Sometimes when I get puppies and strays, I get to name them, which is fun. I like to assess a dog’s personality and pick an appropriate name. It makes is easier to remember. When I get a Lu’s Lab dog, it comes with an assigned name. In this case, I could not remember the dog’s assigned name, Ringo. No one in the family was getting his name right. That sounds pitiful, but he is foster number 12, so there are a lot of dog names…
I had to remember his name, so I started thinking of Beatle’s lyrics.
“Hey Bulldog”
You can talk to me
You can talk to me
You can talk to me, if you’re lonely you can talk to me
That did it. It stuck.
Ringo is actually a dog you can talk to. He listens. You could never be lonely with Ringo. He is both a gentle giant and a totally-unaware-of-his-size-lap-dog-and-couch-hog. Otherwise cautious, he was immediately affectionate when we brought him into The Cecchine Hotel for Dogs. It usually takes dogs a few days to decompress before they hop up on your lap and make themselves at home. This is day 1:
Ringo made himself at home.
I say that he is otherwise cautious because he tends to linger in the back of the pack. Let’s say I call all of the dogs to ‘go home’, which means come into the house from the yard. I often follow that up with a treat. The idea is to associate immediately coming when called with the treat – which is super useful when training dogs. We have a treat jar in the kitchen. All of the dogs will come to it and then we ask them to ‘sit’ for a treat. Every dog but Ringo is at my feet, wanting that treat. Ringo is a few feet behind them all, in the background, waiting patiently to get his treat last. I don’t know why? He also is last to go outside. I open the door, tell the dogs ‘outside’, and they all run out. Ringo is usually last. He does this thing where he walks a certain, indirect route to the front door and then stands behind the door until everyone is out, and then he comes around and out. It is almost like he has some OCD patterns. It seems like he is looking out for all of the other dogs. He leads from the back.
He is a very affectionate dog. He is gorgeous and quiet, and he cuddles. What more could you ask for from a big lab? He sometimes even hangs with me on the frontporch when most or all of the dogs take off running toward the fence (for USPS, FedEx, UPS, and/or dog-walkers going by). Good boy, let the younger ones do the security. We don’t need every dog barking.
Black dogs can be tricky to photograph, but I do my best. Here are some photos and Ringo Starr quotes:
“Of course I’m ambitious. What’s wrong with that? Otherwise you sleep all day.” -Ringo Starr
I’d like to end up sort of… unforgettable.– Ringo Starr
I don’t mind talking or smiling, it’s just I don’t do it very much. I haven’t got a smiling face or a talking mouth. – Ringo Starr
Well, I’m getting happier all the time, which is very nice. – Ringo Starr
Ringo the black lab is ambitious, and he’s unforgettable, and he smiles with his constant tail wags. He will be leaving us soon for Virginia, he will be missed. Ringo is adoptable in the metro DC area through Lu’s Labs.
