"Did you say LUNCH?"
We’ve been discussing Rocky’s vocabulary. Last night, Peter announced that he had to make his lunch for tomorrow. At the word “lunch” Rocky sat right up and his ears perked. For some reason, the first few days he was here, I over-emphasized his midday meal and started saying “lunchie, lunchie, lunchie”. Of course, soon he was on two meals a day and there was no lunch but now we call all of his meals “lunch”. And he knows exactly what that word means.
He should ALSO know sit, stay, down, off and come but either he has not made the connexion or they just don’t mean as much to him.
The other thing we have commented on lately is that, while we had Uma, our Yellow Labrador Retriever, we spent 14 years telling people “there is NO such thing as a Golden Lab! There are Goldens and there are Labs but there is NO such thing as a Golden Lab”. Both are retrievers but Golden is in the name of the one breed and Yellow is just the colour of the other. Anyway, because Rocky is a cross between a Labrador and a Golden Retriever, guess what? We now HAVE a “Golden Lab”! And it irks us mightily.
posted by JuliaR @ 9:28 a.m.
12 Comments:
My brother Baloo does a dance around the kitchen whenever someone says "Breakfast" or "Dinner"!
He will also run around searching if he is asked "Where's Maggie?". Maggie is his yellow lab girlfriend.
Calvin
You know Calvin, now that you mention it, Rocky also knows “breakfast” and “dinner”, although not as well as “lunch”! What’s up with that? And he still doesn’t come when called... unless there’s a kibble in it for him. Hmmm, I’m making the connexion now...
Uma used to go running around the house when we asked her, “Where’s your toy?” and she got to know the word “where’s” and would look for Peter too. So sweet. Rocky is just a baby still so we hold out high hopes for him that his understanding will encompass more than just food. :)
Rocky is such a smart dog .thank you for the smile!
You're welcome Sam! However, I just now tried to get him to come back in from the back yard and he just stood there and stared at me. Most annoying. We're going to have to WORK on that one!
Willow understands a much larger vocabulary, thanks to her Leader Dog training, than Stella does, but I am often amazed at just how quickly they both pick up new words. Willow and Stella know the words "hungry", "eat", "thirsty" and "drink" to which they do happy dances through the house to their food bowls. They also know many of their toys by specific names (like Kong, bone, puppy, molecule, baby, etc) and they will gladly find them on command. So, I'm sure Rocky will pick up on more words as he gets older too.
As for your "Golden Lab", I've always been told that there is no such thing as a "Golden Lab" too. The people I know who had one always referred to theirs as a "Lab-Golden cross", to emphasize that she was not a "Golden Lab" since so many people are confused by the yellow/golden thing. They too previously had a yellow Lab and were irked when people called it golden, so they adopted the label "Lab-Golden cross" very quickly for their new dog.
Laura, I love the “happy dance”! Thanks for the encouragement, I am sure Rocky will pick up on things. Plus I have a feeling he does know what I want but he knows it selectively, ie. when it involves food! And he really is still a baby.
My mommy understands. It irks her when people ask if I'm an Alaskan Husky. The Alaskan Husky is not a breed. It's a term used by mushers to describe sled dogs, which are usually a mix of Siberian Husky, Alaskan Malamute, and other Northern breeds. But the term Alaskan Husky really means "mutt sled dog".
I suppose it's not a BIG deal when people get the breed names wrong... but it bugs me! Maybe it shows they're not paying attention or something. But what I do that's really bad is I almost always remember a strange dog's name but NEVER their owner! Ack.
That is such a cute pic of Rocky! As far as the breed name... when I tell people that Storm is an "American Staffordshire Terrier", I get some really strange looks, so in turn I then say, "also known as a pit". Then I get the "ah", with the head bobble along with some kind of comment.
The guide dog school that I got Rufus from nicknames the Labrador-Golden crossbreed a "Goldador". I'm with you on the Golden Lab thing. I can't stand it when people tell me that my dog is a golden Lab, not a yellow Lab. "Experts" - you have to love them! Great blog, by the way. I can't wait to read up on all of Rocky's exploits!
Kim, hmmm. I'm NOT convinced by "Goldador". Sounds kind of goofy to me. I think I'll stick with the "Lab Golden cross" for now - it's only one more syllable. :) Enjoy the blog!
Amstaffie, I have to confess that Peter took that one of Rocky in the sun. Whatever I know about photography, I learned from Peter - he is the true master of that craft.
It's too bad about the whole pitbull thing. I don't want to draw human comparisons but you can see where THAT would go. We can only hope people will come to their senses one day.
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