On Dec 1, 9:12*pm, wrote:
On Thu, 1 Dec 2011 18:36:55 -0800 (PST), Tim
wrote:

On Dec 1, 7:42*pm, wrote:
On Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:07:31 -0500, X ` Man

wrote:
Yeah, he probably makes the dog jump in the water to "retrieve" the dead
ducks.

As the owner of a retriever, it is usually hard to keep them from
retrieving things. Mr Ed jumps in and brings me crab pot floats or
just about anything else floating in the water.

Yeah, retrievers love water and do what their name suggests.
'retrieve.'

I am fascinated with Ed's obsession with crab pot floats. I understand
100 years ago Labs jumped in the water to get the net floats for
fishermen but it is hard to believe that trait lasted this long. I
think this guy is probably 5 generations of red scarfs around his neck
running in a park although he may have had some service dog in his
past. The only wild things he knows, he got from us. I am not sure he
knew what a squirrel was before he got here. He did get in the water
but he wasn't much of a swimmer. Now he jumps off the boat and swims
around for a while before he wants to get back on. I guess we are
digging up old genes.

I know exactly what you mean Greg. It's amazing how traits can be
bread into an animal. Though I have a limited knowledge of horses, you
take a linage of horses bread for racing, for instance...trotters.
very high spirited, high prancing, and their gait is fast. where
"Tennessee Walkers" are just that. Even though they can gallop well,
they're generally slow and gentle.

And both of these breeds, Even though you have to work with them some,
you don't really have to train them in that direction.