"Cousins"

Over the Easter weekend, one of my cousins came to visit. He brought with him a very energetic young chocolate Lab - Kodiak. She has been a member of his family for about four years, but my boys haven't seen her since she was a puppy of a year.

The reunion was glorious in dog terms!

Kodi tried to get out of the car the minute she spotted her "cousins" by climbing through the partly opened car window. She managed one leg and her head before my cousin got back to his car and tried to slow her down. Might as well have tried to stop a run away train.

She was so excited to see the boys, she ran in circles around them, around the front flower gardens, around my cousin and me and persuaded the boys to get into the game. You can tell by the open mouths in the photographs - that everyone has been running - one chocolate lab more so than the other two.

It was great fun to see the three together and it brought to mind a recent article that I'd read on Labrador retriever personalities being linked to colour...chocolates being the most energetic, most active and while affectionate and devoted family members, far more interested in playing, running and inspecting the worlds around them. Blond or yellow labs are similarly active and energetic and have a vast interest in the surrounding world as well, but are a bit more trainable. (Actually Bliss is/was much easier to train and is more obedient that Spirit his black brother.) Black labs are notorious worriers, they are completely devoted to family and close friends of family - as active and playful as their other-coloured mates, but if it comes to being with the family or playing with other dogs, the family often takes precedence.

I'd be interested to know if others have found these observations true.

In any case after a while, Spirit decided to ignore the two players - and stuck by me, Kodi and Bliss played and chased and ran in circles whenever we were outside, Bliss often poking Kodi with that big long nose of his to get her to start again whenever she'd stop. Finally it was Kodi on her own, running here and there to check out that smell, that sound, drink a ton of water and heading off to relieve herself, doing another check of the nearby trees and gardens to make sure the squirrels were well and truly gone. Generally making us laugh.

It was an eventful few hours. And fun! All cousins should have as much fun when they're together, whether they are cousins of the human kind or animal buddies. Hope you too may find the affection and fun that a playful dog or three can offer, today or soon!