All About Pocket Knives

Jerry..those are some great pics. ....that little pony sure looks like a hand full.
If We lived out of town..we would definitely have a bunch of critters. That was actually our goal but never panned out.

fat cat guarding the band saw...

She or he looks formidable, a serious guard.

That’s a good size cat.

This is Gypsy now that she is grown up. Just under 60 pounds, and runs like the wind.
She is 19 months old. A rescue from Mississippi.
A mixture of German Shepard, Great Pyrenees, Boston Terrier, Rottweiler, Australian Shepherd, Airedale Terrier, English Foxhound.
In other words a mutt. She is a great dog, so glad we rescued her.
She has big brown eyes, not glowing white eyes!!!!

WOW Bill, great save, she is beautiful.

This is Gypsy now that she is grown up

She is a beauty. I wonder how you doped out her heritage. Dog DNA analysis is still evolving. Its not unusual for two different labs to come up with significantly different results.

As I look at Gypsy I am seeing a strong greyhound or whippet influence. Unfortunately, visual impressions can be surprisingly inaccurate. Not mine of course. But surely there must be a speed hound in her background somewhere. [Don't give any special consideration to my opinion;its just a guess.]

One thing is certain. Gypsy is a gorgeous girl.

Quick Steel wrote:

This is Gypsy now that she is grown up

She is a beauty. I wonder how you doped out her heritage. Dog DNA analysis is still evolving. Its not unusual for two different labs to come up with significantly different results.

As I look at Gypsy I am seeing a strong greyhound or whippet influence. Unfortunately, visual impressions can be surprisingly inaccurate. Not mine of course. But surely there must be a speed hound in her background somewhere. [Don't give any special consideration to my opinion;its just a guess.]

One thing is certain. Gypsy is a gorgeous girl.

Funny you see Whippet, that is what we thought too, so we had the DNA test done. I left out English Foxhound in my 1st post.
I don't know if they are a speed hound or not, good call on the hound though.
She has a short coat, black on top with brown sides, but long tan fur by her shoulders/arm pits and by her butt, colors like a Shepperds' coloring.
When she was a little puppy, she had this crazy long tail, it took her a long time to grow into it.
At the dog park there are 2 Whippets and she keeps up with them quite well.
But she can run and run and run for a long time, where as the Whippets seem to tucker out, she keeps going strong.
She gets along with dogs real well and seems to just love everyone she meets.
I bought the DNA kit at Petco. I think it was 45-50$ We just had to know.
The price on their website is more than I paid @ Petco for sure
http://www.wisdompanel.com/insights/

The fox hound provides endurance. Her deep chest could derive from the Shepherd or Pyrenees. But of course I would really like to know what her sire and dam were. Speed could come from Airedale but .....I'll tell you that in the first instant I saw the photo what immediately came to mind was a Rhodesian Ridge Back particularly the head. But I have to think those high hips come from a runner.

Of course its impossible to figure this all out. I'm just having some fun playing with the puzzle that is Gypsy. Thanks for sharing.

This is what the report looks like if any one wants to get their dog tested.
I see the Australian Shepherd is the little bit of devil in her when she wont listen.
Maybe, maybe not. I don't know how true the test really is, all I know is she is seven kinds of cute.
You know how dogs bring joy to peoples lives. Mans best friend.

She is a beauty Bill.
My wife & I have friends who have a couple Whippets, what sickly dogs!
One of both of them are sick all the time, but I guess their vet is happy!

Gypsy, does appear to have some of that speed hound build, but she is a lot beefier than those 2 Whippets I mentioned.
She looks like a well balanced, all around good mix. Sometimes those make the best & healthiest dogs!

I promise these will be my final comments on the wonderful Gypsy. I can talk dogs all day long. I notice her immediate ancestry are two long haired, thick furred breeds while she is obviously short haired. Maybe that comes from what appears to be significant input from the Boston Terrier.

Concerning the fox hound, our American fox hounds have much longer legs than the Brit's. And of course our variety of southern hounds are all bigger, rangier dogs.

Perhaps I am needlessly dubious about the DNA tests. My attitude comes from about a year to 18 months ago when I read of a dog magazine which tested the labs by sending off kits of the same dog and got back considerable differences.

But today perhaps the labs have overcome their challenges. A problem for them is that genetically the canine is much more "plastic" than, for example, human DNA. If you can afford it and want to have some fun you might test with a different company and see what they come up with.

Finally, I can give you the definitive, absolutely accurate answer to the question, "What is Gypsy's ancestry?" The answer is simply, "She is descended from the grey wolf." [True of all canines even that Boston Terrier.]

Let me introduce you to Flossie. She is my wife's constant outdoor companion. She is half Chocolate Lab and half Australian Shepherd (her mother has the white eyes). She has changed from a playful ball of fur into 60 pounds of energy. Only in the last few months has she been able to sit still and be petted, never had a dog with such an energy level!
She has the herding instinct, cats beware, she chases them, runs them down but wont catch like our old bulldog of days gone by. She also loves to be in the water, a Lab trait. Loves to retrieve any object that has been thrown. Last deer season I taught her or maybe I should say helped her develope her blood trailing skills. I killed several deer on our place and could see where the deer fell after being shot. Went back to the house, got Flossie and put her on the spot where the deer stood when shot, off she went with her nose on the ground a located the deer, did it 3 times. Then late one afternoon, right before dark, on another place I shot a deer and he whirled and ran into some thick planted pines. Drove home, got the dog, took her to the woods and released her and in about 15 seconds she found the deer where he fell. Saved a lot of work in the dark.
Her biggest fault is picking up tools and carring them around. A couple of days ago she got a full box of 5000 1/4" X 1 1/4" crown staples and scattered them around the shop. We still love her!
Treefarmer

She's adorable!! ...love the colors.

Some chickens.

Nice chickens & pic.

Thanks Johnnie,they're a rare old Dutch breed.Small but good layers.The only downside is they want to sleep outside(trees),which isn't an option since we have so many martens around.Each evening I have to round them up.But still I like them a lot.Gus.

She is sure a pretty dog Phil!

treefarmer, that is one crazy combo. and i love seeing her..and here is our daisy. a full aussie.
what else is there to do??? except to enjoy her rainy afternoon in december nap.
p.s. we have a creek that runs thru the backside of our property, and she won't even stick a paw in it.

chetr1200c, your pup Daisy has the same colors as ours. We say she looks like a pile of leaves. Flossie's mother who is an Aussie doesn't care for the water but the sire being a Lab made the difference. We have several hilarious videos of her playing in the water, but I haven't got a clue as to how to post them. Here is a still shot of her enjoying one of the ponds. Thought you might like to see it. Treefarmer

your so lucky to have a pet like that who enjoys water. we have 3 aussies and the older male hates water too. but at least he will cross the stream where the water is shallow, she wont. i had a chow who was the same way. afraid of water, he was a brute of a dog, but he would walk clear around a 1 inch deep puddle of rain water.
my last 2 pets were labs, and they enjoyed water sports, except one had ear problems and he kinda avoided the water.. but i could tell he wanted to jump in with the othe other guy,

Nice Dogs Gents!

Jerry

Here's Sophie. Our 4 1/2 mo. old registered chocolate lab. She's growing like a weed!

Awesome puppy Brian! My best friends have a yellow lab and he is awesome, loves the water.