newfies

magentaflame · Post by **magentaflame** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 3:23 pm

Yesterday i sent my application off to the Newfoundland rescue service.

I havent had much luck with our little puppy friends in the last decade. It was suggested to me to get a dog that i really really want rather than a dog to fill in time waiting for a dog i really really want.

So ive bitten the bullet and sent off the application to rehome a newfy.

Ive owned two before so alls good.

Ill keep you updated. It could be six months or two years before i see muddy paws on the carpet.

gmc · Post by **gmc** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 12:45 am

Must be early morning, I spent two minutes why an australian was getting a rescue dog in newfoundland before it dawned on me what you meant. How do they cope with the heat in australia?

minks · Post by **minks** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 10:59 am

Congrats Mag. they are lovely dogs, so loyal and friendly.

I too used to own one, he was such a sweetheart. He died of cancer the poor old brute, he did live to be 8 years old mind you and he was a rescue dog so we have him some good years.

GMC, a newfies coat is insulation, so he is protected both from heat and cold. And as long as a newfie has some water to swim in it will be the happiest doggie alive.

Newfie trivia,

Newfies are the only dog with webbed feet.

Newfies are water rescue dogs, they are so strong, and have such a strong tail that they are/were sent out into the water and people were told to take hold of their tails and the dog could swim you to shore.

tude dog · Post by **tude dog** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 11:21 am

minks;1507733 wrote: Congrats Mag. they are lovely dogs, so loyal and friendly.

I too used to own one, he was such a sweetheart. He died of cancer the poor old brute, he did live to be 8 years old mind you and he was a rescue dog so we have him some good years.

GMC, a newfies coat is insulation, so he is protected both from heat and cold. And as long as a newfie has some water to swim in it will be the happiest doggie alive.

Newfie trivia,

Newfies are the only dog with webbed feet.

Newfies are water rescue dogs, they are so strong, and have such a strong tail that they are/were sent out into the water and people were told to take hold of their tails and the dog could swim you to shore.

Actually,

5 Dog Breeds With Webbed Feet

Only mentioned it because I told my Lab and she was offended.

minks · Post by **minks** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 3:18 pm

Oops I stand corrected.

Your lab has webbed feets? And your lab was upset by you mentioning it?

Poor lab

tude dog · Post by **tude dog** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 10:54 am

minks;1507741 wrote: Oops I stand corrected.

Your lab has webbed feets? And your lab was upset by you mentioning it?

Poor lab

Oh no, she is very proud of her webbed paws. She wanted to set the record straight.

gmc · Post by **gmc** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 12:09 pm

poodles have webbed feet so do huskies and malamutes - helps spread their weight in the snow.

magentaflame · Post by **magentaflame** » Sat Mar 25, 2017 9:36 am

Good point GMC. Its considered cruel to have them in the northern states unless you have aircon. Im in Victoria though so in winter theres snow up the road and i live a hop skip and a jump from the beach . Our states climate is more a mediteranian type climate.

Oh thats so cool minks! I had ben and kayla . As you would know newfs arent trained to rescue its an instinct. We had a lot of trouble with ben trying to save people who were quite happy in their aquatic activities. Lots of apologies and explanations.

minks · Post by **minks** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 2:13 pm

Mag, when I had my newfie we used to take him down to the river and the silly guy would swim out to the very deepest parts of the river, so that the water was over his head I am certain, and he would swim and swim and swim and swim, I am not kidding you, there were times where he would be taking a 2 hour leisurely swim and no amount of enticing by myself or my kids could get him out of the water. He was always trying to get close to the ducks too, but smartly they kept just out of his reach.

He was such a gentle old soul that one.

magentaflame · Post by **magentaflame** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 4:06 pm

minks;1507810 wrote: Mag, when I had my newfie we used to take him down to the river and the silly guy would swim out to the very deepest parts of the river, so that the water was over his head I am certain, and he would swim and swim and swim and swim, I am not kidding you, there were times where he would be taking a 2 hour leisurely swim and no amount of enticing by myself or my kids could get him out of the water. He was always trying to get close to the ducks too, but smartly they kept just out of his reach.

He was such a gentle old soul that one.

Lol thats sounding all too familiar.

Avatar is old Ben.

minks · Post by **minks** » Wed Mar 29, 2017 10:08 am

I am curious, have you found out more on your application for a pooch?

magentaflame · Post by **magentaflame** » Thu Mar 30, 2017 2:54 pm

You know how everything is done by the internet now? Well i cant send email from my phone so had to send the application via snail mail . Yesterday i rang a breeder ( obviously would have to be a member of the newf club of Vic) and asked for a phone number because it seems the ones i had were outdated. He couldnt find a phone number either so sent an email off to the president to ring me. Id just like to know what the average waiting period is and if they even got my letter.

