THE CHOCOLATE DOG BLOG

Now that Katie is walking Bosco more on her own and enjoying the off leash fun I got her a little present to make the task easier. I picked up a Chuckit from the pet store the other day and it is pretty fun. Now we do not have to bend down and pick up a gross ball and even though it will take some getting used to, I know Katie's arm will like it one day too.

Eight Below Cast:Paul Walker as Jerry ShepherdBruce Greenwood as Dr. Davis McLarenJason Biggs as CooperMoon Bloodgood as Katie Review:Dr. Davis McLaren (Bruce Greenwood) has come around the world to the most isolated place on Earth - Antarctica - to investigate meteorites. To do so he's going to need professional Antarctic guide Jerry Shepherd (Paul Walker) and his crack team of sled dogs to get him across the ice. But when McLaren is hurt in a freak accident, he and the rest of the field team must be evacuated, leaving the dogs to fend for themselves until the weather clears and they can be rescued.At first sight a fun but slightly sappy man-and-his-dogs story, "Eight Below" quickly evolves into a well-crafted wilderness adventure reminiscent of Disney's heyday as the dogs roam the naked Antarctic wastes, trying to survive. "Eight Below" moves back and forth between the dogs plight and the lives of the human survivors back in the States, particularly Shepherd, wracked with guilt for leaving them behind.Unfortunately, the human bits are never really as enjoyable as the wilderness scenes. Walker's particular brand of earnest performance fits Jerry Shepherd well, but it's the dog's story and nothing else is ever quite as interesting.And that's where the real strength and enjoyment of "Eight Below" lies, with the dogs and their journey, hunting for food, playing with the Borealis, and in one particularly exciting sequence, fighting with a hungry sea leopard over food. It covers quite a bit of familiar ground, but it does so well.It gets a bit sappy towards the end as earnest movies often tend to do, but the trip is worth it, creating a fine piece of wilderness adventure, a genre that has languished in recent years."Eight Below" is rated PG for some peril and brief mild language.

can I have some bacon too?

I came across this book in the paper the other day and I am going to check it out. Sounds like a great read for dog owners and Lab owners for sure. I will give more of a review once I do read it. Bosco is doing well even though we have not had a lot of time to blog lately. He is looking forward to spring and more time outside! Here is the book. here is the write up on it as well. Labrador retrievers are generally considered even-tempered, calm and reliable;and then there's Marley, the subject of this delightful tribute to one Lab who doesn't fit the mold. Grogan, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and his wife, Jenny, were newly married and living in West Palm Beach when they decided that owning a dog would give them a foretaste of the parenthood they anticipated. Marley was a sweet, affectionate puppy who grew into a lovably naughty, hyperactive dog. With a light touch, the author details how Marley was kicked out of obedience school after humiliating his instructor (whom Grogan calls Miss Dominatrix) and swallowed an 18-karat solid gold necklace (Grogan describes his gross but hilarious "recovery operation"). With the arrival of children in the family, Marley became so incorrigible that Jenny, stressed out by a new baby, ordered her husband to get rid of him; she eventually recovered her equilibrium and relented. Grogan's chronicle of the adventures parents and children (eventually three) enjoyed with the overly energetic but endearing dog is delivered with great humor. Dog lovers will love this account of Grogan's much loved canine. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

over the weekend it was in the -20's with the wind chill but ver sunny. Here is how Bosco and Mercy spent most of their time. Searching for that beam of sun they can lay in.

we at the Chocolate Dog blog have to say a big sorry for the slow fixing of the site. The menu on the right has for some reason gone to the bottom of the site and Bosco has not been able to figure out why. we are working on this kink but please dont let it affect your viewing. Just scroll down to get all the past links I no you all want to see. Bosco has been on the road and is just getting back from New York and will have a wrap up on the Dog show soon. have a great weekend everone

I came across this painting on the net and I have to say it looks a lot like Bosco. the site is here if you would like to see it framed and who is the artist and how much it is and all that jazz.

