New addition to the Boyer family

[MattBoyer]

Haha! I bet you thought we had a kid! :-D Not yet, but hey, who knows? We just got back from our family trip to visit my brother in Fl. Great fishing, but that's another story. We had planned an extra day off to adopt our new dog! The woman who owned her did not have time to take care of the dog, who belonged to her husband before he died in January. She is a three year old AKC registered lab who was born to two completely black labs. I wouldn't believe it if I didn't know the breeders. This should be an interesting experience! Wish me luck!


Boyer

 

[JackM]

Congratulations. Not that I know a whole lot about dogs or labs, but I have never seen one colored like that. I do understand they are smart and loyal. Enjoy.

 

[jayL]

Beautiful dog. Have fun with her.

More importantly, now that you're back in PA... Fishin?

 

[MattBoyer]

I go back in tomorrow afternoon, then I will see my schedule. I'll PM you.I spent my day carpin' yesterday, missed two, got 1. Fun as hell, I have one that I can't get on the hook, and he's a beast! This was the one I got. He was beefy!

Boyer

 

[sdwlucas]

Matt,

I am not going to argue, but I am in the "dog business" and I have never seen a lab with that colorization. I do not believe it is possible. Well either way good luck with her.... If your up to taking her out pheasant/grouse/woodcock hunting let me know..

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

looks like a mix! good dog though!

 

[Padraic]

Congradulations!

 

[Fredrick]

Nice dog congrats !!!!! And nice fish I just bought a dvd on fly fishing for carp I only watched half of it so far but I think I could go catch one already :-D OH what fly did you catch him on and were???

 

[mattd]

Beautiful dog, it looks just like my friends Lab rotweiler mix. Even if it is a mix in my opinion a lab mix is about the best tempered dog you will ever find. I have 2 labs myself and they are wonderful dogs. My wife and I found them on our way to fishing on a perry county native stream. It was 3 days after hurricane Ivan and I'll never forget the way the water looked that day. Didn't make it on the stream before we ran into the dogs though. They were in bad shape when we found them. The female was extremely skinny and was dragging a thick 20ft chain and the male was only 6 months and really fat. I thought the young one was healthy but later we found out that it was all worms and parasites making him look fat. I spent my savings on those 2 but it was worth it. I named the female Laurel after the stream and the male Ivan, which was perfect because hes quite a handful at 105 pounds and the spirit of a terrier. I've been around labs my entire life and wouldn't think about owning a different breed. Treat her with love, respect, and loyalty and she will do the same in return. Good luck with her.

 

[MattBoyer]

SDW, the people who bred her are personal family friends. One of her parents was black, but the offspring of a black and a yellow. The other parent was black, but the offspring of a black and a chocolate. The breeders themselves questioned this color pattern at first as well, but have so far had 3 seperate litters, all puppies being perfectly normal labs except for one per litter that looks like her. This little lady was the runt and I'm glad we got her. I'm gonna take her out next week to make sure she isn't gunshy, but I want her to get to know me better before I let her run around the woods off the leash. Hopefully she will be a good grouse dog, but a good pheasant dog will do, too. Either way, she's a helluva good dog so far, so I can only hope she can learn to use her hunting instinct at 3 years old.

Frederick, the pattern I used for the carp is a size 2 Gamakatsu octopus, 7 wraps of lead, 15 or so strands of flashabu as a tail, and a big, fat muddler head. I caught him in a shallow pool below the spillway of a local dam. I've been hitting it for a few weeks, but it's tough. They are in about 6 inches of still water rooting around, and you can only get to about 40 feet out before they freak out. There was a fish swimming around there that I thought was a white koi, but every time I see him I think more and more that he is a white channel cat. Hopefully I can get him to gulp a fly. It may not be glamorous, but it beats slaughtering trout, because, let's be honest these guys who fish 'til it hits 68 then stop fishing act like the fish have thermometers and like they're doing the world a favor. The difference between 68 and 70 only matters in a book, but carp can live in 80 degrees. :-D

Boyer

 

[Fredrick]

MattBoyer thats a pretty big fly I didn't know that they hit anything that big . Barry Renyolds the guy in the video i'm watching hasn't use anything bigger than a size 6 and he has been using a rust brown color nymph and crawfish his favorite patern is a size 8 rust brown clouser swimming nymph well at least thats what I saw from the first half of the video I watched so far . . Do you catch Carp on a regular basis ? What would you say your ratio of times out to fish landed is ? Just curious?