Like i said it could be months. They are few and far between these days because breeders have pretty strict contracts with buyers, and of course they dont breed as many these days. And i was tild that when they do the dogs and already spoken for by overseas buyers.

Ah well it will happen but im not holding my breath..

minks · Post by **minks** » Thu Mar 30, 2017 3:17 pm

my goodness that is quite the drawn out process.

Clodhopper · Post by **Clodhopper** » Fri Mar 31, 2017 7:22 am

I grew up with two Newfoundlands one after the other. Disko and Daniel (named after the Newfoundland fishermen in Kipling's Captains Courageous).

Lovely, lovely dogs. Incredibly strong too! Daniel used to occupy himself on walks by leaping into the river and clearing it of tree branches and I have a photo of myself aged about 4 sitting on Disko's back. That was a one off! Disko put up with it of course, but his expression in the photo is very long suffering...

minks · Post by **minks** » Fri Mar 31, 2017 9:55 am

my children have very fond memories of our old newfie.

He was a rescue dog. The local college picked him up from the animal shelter and used him as an instructional dog in the veterinarian classes. (no no he was not dissected or tested in any way). And when the semester was over he was up for adoption so we picked him. I am certain he knew we had given him a second chance at life because every day he looked so grateful. He came to us pre-named Jed, and we found it suited him.

One very snowy blustery morning we let him out for his morning rituals, and he would not come back into the house. This was never a worry as he loved to be outside. A few hours later we went to check on him and there he was lying in the snow, covered in snow, loving life, he had no desire to come into the house, no matter now much we coxed. A few hours after that he finally decided it was time to come, well wasn't it a whole lot of mess when he brought in half his weight of snow with him and shook it everywhere.

Clodhopper · Post by **Clodhopper** » Fri Mar 31, 2017 10:04 am

LOL the Newfoundland shake!

In summer on the beach they can be devastating.

minks · Post by **minks** » Fri Mar 31, 2017 2:06 pm

OH YES! Nearly drowned us all every time we took him down to the river.

They are amazing companions.

magentaflame · Post by **magentaflame** » Fri Mar 31, 2017 2:20 pm

:yh_rotfl. Its hilarious..... only those who have wittnessed the shake would believe the atom bomb effect of THAT shake.

I took our two down the beach one summers morning, so they werefull of sand and salt. Then after we got back they decided to go ver to the dam next door and have another swim in stinky algie water.

Kayla decided after that she was coming inside to sit under the aircon. After a rather intense conversation with her about scratching at the door i thought i should go outside and give her a bit of a towel rub down....... nope! As i was going out the door she qas coming in, and there wasnt a gd dam thing i could do about it. My yelling didnt faze her and before she made herself comfortable under the aircon she stood in the kitchen and shook......aaand shook!

I had stinky algie, sand, water, dirt, gob and hair all over the ktchen cupboards and walls.

I was cleaning it for two days. Six months later i was still finding hair in the door jams.

And i had to throw out what id been cooking.

magentaflame · Post by **magentaflame** » Fri Mar 31, 2017 2:28 pm

Im laughing so hard. Sometimes id hear the boys come out with "uh oh, run" and you kneq exactly what the dogs were about to do. They had the boys well trained.

Clodhopper · Post by **Clodhopper** » Fri Mar 31, 2017 5:00 pm

Oh gosh, I can see your kitchen...! AUGH!

More stories, Can't help it. Our first, Disko, got on very well with our nanny (yes, really

) Ruth, who came on holiday with us and actually met her husband with us in Devon. Dad was godfather to their eldest. There's old cine of her and Disko playing on the beach in soft sand. He'd rear up on his hind legs and plant his paws on her shoulders and then they'd have a pushing competition which he'd inevitably win and she'd end up on her back with him standing over her grinning and slobbering. He knew exactly what he was doing and I don't recall she was ever hurt.

The second was nephew to the first, Daniel. He was a huge dog and always a bit wild because we got him at 5 months, not a pup any more and he was never as gentle as Disko. He settled down when older and one time when we were waiting for Dad to pick us all up after coming off the beach he was standing with us when a snarling, growling Jack Russell attacked his back left ankle. His huge head swung round and he gazed at it for a moment. The head swung back. Then he sat down.

All you could see was the head of the Jack Russell poking out from under Daniel's arse as it yammered away on a very different note. You could see the halo of innocence round Daniel's head as he gazed out to sea, completely ignoring what was happening at his rear end.

We were all laughing too hard to do anything. So were all the bystanders. Eventually someone got him to shift a buttock and the little dog shot off into the distance. Never forgot it.

magentaflame · Post by **magentaflame** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 4:50 pm

Oh Clod! Hilarious!....... laughing so hard nearly choked on my tea..

