:The Great White Squirrel Hunter
Posted: March 26, 2008 Filed under: FFT Lhasa Apsos 4 Comments
The latest regarding Saul – aka The Great White Squirrel Hunter!
We would like to have the “do” that his mother has in her picture that you gave us. Dave and Saul have out doors for about 2 hrs this morn. Saul loves it but is is full of dead debris left from winter, so Dave is grooming him. Again he is really a sweet dog. He took to our 8 year old grand son and wanted more that anything to sleep with him. (our couch pulls out into a bed) and our grandson, Joey pulled it out about 7:00 and Saul wanted to be on the bed with Joey. It was real cute and sweet. Joey and his family have 2 dogs. Joey is a very sweet and kind boy, maybe Saul picked up on that. Where ever Joey was Saul wanted to be. Again it was a very sweet thing to watch. I can’t wait to see how the great squirrel hunter looks in his new “do”
Kunza at FleetFire Timbers 
For those of you with relatives…Saul’s sire is Seth. Alma, that makes him Roadie’s half-brother. Thought you’d enjoy knowing that!
Charlene & Dave – Congratulations!! I’m sure Saul will bring you much happiness. He is beautiful and has good genes. I have Willis, also a Seth offspring! Willis is going crazy with the squirrels that he sees in my yard since I’ve just added a full glass patio door! His favorite stuffed toys are the ducks and chicks that quack!. Keep us posted!
Hello Debby, he is very pretty, I love his color also. roadie is getting lighter around his neck and the top of his head. Still chewing up paper cups, He will wait until I go out of the room and then go in the trash get paper cups. Still very alert to everything. And barks, barks barks when he wants something or he wants me to play with him, he will get his squeaky toy and bring it to me and look at me. Still tempermeantly on eating the raw diet, but he will eat it if I sit there.
Debby is there such a thing and a curly haired Lhasa? I neigbor has one with curly hair, I think it is not bred like Roadie, his tail has straight hair, but the body hair is curly????
I have not forgot the pictures, have to purchase a camera.
Alma
Alma
Funny story about Apsos and hunting…
My sister Lori wanted a little Lhasa Apso just like my housedog Yangsom. Her concern was her husband’s want of a hunting dog. She was sure if she got a dog, Ron would get himself a huntin’ dog. She also told me I wouldn’t give her the dog she wanted – Yangsom!
On our next trip back to my hometown, Norfolk, Nebraska, I packed up Yangsom for the ride, along with her half-sister Tamdin. Upon arrival, entering the kitchen, Tamdin went to the rug in front of the sink and plunked herself down as if she’d finally made it home.
The next day, Ron picked Tamdin up and asked her if she’d be his hunting dog. She’d be known as Hunter. 🙂 Some time later, Tamdin’s granddaughter Ling joined their household. Now Ron has two huntin’ dogs.
When Julie and I, along with our husbands, were in New York City for the Westminster Kennel Club dog show (Julie showed C’est La Vie) we stepped into a pet store. There, for the first time, I saw a pheasant dog toy. A stuffed pheasant, just like Saul’s stuffed squirrel. Pheasant hunting is common in Nebraska. I bought that stuffed pheasant, packaged it, addressing it to The Hunting Dogs on West Eisenhower Avenue, Norfolk, NE.
Tamdin and Ling are best known for huntin’ up ice cream cones. Every night – almost without fail – Ron, Lori, Tamdin and Ling go for a hike along Cowboy Trail. Cowboy Trail is part of the Rails to Trails project – old railroad tracks turned into hiking and biking trails. Not sure how they determine which nights the dogs get ice cream, but it’s not unusual for them to stop by the local Dairy Queen on their way back home.
Regarding curly haired Lhasa Apsos….
Curly hair is not a characteristic sought after in the Lhasa Apso, although there may be a curly haired gene in some gene pools. For example, several of the Gompa dogs have curly-ish hair. My 2005 trip to Virginia for the Dog Party shed some light on the subject, giving me an understanding of ‘where’ the characteristic was in the Gompa dog gene pool.
Historically, what we now know as the Lhasa Apso was first described in 1896. Here’s that description of coat:
COAT
Heavy, of good length and very dense; a strong growth on the skull, falling on both sides. Legs well clothed right down to the toes. On the body the hair should not reach to the ground, there should be a certain amount of daylight. The hair is much harder to the eye than it is to the touch. It should look hard, straight and long, when to the touch it is soft, but not silky. The hair should be straight, with no tendency to curl.
And, from the 1901 Lionel Jacobs Standard:
COAT
Should be heavy, of good length and very dense. There should be a strong growth on the skull, falling on both sides. The legs should be well clothed right down to the toes. On the body, the hair should not reach to the ground, as in a show Yorkshire; there should be a certain amount of daylight. In general appearance the hair should convey the idea of being much harder to the eye than it is to the touch. It should look hard, straight and strong, when to the touch it is soft, but not silky. The hair should be straight with no tendency to curl.
A description of the desired coat from the current AKC Lhasa Apso Standard, updated in 1978:
COAT
Heavy, straight, hard, not woolly nor silky, of good length, and very dense.
That description is word-for-word from the 1935 Standard:
COAT
Heavy, straight, hard, not woolly nor silky, of good length, and very dense.
A few years ago a group of us, attempting to…shall we say…conserve Tibetan type in the breed wrote The Unofficial Tibetan Lhasa Apso Standard. Here’s our description:
COAT
Should be heavy, of good length and dense. There should be a strong growth on the skull, falling on both sides. The legs should be well clothed right down to the toes. In general appearance the hair should look hard, straight and strong with no tendency to curl. The coat should have weight, so that when picked up and released it should fall immediately into its original position. Cottony, silky or woolly coats should be penalized. Coat should be judged on the basis of quality, not on excess length or grooming.
So, to answer your question Alma, curly hair does, on occasion show up in the gene pool. It is not a desired trait.