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Griffin, The Newfoundland Dog

38K views 256 replies 63 participants last post by  ScottyUSN 
#1 ·
It is pretty cold right now. Actually we also in the middle of a snowstorm. The picture I took of Griffin in the snow isn't a great one and I was going to put it into one of the many threads about snow or cold weather that currently exist on the forum. Then I thought that I might as well use the occasion to start a thread about Griffin, who, like most of our dogs, is a character.

So I am starting his thread today with a less than illustrious photo, but with a little story.

Yesterday I went to the train station and picked up my daughter who had just spent the long weekend in Virginia visiting her father. As we were driving down a long stretch of road beside some wooded land, talking about Griffin, I looked out the window and saw him trotting happily along the sidewalk! Well...he stays in a fenced in yard when he is left outdoors, but my father (who is 93) may have gone out and failed to close the gate adequately. Griffin does not wear a collar routinely (allergies) and I had no leash in the car. So I left my daughter with the dog (she had to follow the disobedient rascal) and drove home for a collar and leash. Then we had to chase him (I in the car and she on foot) up a steep hill in a housing development where my daughter sometimes walks him. She had only been wearing a sweatshirt, so I had to give her my coat, but she had no hat or gloves. I ended up blocking his route with my car and she then had to walk him home since he won't jump into a car and we are not strong enough to lift him anymore!!!

Then today it started to snow. So he lay down outside and got covered with snow. Only when I went outside to take his picture, did he move. I didn't get any good pictures, because as soon as I went out, he wanted to follow me and, therefore, was up against my legs the whole time. As I said, I am posting one, however.

We are expecting 6 to 12 inches and I just got a telephone message from the police department with instructions on how to conduct myself on this declared, "snow emergency". It is cold now (15 degrees), but I think we have all gotten used to it. I don't feel it as much anymore.

I have other photos of Griffin. I have posted some in other places on the forum. I have also had other dogs, including a wonderful Golden Retriever named, "Brit".

NewfieMom
 

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#70 ·
Been meaning to post this to your thread for a while. We have a friend called Bruin which Fiona puts up with ;) He is a young lad not yet 2 years old and 145lbs. I asked Bruins owners to hold Fiona so I could get a picture, Fiona didn't seem to thrilled, LOL. She taught the boy when they first met so he remembered not to mess with her :) His tongue is half the size of her head.

I love the giant breeds :D He is a great boy BTW, typical goof.

 
#71 ·
Oh, my! What a beauty he is! That is exactly the age at which we got Griffin. (He was 16 months old. I keep making a mistake and saying 19 months.) I thought that he was fully grown because he was as tall as he was going to get. That is the only reason we were able to get him at all. The breeder had planned to make him a champion and use him for breeding but he did not get quite tall enough and she said making him into a champion would be, "a slog".

What I did not reckon on, however, was his filling out! My vet has since told me that 16 months he was still, "an adolescent". He weighed a mere 125 pounds. Now he is a well-developed male and whenever she visits she feels his neck and comments on its girth. He is truly not fat. He is just a typical male specimen of his breed. So tell your friend that his young boy is most definitely not through growing! Bruin is very likely to grow to be far bigger than Griffin since many male Newfies are!

I love the way Bruin looks with Fiona. She, of course, is a classic beauty. My Golden was a female with a beautiful head like hers, too. I am so glad she has a friend. Is he respectful of her?

Thanks so much for posting that photo in this thread, GoldenCamper!

NewfieMom
 
#72 ·
He is a great boy and still a bit feisty at a young age. I think this photo funny when it seems the owner of Bruin was protecting him, LOL. Just a little lip curl from Ms Fiona made him remember his place ;) And yes he is respectful of her, she was just making sure he remembered.

 
#73 · (Edited)
I have been reading about titles in a thread about stud dogs in the forum about breeders. When I visited the website for my Newfoundland today, I noticed something I had not seen before. (I believe that some new photos have been posted.)