Clodhopper · Post by **Clodhopper** » Wed Apr 05, 2017 12:54 pm

They are such lovely dogs.

Incidentally, Mum did train ours to shake on command. It didn't cover all eventualities but it did allow a large chunk of beach/sea/assorted debris to be shed before they got in the land rover or house or totally devastated the picnic (sometimes). Might be worth a try?

minks · Post by **minks** » Fri Apr 07, 2017 2:52 pm

keep the newfie stories coming

Ours was fiercely protective.

We went down to the river one day, my young daughters, my neighbors daughter and I. We had our Newfie Jed with us, our little mutt, shadow, and the neighbors dog champ.

We were all playing on the banks of the river, when Jed took off across the river barking like a fool.

As he approached the far bank, just like magic a coyote arose from the far bank and started to bark right back at jed.

Old Jed he just kept approaching the coyote, barking. Then he stopped in the water of the river and would not stop barking. We could not call him back he was standing his ground. Finally I told the girls to leash up the other 2 dogs and we had to head home, we could not risk more coyotes coming to bother us, I did not know what to do about Jed. Well as we backed away from the river, Jed moved towards us too, and it wasn't until the coyote ran off did our Jed come back to us. He was protecting us, standing between the coyote and us, and was not letting it get to us.

Clodhopper · Post by **Clodhopper** » Sun Apr 09, 2017 5:38 am

Yep, I can well believe it.

We don't have those sort of threats here which I'm guessing is why I don't remember either of ours behaving quite like that.

One of the reasons Daniel was a bit wild when younger, apart from being 5 months when we got him, was that at the time my Dad was a Housemaster in a Public School which meant we lived in the same big house as 50 boys, plus cooks cleaners etc (it also explains the nanny because in those days the Housemaster's wife was expected (unpaid) to run the domestic side of things and the School would pay for a nanny if the Housemaster's family had kids). The boys were 12-18 and played some fairly rough games with Daniel which Mum tried to discourage with little success. One result was that Daniel became a proficient Rugby Hooker, judging by his main game on the beach which was to find a large rock about the size of a rugby ball (about 1/4 bigger than an AFL ball) and hook it out between his back legs. He'd spend hours doing this (interspersed with cooling trips to the sea) and it gave his shakes a truly awesome sandstorm quality. With added slobber.

It also rearranged the beach quite significantly.

Disko I remember less of. He arrived the same time I did and like all the Newfies I've heard of he died quite young (cancer). I was no more than 9 or so. He is part of one of my earliest memories though. When I was no more than about 3 Mum and Dad put me on his back and took a photo, which I now have. The reason I'm sure it's a true memory and not just remembering seeing the photo around the house is that I can remember Dad taking the photo, with Mum standing on his left side, in the garden in Devon.

minks · Post by **minks** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 2:38 pm

awe the memories of these gentle giants.

Dogs are great and every breed brings us something unique don't they.

I miss having dogs, but do not miss the fur, the slobber, the yard work, the food bill etc. I like my freedom these days, and LOVE not having to pluck dog hair off my clothing every single day

But.... I miss dogs lol.

magentaflame · Post by **magentaflame** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 3:01 pm

I remember being at the back of the property one day and the dogs were lying under a tree that they both knew full well i was trying to cut down. Bloody hippies!!!! When all of the sudden both got up really quickly and bolted though the fencebarking their heads off. When i looked up i saw them making a beline for a group of male prisoners doing community work at the football field next door. Of course that made me having to exert myself and run after them yelling "its okay! They wont hurt you!" They just want to play.......never thought those words would ever come out of my mouth toward a group of criminals. Some of them stiffened up watching something reminicent of bears pounding down on them....but one guy stepped forward and was ready to embrace them both, almost bowled him over. I think they made his day.

I knew the prison guard looking after the men and i was soooo apologetic, but he looked just as startled as the prisoners lol. The dogs refused to come back to the house until they sniffed all of them. Kayla was eeady to sit and watch them work.

A few weeks later i saw the prison guard and was still apologising to him . He told me not to worry about it ,apparently they spoke about it for days after and none of them felt embarrassed about being scared cause they all got a bit of a shock. Helped relieve the boredom.

When they came back to do more works at the field i took the dogs over and a couple of comments and laughter about how large they were.(different group that had heard the story)

Clodhopper · Post by **Clodhopper** » Tue Apr 11, 2017 2:42 am

Funny isn't it? HUGE dogs but the general reaction we always had was not fear, it was all the kids wanting to hug them.

I get your point though, Minks. Any dog is a big commitment.