Althouse: Joey & Zeus go swimming... on the last day of November.

November 30, 2012

Joey & Zeus go swimming... on the last day of November.

2 dogs, but only one human. All the videography — handheld — and throwing of things are done by Meade.

27 comments:

chuck said...: Zeus and Leda are the pair to watch.; 11/30/12, 8:44 PM
edutcher said...: Makes me cold just looking.

You can almost see a U-boat periscope getting a fix on a convoy.; 11/30/12, 8:58 PM
rcocean said...: Does it ever get too cold for them?; 11/30/12, 8:59 PM
Meade said...: Sure. When the water becomes solid.; 11/30/12, 9:07 PM
n said...: Meade:
Let me interpret Zeus's failure to drop the ball. He wants to go home. To kong and vapors and warmth.; 11/30/12, 9:27 PM
Michael K said...: :abs were bred to retrieve ducks in Labrador. Nothing is too cold for them although Chesapeake Bays will go in even colder water.

Basset hounds hate water. Winston had to go to the vets today in the rain and hated it. When he gets home he growls and rolls on the carpet until he is dry.; 11/30/12, 9:33 PM
Wince said...: Was there shrinkage?; 11/30/12, 9:59 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: When Zeus plays keepaway then you can use dog-jealousy to bring him back around to one-command responses by sending Joey off on retrieves without him. Your attention given to Joey who plays right. If he's tired then he can watch.

Have you noticed dog handlers generally have well behaved children? They all know Mommy and Daddy say things only once. It's a thing.; 11/30/12, 10:09 PM
bagoh20 said...: Are you feeling it Meadehouse; the joy, the pure enjoyment of life without tomorrow or yesterday? Just one of the many lessons that dogs try to get through to us. You know the old warning of being on your death bed and regretting this or that? Dogs never do that.

I know we designed them, but it seems hard to accept that we could do something so organic and so incredibly cool on our own. Dogs may be our greatest creation and a damned good go at showing up our own creator.

I was watching that documentary recently about mankind's development. It's about the part before the rise of reality TV shows, when we were still advancing. They explained how the marriage of dog and man came to be, and how it may be one of the key points in our development that allowed us to become more than just another species in the struggle, and how well we melded into an unstoppable team in the fight for survival. We do ourselves great honor when we respect care for them. If we have a creator, he must surely be proud of us when we do. Thank you for showing them a good time. I'm sure they return the favor.; 11/30/12, 10:12 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: I know we designed them

The challenge was to update animals with technology. 141 people responded. But not me.

Happy Toast suggests this and adds they'll make one for the ladies too, and that's why Happy Toast is gross.; 11/30/12, 10:19 PM
Unknown said...: Chip Ahoy
Those are just wrong.
Also, Zeus behaves like my HS senior daughter but I don't have another daughter home to train her with, any suggestions?; 11/30/12, 11:18 PM
garage mahal said...: I drove down to the Terrace fartin around shining for walleyes. Took 10 casts and caught a fat Monona musky. Maybe 38" or so.

Urban fishing is great. It makes you feel like you're getting away with something for free. The Madison chain is such an underrated fishery. I still can't fathom why more people don't take advantage of it.; 12/1/12, 12:06 AM
garage mahal said...: Here is blurry, slimy cell photo of tonight's drama!; 12/1/12, 12:12 AM
chickelit said...: Trophy-size mount, garage!. Your head on a wall!

Congrats!; 12/1/12, 12:20 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: bon appetit garage; 12/1/12, 12:44 AM
MayBee said...: My dog is finally feeling better after a day of throwing up yesterday. I think he ate something a fox threw up.; 12/1/12, 3:28 AM
bizandlegis said...: Good video, I like your pets, i just got some minutes relax as you enjoyed these time with your cuties Zeus and Leda.; 12/1/12, 4:22 AM
rhhardin said...: "This is fun but can I trust him with my ball"; 12/1/12, 4:30 AM
Photos said...: Hi Mam plz check this blog post where your photo is posted

http://seethephoto.blogspot.com/2012/12/althouse-ann.html; 12/1/12, 4:55 AM
tim maguire said...: I originally read this as "two dogs, but they're only human," and thougt it would be about them wimping out from the cold.; 12/1/12, 5:44 AM
joe said...: Meade, get those Labs a proper bumper to retrieve. (you can also fling a bumper much further than you can throw a tennis ball)
Bumpers for the uninitiated:

https://www.google.com/search?q=retrieving+bumpers&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=ie-5UKnvK6vG0AGU_oCoDA&biw=1227&bih=550&sei=je-5ULe_LdSs0AGo1IH4DQ; 12/1/12, 6:02 AM
rhhardin said...: A Doberman likes being chased, playing possession, with any toy.

Full retrieving is enjoyed as a task, not as play.

So you don't make a dog force-retrieve a toy, keeping task and play separate.

Natural retrievers are actually harder to teach the force-retrieve to, since it's harder to find situations where they'd rather do something else.

You need those to show that you're serious about the task.; 12/1/12, 7:04 AM
pm317 said...: Will they know to say 'Meade, stop, I am tired'?

Is Joey the older dog?; 12/1/12, 8:47 AM
pm317 said...: Makes me cold just looking.

See that has been my problem looking at these videos all along. I think Ann is torturing us by making us look at Meade torturing the dogs.; 12/1/12, 8:49 AM
Meade said...: "Full retrieving is enjoyed as a task, not as play.
So you don't make a dog force-retrieve a toy, keeping task and play separate."

Exactly. Notice it wasn't just one ball Zeus had in his mouth. He had both! Get it? Haw!

Sometimes, when playing ball with Joey and Bingo over in their fenced back yard, he'll get as many as four balls in his mouth at one time, trotting around gleefully. As the younger, smaller underdog, he uses humor as a defense mechanism.

One great scene I failed to capture on camera yesterday was when Joey didn't see where the second ball splashed but Zeus did and so he retrieved them both. When Joey noticed Zeus had both balls, he swam out and tried to take one out of Z's mouth. But just as J lunged, Zeus dove underwater and reemerged on the shoreside of Joey. Haw haw haw!

He's a very highly evolved god dog.; 12/1/12, 9:18 AM
Peter Hoh said...: Now we can swim any day in November.; 12/1/12, 10:52 AM
lge said...: Man, Labradors love water, don't they? They take to it like a duck takes to water.

In fact, they take to ducks like a duck takes to water, when the duck's in the water and they go get the ducks that are in the water.; 12/1/12, 1:07 PM