Rather than to drag these Newfoundland photos into a Golden Retriever thread, I thought I thought that I would post a link here.

The link is to the Mooncusser website. Suzanne Jones of Mooncusser is Griffin's breeder. She and her kennel is well known among Newfoundland breeders and is mentioned in books about the breed. One of these is The Newfoundland, Gentle Giant by Jo Ann Riley.

I chose this picture to post because when I bought Griffin (I bought him at 16 months) his male playmate was the dog pictured, McGee. McGee was the same age as Griffin but from another litter. Suzanne had decided , albeit with ambivalence, to let Griffin go because she felt that McGee would be more useful to her given his pedigree and given that Griffin had grown to be as tall as she had hoped.

One thing I remember about Fletcher was that he jumped onto the roof of his dog house and she warned me that if I had been taking McGee instead of Griffin that 3 or 4 foot fence would not have sufficed. (A short fence was fine for Griffin. He would walk around a downed branch.)

At any rate, look at the photos of McGee pulling the cart. There are many videos of Newfies towing boats full of people on YouTube, but here McGee has earned a title that Newfies can earn: DD or Draft Dog. His handler (who also is seen in some of Griffin's early photos when he was shown) looks ecstatic at his accomplishment!

Photos of McGee as Draft Dog...McGee

NewfieMom

PS-Nelson, who was a also a former champion and winner of Best in Show, was also present when my daughter and I visited. He was very, very large and beautiful. He was also Griffin's great-grand-sire. My daughter totally fell in love with him. He was, in 2011, quite old for a Newfoundland. He lived inside and put up with other dogs stepping all around him! You haven't lived until until you are in a house with about 30 large Newfoundlands and three litters of puppies!
 
#74 ·
This is not Griffin in the video. Unfortunately, I do not know how to post videos to the 'net, although I can post photos. I laughed outloud when I saw this on YouTube, though. The action is very simple and repetitive. A baby keeps trying to grab a Newfie's delightful and intriguing pink tongue. The Newfie tries to keep his tongue out of the baby's grasp, but takes a few opportunities to do what Newfies like to do to their humans: to lick them. It's just a cute, and very realistic, interaction.

Newfie and Baby...

NewfieMom
 
#76 ·
I've seen a hand full of owners who own both Newfie's and Leo's on the Global Leonberger (FB page), one guy had some really cool photo's including a 2015 calendar for both breeds. When I have a connection that will support a search beyond a snails pace, I'll try to share here.

We've finally received som legitimate fall weather (cool and windy), Reese is in heaven!
 
#77 ·
The very first Newfoundland I saw was when I was about 8 yrs old. We had went to a horse farm and was checking out some horses in the stalls before we were going to ride. In one of the stalls I saw a huge furry butt with a small tail. Being 8 yrs old i really thought these people had a bear hanging out in a horse stall. He looked like a bear from the back end in my mind. I took a step back and he turned around and I realized it was a dog. The first meeting with a Newfie i didn't realize the usually have a full tail. So I assume they either worked with a breeder to dock it to avoid horses stepping on i guess or it lost it that way. He was the sweetest dog ever. I promised myself that day I would eventually own one. It hasn't come yet but will one day probably after my husband is out of the military. Until then I can droll over Griffin and live by carelessly.
 
#78 ·
The very first Newfoundland I saw was when I was about 8 yrs old. We had went to a horse farm and was checking out some horses in the stalls before we were going to ride. In one of the stalls I saw a huge furry butt with a small tail. Being 8 yrs old i really thought these people had a bear hanging out in a horse stall. He looked like a bear from the back end in my mind. I took a step back and he turned around and I realized it was a dog. The first meeting with a Newfie i didn't realize the usually have a full tail. So I assume they either worked with a breeder to dock it to avoid horses stepping on i guess or it lost it that way. He was the sweetest dog ever. I promised myself that day I would eventually own one. It hasn't come yet but will one day probably after my husband is out of the military. Until then I can droll over Griffin and live by carelessly.
I love this story! I will try to get you a photo of the shirt I wear almost every day. I have several T-shirts (in white) and several sweatshirts (in grey) with the same saying and drawings on it. The humor of the shirt's saying all revolves around both the character and the easily distinguishable large derriere of the Newf. The only problem I have had with wearing the shirt is that not everyone reads all of it. I have been congratulated in grocery stores by young men for wearing this really great sweatshirt and I don't think they read it in its entirety. Especially the ones who said, "Yeah! Junk in the trunk, man!"