 

[MattBoyer]

I have been quite busy at work, then went on vacation, so I've only been out for carp 4 times this year. I only go out for an hour or so at a time and usually call it a day after I get one. I have yet to get the skunk, but one of the 4 I got pinned himself in the chest when he felt the line and bolted. I have been watching them root and putting it about 6 feet in front of them and slightly past them. When they get to two or three feet I give it a twitch, just enough so they can see it. They usually bolt over and crush it like a largemouth takes stuff off the bottom. Very exciting, very fun. Nothin' like seeing an 8WT bent almost in half! :-D One word of advice, wear old clothes, as carp are usually found in muddy places and they tend to flop mud all over you. Right after I put my camera away on the one in the picture he went insane. I was friggin covered in mud. Last tail flip got me square in the face with a load of mud. It was like he aimed it! :-o

Boyer

 

[MattBoyer]

PS. I think they think my fly is a frog, for what it's worth.

Boyer

 

[ian_brown]

As the proud owner of a dog with color faults, I say if you have the paperwork to prove it's a lab, it's a lab.

 

[sdwlucas]

I hate to say it but "paperwork" really means nothing. It is just a way for dog clubs to make money. I can honestly say that a few years ago I too would have agreed that paperwork means what it says....but now every dog club registry will register any kind of dog mutts included. I am NOT going to say its impossible for a pure bred dog to have such traits, but it is very very unlikely.

BTW labs are the number one dog involved in human bites....reason being there are so many of them. Labs are one of my favorite dogs (any bird dog) and I have hunted with a few that are just excellent hunters.

Matt...not telling you what to do but make sure when you take her out to see if she is gunshy you read up on it. For your sake do not take a shotgun and just shoot over top of her. Start with a small caliber .22 or such and make sure she is comfortable. Make sure you take treats with you so she associates "pop" or "bang" with good things. Just my $.02!

 

[MattBoyer]

SDW, I was going to make it a two person venture by bringing my wife along to man the treats and the dog. I was going to start at 100 yards, fire one off, then give her a treat, moving in at 20 yard intervals until she seemed uncomfortable, then work at that range for a bit. At any rate, I finally found a worthwhile bit of research on the color variations of labs and was surprised to find out that she is not the first purebred lab in history to have this exact color variation. Not that I doubted you on the mix thing, I just doubted personal friends who have bred labs for over 40 years slightly less so I did some research. Seems it is a throwback to breeding with Gordon setters way back in the early days of the labrador retriever. In fact there are lab color variations that I never would have thought of, but there is the genetic details right down to the b. Here's some interesting reading in case genetics is your thing. I know I learned a lot.

http://www.labbies.com/genetics2.htm#Black&Tan

Hope this clears it up a bit, it did for me.

Boyer

 

[sdwlucas]

If you don't mind me asking where did you get her?

 

[MattBoyer]

She was bred on a dairy farm in Stewartstown by our friend's parents. I don't know that they are an advertising breeder, but have been breeding since her brothers were little and as far as I know have had the same bloodline for quite some time. We actually got her from our friend's husbands mom, who was the original owner. She was his dad's dog, but his dad died in a car accident in January and she has been living in a basement since, as his mom did not have the time to take care of her. We haven't yet gotten the papers from her, but she's going to be dropping them and some other stuff off for us on Monday, so if you have any lineage related questions I can give you more specifics next week.

Boyer

 

[fly_N_ice]

Matt,

Nice dog. Pooper scoopin' is just the warm up for changing diapers :-o

Hank

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear Matt,

So your dog is a little "Ef'd" up? Like that's a big deal?

You're a Tri-Valley boy so you should be used to that! The last good thing to come from up your way was Gary Collins of the University of Maryland and the Cleveland Browns but I'm sure that was way, way before your time.

My first dog was a free to me yellow lab that was given to me by a friend whose kid's had outgrown their Christmas present. My current dog was given to me by my next door neighbor after I had to have my lab put down.

Give that little girl dog a kiss square on the lips from me and tell her it's from Uncle Murph. All dogs know Uncle Murph is the dude who brings biscuits and pepperoni and ring bologna and "Slim Jims" to share in a pinch.

Love that dog to death, you'll get three times back in return my friend.

Regards,
Tim Murphy