2022, animals, Gatherings, State Fair

Aaaaahhhhh

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You all know that Irish Setters are the first dogs in my heart.  But the last Wednesday of every August, Golden Retriever Day at the Fair is one of my favorite days of the year.  There is just something about a whole bunch of Golden Retrievers together, all fluffy and happy, wanting nothing more than to be petted and loved on by an adoring public.

This year I counted 29, although there might have been a couple more.  There was an agility demonstration, an obedience demonstration, field retrievals and flyball.  And more than just about any other breed, these Goldens are amazingly happy to strut their stuff.  Most dog groups do their demonstrations and then bring the dogs over to the fence for the audience to meet and greet.  On Golden Retriever Day, they START at the fence, then do demos, then come BACK to the fence.  Because there is no such thing as too much attention for a Golden.

We probably spent close to an hour up at the Pet Pavilion and I have to admit that as we walked away, I felt a wonderful sense of release and peace wash over me; therapy dogs without any vests.   I think I could have stayed all day.

Anybody know the names of the very first two Golden Retrievers (from 1889)?  What name do you think is good for a dog?

49 thoughts on “Aaaaahhhhh”

  2. When I was a kid, there was a heepdog called Skipper in some story. I thought that was the greatest name for a dog there could possibly be, and when I had a faithful working Collie, that’s what I’d call him.
    When I finally had dogs of my own, I named them after BSA, Ariel and Royal Enfield motorcycles. Fash, Rocket, things like that.

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  4. We had two Welsh Terriers named Casey and Maggie, and a Fox Terrier named Belle. I grew up withe three Pugs named Bingo, Loki, and Puggi. Now we have a Cesky Terrier named Kyrill. I think Havel would be a good name for one as well.

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  6. It has been interesting seeing the formal, AKC names given by the various pure bred Cesky breeders, like “Bluestar Run for Your Money’s Mortgage Lifter” (I just made that up), and then they call the dog Frieda or Pepper for short.

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    1. One of my dogs was Blue, after the BSA Blue Star.
      His mother was Goldie, is in the “immortal” (sic) BSA Gold Star. I didn’t know there was a Labrador of the same name on TV at the time. When I found out, I didn’t want to be copying a TV show, so when someone said “She’s a tubby little thing, isn’t she,” I called her Tubby after that. Goldie’s a silly name.

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  9. When I was younger we had some pretty unimaginative dog names. Mister. Fluffy. Princess. When I finally wore my parents down and we got our first Irish setter, we were going to call her AKC name was Irish Calleen which meant pretty Irish girl. We thought Cally would be a good shortcut for that. My middle sister’s name is Sally and as you can imagine it took just a couple of days before we realized we had a problem. So in my family’s unimaginative fashion we just called her Irish. The dog, not my sister.

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  10. I do like Pippin’s name for him. I think it suits him well. You can tell how much people read by their response to that name. Our family dog when I was a kid was a Norwegian elkhound, Gus, then we had a Springer spaniel, Pokey. Pokey was given her name by my mom. I named my Cavalier King Charles spaniel Bailey and I was told that was a good name, an Irish surname for an Irish dog. It’s overused now though. Lots of little girls are named Bailey. I’ve never understood naming trends.

    When my brothers and I were kids, we used to explore all around our neighborhood at the lake. Back in those days all of the other cabins were exactly that: cabins. The neighbors were “summer people” and we had the only year-round home on our lane. So most of the fall weekends, we explored everybody else’s property: the gardens, the overturned boats. Kids would never be allowed to do that now, besides there are really very few seasonal cabins left on local lakes now. We didn’t harm anything but it was kind of invasive and nosy of us. Anyway, there was a really old guy in one cabin and he did live there year round. His name was Fred. He had four golden retrievers and kept them in a fenced run. We used to visit them. They were a mother and her three young female offspring. Rosie, Rip, Rebel, and Rocket. I think they were very well named, maybe the best names I’ve ever heard and I’ll never forget them. I loved going to visit them and they loved the attention from three polite, if snoopy, little kids. If I had four golden retrievers, I would try to get them all on my lap. I just love them. I might consider Elinore, or Ellie, for a golden.

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  14. The breeder of our Cesky Terrier told us that Ceskys sometimes notice themselves in mirrors and like to show off and parade in front of the mirrors for fun.

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  15. Jane’s dogs are the sisters, Tilly and Tia, known to some as Tillytia (I swear I’ve heard Laura, our very sweet vet, call them La Tillytia. And Tiffany. We also have cats named Tigger and Timmy. Only Tigger was named by us, the others all came from different places. That doesn’t seem so amazing after all, now I’ve seen it written down.

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  17. My little brother, as a kid, was an English Springer Spaniel. His official AKC name was Rockford of Greenhaven. His less official name was Rocky. His nicknames included Dog Face, Dog Breath, Woofer, The Woof, Woofardo Montalban, and That Damn Dog. That last one was what my mom usually called him at the time.

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  20. I don’t recall many cats having names. There was one cat in the barn that I really liked. Her name was ‘Bacall’. I accidentally poisoned her…

    Dogs I remember: Pal, Steely, Fritz, Chuck, Schroeder, Maggie, Zoey… I know I’m missing several. And now we have Allie, Humphrey, and Bailey. I really do like Humphrey as a dog name.
    I know Wilma, Ollie, Joey, Louie.

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    1. That’s because yours were barn cats, I bet – I think a lot of barn cats don’t get named…

      Our cats were Katten, Claude, and Fletcher. On my own in California I had Squeaky and Midnight. Then Wasband kept bring home strays when we were living in Brooklyn: Olga, Ollie, and Bambi.

      I’ve always thought if I had another kitty: Wampus.

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