They obviously only read the back and had no idea that the shirt was supposed to be about a breed of dog! :)

NewfieMom
 

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#81 ·
Moose is WIDE across the backside also. We have been teasing him that he is a "wide track". All the more love, huh, when they have big backsides.
 
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#83 ·
So much so that I found it hard to get used to. I had found it hard to accept how gentle my Golden, Brit, was because she was a truly gentle soul. She was one of those angelic Goldens who would never have bitten anyone. But she was still a Golden. She threw herself at the door barking when a stranger approached on the walk. She was playful. As a puppy she chewed up our windowsill. At any point in her life if one got down and challenged her to play, she would respond as much as she could physically.

Griffin is really not playful. He does not respond to "challenges" to play. I think he perceives them as aggression and just lets them role off his back, rather than "play fighting" the way Brit would. I see that he will "play fight" with some other dogs (get down and then spring up with them). And he has tackled me and knocked me off my feet, too, in his exuberance. But I can't "challenge" him into a play fight. He won't play out of pretend "anger" with me the way my Golden or my Lab would. He's too hardwired for gentleness toward people. I had a very hard time getting used to that.

Griffin is really a very, very big, gentle teddy bear (like Moose). He cannot be roused to anger.

NewfieMom
 
#86 · (Edited)
Griffin and The Holidays

I wasn't sure what to title this posting. I didn't want to lead anyone to believe that Griffin was missing. He is safe at home. However, he has been running away on the holidays. I posted in Doug's thread (and alluded to it in at least one other thread) that he ran away on Christmas Eve. That was, by far, his biggest adventure. He was gone for over an hour. We had no idea where he was. We knew how he got out, however. (As my great-nephew came in our gate, Griffin pushed out. My great-nephew had come down from Boston to spend Christmas with us.) In Griffin's Christmas Eve caper, I eventually involved the police, who were fantastic (they are in this town). I had run into a policeman sitting in his car while I was driving through a local school parking lot half an hour into my chase and I decided to alert him to my problem. We got Griff back when the policeman, who had staked out the exit from the nature trail where he is sometimes walked, emerged from it an hour after his initial escape. He called our house. My daughter called me on my cell phone in my Jeep. I picked her up at our house and we drove to the nature trail. The police car was there with his lights on Griffin. My daughter got out with his leash and collar and went after Griffin...and Griffin took off!

Griffin ran. My daughter ran behind him with the leash flying. The police car followed slowly, bright lights illuminating the scene, and I followed the police car in my Jeep. Eventually my daughter caught the dog. And then she thanked the policeman profusely. She had to walk Griffin home since he doesn't get into cars. (I had told the policeman that earlier when I had first met him. But since I had just told him Griffin weighed 147 pounds his rejoinder to me had been, "He wouldn't fit in this car anyway!". I don't know why. He was driving one of the new SUVs the police have here.)

At any rate, that was the Christmas Eve incident. I was very grateful that it was Christmas Eve and everyone was calm and peaceful that night. I really didn't want my big, black dog hit by a car in the dark! It would also kind of have ruined Christmas for me forever!

