Dog Blog

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Note: This is a guest post from Apryl DeLancey who writes the blog “Women Like Sports.”

Having a 120-pound bloodhound means several things. You have to spend a lot of time and effort on cleaning ears, wiping slobber and being very patient with their independent and moody, yet kind and gentle nature. It also means you should ideally be a friendly person … or at least be able to tolerate a lot of strangers striking up a conversation with you … frequently.

It doesn’t matter where we go. Gus draws a lot of attention. Here in Southern California, there are not many bloodhounds. His sort of hound is usually more prevalent in the south/southeast part of the U.S.  In addition, the famous LAPD bloodhound is the tan variety that most people recognize when they think of this type of dog. Gus has the coloring of the European variety, which makes him appear as if someone crossed a basset hound and rottie. In fact, a friend of mine commented that “someone put rottweiler in the basset hound” when he first saw Gus.

Walking on the Venice Boardwalk, Hollywood Boulevard and even dog-friendly stores are always an adventure. The first question we get is “What is that!?” Then people see his very sweet nature and just have to pet him. Gus is the sweetest dog I’ve ever met. A homeless man in a wheelchair rolled up to him one day and Gus simply put his head in his lap and started wagging his massive tail. I love having a dog that doesn’t judge anyone. He loves all people, children and other animals.

Fortunately, I am naturally outgoing and the type of person that could strike up a conversation with anyone. I know not everyone is like that. I’ve met several folks with their dogs that were not exactly friendly. I still get that with Gus sometimes. I’ll see a person with a gorgeous dog that you can see the wagging tail and happiness in its eyes, and the person with the dog looks at me as if I were dog poop. I really get bummed when people look at Gus this way. He just wants everyone to say hello and pet him.

So, what is “the moral of the story”? I’m just saying … if you have a unique dog that you take everywhere with you, then you should expect to make new friends and field a lot of questions. If you like to blend in and not socialize with the people around you, don’t get a unique dog. In fact, you probably shouldn’t get a dog at all. Animal lovers really enjoy talking to people with dogs. This is especially true if they have a friendly dog of their own. Those of you in less populous cities won’t have as much of this as I do. I just so happen to live in a place with at least 12 million others, most of which are serious animal lovers. I have to be nice. It’s OK though, I wouldn’t change it for anything.

Oh, and don’t get me wrong – I am not saying that if you have a dog, unique or not, that you have an obligation to be nice to everyone that wants to talk about your dog. To each their own. However, if you do see Gus and I somewhere, don’t be afraid to say hello. Gus loves attention and I’m actually pretty nice.

Apryl DeLancey is a Los Angeles native and sports fanatic who maintains a blog called “Women Like Sports.” Just about every sport you can think of is covered, so stop by for a visit sometime! Oh – and please, to paraphrase Bob Barker, don’t forget to spay and neuter your companion animals! Check out some of Apryl’s other That Mutt appearances, Freako on a leash, How do I know when my pet is sick? and Cat bites are serious.

Related posts:

1. A new addition
2. Dogs with fixations (part 3)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 at 5:30 am and is filed under Behavior, Dog, Exercise, bloodhound, dog blog, drool, guest post, socialization, walk your dog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.