Results tagged “coonhound” from South Bay Pets

It was all about dogs today. First up was first day of dog school for Rocket. Not much to report. The instructor, a lady named Barbara who has been training dogs for many, many years, told us what we can expect in upcoming classes. The real work will start next week.

Class is at the Kritter Korral in Harbor City. Next session is next Saturday.

There are an alarming number of small dogs in the class, so we'll see how distracted Rocket gets.

From there, I went straight to a Dog Show in Torrance. The event is held by the South Bay Kennel Club and is the only AKC sanctioned event in the South Bay.

There were hundreds of dogs there, but the one I was most interested in meeting was a bluetick coonhound -- the same breed as Rocket. I've never seen one before.

I looked around until I met Blue, who is a little smaller than my dog and has slightly different coloring, but you could tell they were the same breed. And when Blue started barking for no apparent reason, he sounded exactly like my pup.

Blue's owner is a lady named Dee Gunter of Yucca Valley. She's owned blueticks since 1972!

Dee told me that Blue was the very first bluetick to compete in such an event.

You can read about it in Sunday's paper.

And if you want to go to the dog show, it continues Sunday. It's free! They're holding it in the field at North High School in Torrance, 2620 West 182nd St.

Tell 'em Rocket sent you.

There are 1,263 chihuahuas named Princess living in Los Angeles County, making it the most common name-breed combination of all dogs.

What's particularly amusing to me about that is that while I was between dogs, my landlord parked his dog in my backyard for about a year. Yes, she was a chihuahua named Princess -- not exactly the kind of dog you want living in your house when you're a single, middle-aged man, if you know what I mean.

Here are some other fun things I learned on this really cool database the LA Times put togehter:

•  There are 164 dogs named Rocket
• There are 56 bluetick coonhounds.
• There are 1,985 dogs living in my zip code (one of which is a bluetick coonhound named Rocket.

There are plenty of other fascinating things you can find on the database, which has really   clever categories like spaced-themed names (Rocket, Comet, Cosmo), dogs named after celebrities (there's an Alec Baldwin out there somewhere) and dogs named after food (Hello, Spaghetti!)

You can mix and match your searches. You can see how many of your favorite  breed live in your neighborhood, stuff like that.

But I should warn you: It's addictive.

As some blog readers know -- along with  every single one of my neighbors -- I have the most obnoxious, loud, stupid, stubborn, cat harassing, unmanageable dog in the South Bay.

There are plenty of days when I want to send him to the pound, drive him out to the country and leave him there or just plain strangle him.

But Rocket is also as sweet and good natured as any dog ever was. He's likes hang out, flirt with girls and rassle with other dogs for hours at a time.

Rocket is a coonhound, something of a rarity here in these parts, but quite common in the South. Not a week goes by when some old man will stop and tell me how he had a coon dawg when hewere a boy growing back home.

Coon dogs are also featured in the book "Where the Red Fern Grows," something else strangers are always talking to me about.

Different people are attracted to different breeds. Who knows why? But coonhounds seem to have an especially loyal following. Coonhounds even have a special place to go when they die. And no, I don't mean that spiritually.

There's actually a coonhound cemetery in Alabama.

It's called the Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Cemetery.

Other breeds may have their own cemetery, but I've never heard of it.

A man named Key Underwood started it in the late 30s when his beloved coon hound died. Other hunters followed and today there are dozens of coon dogs buried there.

This is from their Web site:

Some of the burial ground's headstones are crafted of wood, some of sheet metal. Others are not unlike the stones found in a "normal" cemetery

But, of course, the names of the deceased are different and so are the epitaphs.

For example, listed among the dead are Patches, Preacher, Smoky, Bean Blossom Bomma and Night Ranger. And etched along with these names are tributes such as, "A joy to hunt with" and "He wasn't the best, but he was the best I ever had."

 

 

I honestly can't say Rocket is the best I ever had -- that honor goes to another coon dog named Buck, who lived to be 17! But he's better than all the others. And someday -- but not for a really long time -- maybe I'll drive him down there. Or next week if he doesn't shape up! 

Here's a weird story: A guy in Oregon drops his dog off at a kennel. He picks up the dog after he comes back from vacation, but thinks he might have the wrong dog.

"It's a sweet dog," Griggs said of the impostor living at his Lake Oswego house. "It's tough because now we've had the dog for 10-plus days, and the kids, especially the younger ones, start to get attached to the dog. I like it, but I want mine."

That's the problem with Labrador retrievers. They're nice dogs, but they pretty much all look alike.

But that's the one benefit of owning a coonhound. Rocket may be the noisiest dog in the world, but his coloring is as unique as a fingerprint. He's got weird blotches and spots all over his body. And in the paisley maze of black and white, there are freckles of brown that only a doting owner would be able to spot.

And my cat has a map of Idaho under its chin. It's true! As soon as I figure out how to post photos, I'll be able to prove it.