Then today at 8:30 AM my father started screaming that he needed me, that the dog had gotten out. It was in the low 20's here. I put on a coat over my pajamas and slippers and went out in the Jeep after Griffin again. This time there were sightings and I kept driving from one place to another and jumping out of the Jeep. Once when he saw me from across a school field he ran away through a place I couldn't drive. By the time I drove to where I could get him, he wasn't there. I climbed a hill that looked like grass, but was totally frozen and slipped down it, getting a skinned knee and elbow through my pajamas and hurting my shoulder. Finally a sighting led to an arrest! Then I had to walk him home in my blue flannel pajamas and tan slippers carrying an orange purse and wearing a black coat while my father drove my Jeep hope. Oh! And I had on the red gloves I keep in my Jeep since it was so frigid outside. The dog's whiskers were even frozen!!! No one knew how he had gotten out.

At 3:30 PM my daughter heard Griffin howling in the front yard. (He has taken to howling plaintively like a wolf that when really wants to see someone who is going by on the street.) Then she and I saw him go to the gate and lift the latch with his nose and run out of it!!!

And he was off again! For the second time on New Year's Day! (What is it with him and the holidays? And yet I should be grateful. They are quieter and he is less likely to be hit by a car!)

There was another chase. I will spare you the details. He was caught again and walked home again. And now that we knew how he got out, I put a rubber leash around the gate and a fence post until we can get another latch. But we have been watching him and he is determined. He tried pushing on the wood lower down on the gate and almost broke through those boards. He would have if I hadn't yelled at him. He is pretty mighty. So I think I need a carpenter to rethink a lot about our fence. We probably now need a maximum security enclosure. I don't know why this fever hit just now, but he has had a taste of freedom and he likes it!

Deb
(NewfieMom)
 

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#97 ·
Griffin

I wasn't sure what to title this posting. I didn't want to lead anyone to believe that Griffin was missing. He is safe at home. However, he has been running away on the holidays. I posted in Doug's thread (and alluded to it in at least one other thread) that he ran away on Christmas Eve. That was, by far, his biggest adventure. He was gone for over an hour. We had no idea where he was. We knew how he got out, however. (As my great-nephew came in our gate, Griffin pushed out. My great-nephew had come down from Boston to spend Christmas with us.) In Griffin's Christmas Eve caper, I eventually involved the police, who were fantastic (they are in this town). I had run into a policeman sitting in his car while I was driving through a local school parking lot half an hour into my chase and I decided to alert him to my problem. We got Griff back when the policeman, who had staked out the exit from the nature trail where he is sometimes walked, emerged from it an hour after his initial escape. He called our house. My daughter called me on my cell phone in my Jeep. I picked her up at our house and we drove to the nature trail. The police car was there with his lights on Griffin. My daughter got out with his leash and collar and went after Griffin...and Griffin took off!

Griffin ran. My daughter ran behind him with the leash flying. The police car followed slowly, bright lights illuminating the scene, and I followed the police car in my Jeep. Eventually my daughter caught the dog. And then she thanked the policeman profusely. She had to walk Griffin home since he doesn't get into cars. (I had told the policeman that earlier when I had first met him. But since I had just told him Griffin weighed 147 pounds his rejoinder to me had been, "He wouldn't fit in this car anyway!". I don't know why. He was driving one of the new SUVs the police have here.)

At any rate, that was the Christmas Eve incident. I was very grateful that it was Christmas Eve and everyone was calm and peaceful that night. I really didn't want my big, black dog hit by a car in the dark! It would also kind of have ruined Christmas for me forever!

Then today at 8:30 AM my father started screaming that he needed me, that the dog had gotten out. It was in the low 20's here. I put on a coat over my pajamas and slippers and went out in the Jeep after Griffin again. This time there were sightings and I kept driving from one place to another and jumping out of the Jeep. Once when he saw me from across a school field he ran away through a place I couldn't drive. By the time I drove to where I could get him, he wasn't there. I climbed a hill that looked like grass, but was totally frozen and slipped down it, getting a skinned knee and elbow through my pajamas and hurting my shoulder. Finally a sighting led to an arrest! Then I had to walk him home in my blue flannel pajamas and tan slippers carrying an orange purse and wearing a black coat while my father drove my Jeep hope. Oh! And I had on the red gloves I keep in my Jeep since it was so frigid outside. The dog's whiskers were even frozen!!! No one knew how he had gotten out.

