Labrador Retrievers are certainly my number one favourite dog :-) They are generally loved for its sweet temperament, friendliness and obedience. In addition, it has an intelligent yet silly look… My other half labelled me as one who loves 'ugly' dogs and there is a certain truth in it; I have a soft spot for goofy looking dogs such as boxers, french bulldogs, english bulldogs, saint bernards, bull terriers, sharpei. All these have one common feature - droopy skins! Labrador retrievers are a tad similar, most have droopy snouts.
Needless to say, I have Labradors for companions once I could afford the time to care for one. Being a huge fan of dark chocolates, I naturally chose chocolate labradors, even though I love the creams and blackies too. Perhaps it is also because chocolate labradors tend to look more goofy which fits right in my criteria. I had my first Labrador, Mocha in year 2000 and he was a wonderful companion, especially during the one year when I moved to reside in Osaka. I was in a foreign land with not many friends as language was a barrier then, hence Mocha was my comfort. He accompanied me on walks and listened to my chatter. He made me laugh with his silly antics. He had bursts of sprints in our little apartment; in fact, there was once he sprinted around the house and could barely brake in time for an upcoming wall, he banged right into it, leaving a huge dent on the wall!
Sadly, Mocha did not live beyond his senior years. He was diagnosed with skin cancer at 6 years old and despite treatments and medications, he left us at age 7ish. I knew I would have another chocolate labrador and in year 2011, we brought home a chocolate labrador puppy as our family pet. As it's a female, we named it Coco. This is an even more silly dog…
Similar to Mocha, Coco exhibits the typical trait of a Labrador - always enthusiastic for treats, thus they are both easily trained since treats serve as their delightful rewards. They will wait patiently for our 'OK' command before plunging forward to retrieve their treats. Once I placed a treat in front of Mocha and went about doing my things. It was probably 15 minutes later that I realized that I had forgotten to give him my 'ok' command and when I turned to look at him, he was still at the spot waiting but drooling! With Coco, she will start drooling within 5 seconds and ponding in no time :-! Hence we tend to give our commands rather quickly else we will have to clean up her puddle of saliva!!
Coco is exceptionally affectionate and has brought bountiful joy to our family. Every dog has its lovable traits, I can go on pages about Coco... I had needle felted my Coco but here I present the Cream Lab which I equally adore!
No comments:
Post a Comment