritis? Do you have very cold Winters in your area? The weather has been very cold here over the last couple of days -2 last night so all the plants have taken a battering. Lets hope Bella will get a swim before the cold weather draws in :)

Winters here are very mild, we just had our first freeze on Tuesday. We will have about 8-12 weeks of cold weather with highs in the 60-70'sF and lows in the 30-40'sF. We don't get snow often maybe once every 2-3 years. I'm in zone 7 so I can grow stuff all year round with proper care and protection. I'm looking forward to salad greens this winter, cause I just got a polyhouse for the first time. I should be good all thru the winter.

You are so lucky to get mild winters. We can get -0 temperatures as late as the end of May, just when all the plants are thriving. We dont get snow that often but probably every 2 to 3 years we will get quite a bit but it does not normally last too long. Good luck with the polyhouse. Ive just been reading comments posted by Sandra, today, as she has just purchased one, may be worth a look, named: can i grow tomateos in a polytunnel? Advice is given about ventilation etc. Bye for now, Dawn

Very beautiful shot of Bonnie...

Thanx Catfinch

Beautiful Black & Bright Eyed Bonnie :)

Hi Jacque, just uploaded pics of her as a puppy, lol. We were trying to find a pic of the humming bird moth but failed, but we did find Baby Bonnie. She has changed a bit in the last 4 years. Thanks for your kind comments. Dawn

Aww, love your story Marguerite. Bonnie is quite naughty to be fair, she's not nasty at all and does not have the killing streak but she does like to wander. We have fields behind us and half a chance if we are not watching she escapes and is gone for hours, which of course worries me to death. She is a lovely natured dog and always happy but she is quite greedy and is inclined to chew things up. She is nearly 5 now and I thought she was changing but alas, I left my slippers in the kitchen when I went out the other day and she chewed one up, I wasnt happy. The night we brought her home after she had been spayed she cried and like you, I got up and sat stroking her all night. I hope she has a long life like your Tilly :-)

some really funny dog stories there, i guess we all have some to tell.
heres one about meg.
when we first got her from the pound we toiled trained her using newspapers, she did really well, too well in fact.
one day we all went out leaving meg in the kitchen , when we came home meg was up on the kitchen table , lol aye i had left a newspaper there when i had gone out.
couldnt blame Meg now could i as she had been taught to do her business on newspapers lol

Great stories! Dogs can be so funny! When we got Bella we decided to try a new method of toilet training, where you say a key word or phrase every time they are going and they begin to associate the words with it. We decided to use the phrase "Hurry up".
She got to where she would usually go whenever we said the words, this is real handy for traveling, and it never really occured to me what I was actually saying until one time we were stopped at a rest stop and I was walking her, she was not cooperating so well and I had to tell her 3 times to "Hurry up" when an old man with a little dog says to me "Gee, give her a break she's peeing as fast as she can" . I was so shocked I didn't laugh until later.

Thanks Marg, Irish and Wohlibuli for sharing your dog stories with me. Oh dear, they are funny arent they - they bring us so much happiness, not forgetting the heartache too. x

Wow...that's a terrific pic, Dawnsaunt! lovely Bonnie!

Thanks Lori. She's as nice on the inside too :-)