Recently I had a writer ask where Chocolates come from and when did the first one appear. Thank you for that question and let me try to fill everyone in on the beginnings of a Bosco. The first statistics of a chocalate lab date back to 1870. Here is some info I grabbed off the net. Studying the pedigrees of chocolate Labrador Retrievers, you often wonder where the chocs are coming from. All of a sudden they are there, out of the blue. Files in the LabradorNet database contain the pedigrees of more than 34,000 Labradors, and researchers came to the conclusion that there are roughly 8 routes to the origin of chocolate Labs. One of the reasons that you'll find no chocolate Labs in the older files, is that they weren't in fashion for many decades, so they just weren't registered. However, the blacks and the yellows carrying the choc gene kept reproducing. and that's why we're able to trace them all the way back to the late 1800s. The Earl of Feversham had some typical specimen of chocolates, his Nawton Pruna (who produced yellow offspring) doing well at field trials in the years preceding the First World War. One of the chief supporters of chocolates was the Hon. Lady Ward of Chiltonfoliat, near Hungerford, the dogs from her kennel being very typical with particularly good tails and coats. Her chocolate bitch FTW Darry of Chiltonfoliat (Braeroy Darkie) (1930) was sired by an unregistered chocolate dog called Jimmy, while her dam descended from the chocolate Flatcoat Clyde (see further down). Mr. J.G. Severn of Tibshelf Kennels wrote: "My first experience of the chocolate Labradors was in February, 1938, when I visited Dr. Momtgomery of Sutton Ashfield, about three miles from Tibshelf. We had mated his black bitch Shelagh of Brasidonia to my black dog Danilo of Tibshelf. Result: 4 blacks, 2 chocolate dogs, 1 cream bitch. I later bought Shelagh and mated her again to Danilo. Result just the same." Miss Wills of Metesford Kennels produced several chocolates in the late 1940s, early 1950s, but their descendence is not known. Further more we should keep in mind that there are a lot of missing links in our database, and sometimes the reasons for this are rather obvious. I found 21 interbred or fullbred Flatcoats or Chesapeake Bay retrievers in our Labrador retriever database, all born in the U.K. between 1914 and 1933. Of all the 21 interbred or fullbred Flatcoats or Chesapeake Bay retrievers, most of them being Field Trial champions, we could only track the ancestors for more than two generations of two dogs. The information about the ancestors of the other 19 interbred dogs was simply removed from the files in the 1930s. It seems that some well known Labrador breeders didn't want the public to know that their succesful dogs were partly the offspring of interbred dogs. Two well known Chesapeake Bay retrievers were a dog called Jolly, who sired the male Labrador retriever Jolly Sam, born before 1933, and the bitch Corydalys, who was the dam of the female Labrador retriever Micklefield Juno, born before 1925. Clyde, born before 1923, was the "liver" (chocolate) Flatcoat retriever who sired the male yellow Labrador FTW Folkingham Bexter (1925), who in turn sired the yellow bitch FTW Limekiln Rhoda (1927). She and the yellow dog FTW Golden Morn (1926) had a litter that was registered as "half Golden Retriever and half Labradors". The separation was by coat length, because all puppies were yellow. Apparently the third generation showed some traits of the original breed involved. For more on the different routes of the Chocolate Lab please read this page. I hope that answers your question hank.

Dear Bosco is a new feature to the Chocolate Dog Blog where Bosco will take questions from you the reader and try his best to help and give good advice. Dr. Bosco has a PH-Dog from Georgetown University and a masters in dog therapy. please ask your questions in the comment section and Dr. Bosco will answer them as soon as he can. thank you

Today on the frozen tundra of Halifax two equally powerful wills met for a battle of epic proportions. Bosco against me! I dont know what it was as I was throwing the ball and watching Bosco race for it over and over than made me think it was any different than any other day that I go to the park with Boss. Something made me feel like I needed to test Bosco, see how far I could push him, could I out last the endurance of a Lab?? As I threw and kicked the ball across the field and Bosco ran and ran and ran at full speed never tiring I thought, I will break him! From here it was my goal to throw and kick the ball until Bosco caved and layed down saying please no more running. This must of took over 100 tosses and over an hour of standing in the cold but I did it!! Bosco looking exhausted finally slowed down and layed down to chew a stick! What a win for me, it was my Olympic games, I took on the beast and won! It is 4 hours later and Bosco is still sleeping if anyone is wondering. I fought all the beans in that chocolate body and got rid of all of them!

We have this comfy chair in the living room that nobody really ever sits in. For a few reasons really but the main two are, it is not a great angle for the TV and both of the animals think that they own the rights to this chair. Recently both animals took claim to the chair and here is a pic of how that shook down. It is pretty funny because usually they dont like to be this close to each other. I guess you make sacrifices to lay in your fav spot.

Bosco watching everyone shoveling snow on Wednesday after the huge snow storm

I came across this book today on the Internet and it made me laugh. You see our cat's name is Mercy and well you all know who Bosco is. So of course I had to open photoshop and do my own take on the book cover. Who knew Bosco was an author. It is too bad he doesnt get any of the pay cheques so he can buy his own food and toys from time to time. Maybe one day this site will help pay for that but until then I will go back to dreaming.

We are currently getting a huge dump of snow in Halifax. WE woke up today to a lot of snow and of course I had to unleash Bosco into the back yard. I tossed a ball into the deepest section and he burrowed his way under the snow. here are a few shots.