At 3:30 PM my daughter heard Griffin howling in the front yard. (He has taken to howling plaintively like a wolf that when really wants to see someone who is going by on the street.) Then she and I saw him go to the gate and lift the latch with his nose and run out of it!!!

And he was off again! For the second time on New Year's Day! (What is it with him and the holidays? And yet I should be grateful. They are quieter and he is less likely to be hit by a car!)

There was another chase. I will spare you the details. He was caught again and walked home again. And now that we knew how he got out, I put a rubber leash around the gate and a fence post until we can get another latch. But we have been watching him and he is determined. He tried pushing on the wood lower down on the gate and almost broke through those boards. He would have if I hadn't yelled at him. He is pretty mighty. So I think I need a carpenter to rethink a lot about our fence. We probably now need a maximum security enclosure. I don't know why this fever hit just now, but he has had a taste of freedom and he likes it!

Deb
(NewfieMom)
Thank God that Griffin is home safe and sound!!
 
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#87 ·
Wow, hope Griffin learns a different way to celebrate holidays. Must admit the image of you leading him home in red gloves (and the rest of the outfit) must have been humorous to everyone - other than you perhaps. It certainly seems that a new latch and a carpenter's review of the fence condition is in order. A Houdini dog can be nerve wracking.
 
#88 ·
Wow, hope Griffin learns a different way to celebrate holidays. Must admit the image of you leading him home in red gloves (and the rest of the outfit) must have been humorous to everyone - other than you perhaps. It certainly seems that a new latch and a carpenter's review of the fence condition is in order. A Houdini dog can be nerve wracking.
There are some people to whom I would begrudge entertainment at my expense, but not to you, 1oldparson. You do so much good in your life. I wish you could have had the fun of seeing me in my blue flannel pajamas, red chenille gloves, tan slippers lined with fur, and black down coat leading my 147 pound shaggy black dog (who looks like a bear) with a large orange pocketbook over my arm!!!! Now, I thought about that pocketbook before I took it out of the car. I don't usually walk the dog carrying a pocketbook. But I thought I might need kleenex for a runny nose or a telephone or who knows what. A woman in pajamas feels vulnerable. So I took my purse.

I wish I could have amused you :)

Deb
(NewfieMom)
 
#89 ·
Is there by any chance a dog in heat anywhere in your neighborhood?

Max was doing this a year ago last summer - he would head for the neighbor's house and nothing would stop him. Even after their female was no longer in heat, he was still determined. (They're idiots, not sure why they didn't have her spayed, they don't talk to us much so I can't ask and I'd probably be annoyed with the answer.)

And I have to tell you, the picture of him sleeping in the front yard - I am totally in love with this guy!
 
#90 ·
Is there by any chance a dog in heat anywhere in your neighborhood?
I don't think so. If there is, Griffin is even more confused than I think he is, because he goes in all different directions! Sometimes he goes to the nature trail. This morning he didn't go there. He went behind the school, then bolted through a doorway into woods that led to a housing development and a pond. This afternoon he sauntered down a street in the opposite direction from the nature trail.... I am sure you get the idea.

NewfieMom
 
#94 ·
I'm so glad he is safe. What about a GPS collar for him?

My son's wife brought her Bernie to our family, when they got married. When we go to the lake, we always take the dogs - our 4, my son's 2 and my daughter's 1. We don't have a fenced area, so we didn't let the dogs off their leashes for quite awhile. When we let Reese (the 8 year old Bernie) off his leash, he decided to take off. Let me explain, he kind of lumbers around due to a bad hip. But he was going down a slope, so he actually moved at a decent pace. And then there were the looks back at us, a kind of "aren't you coming to get me?" He was quickly caught and is never off leash now. The payback was he had to walk back up the slope.
 
#100 ·

I'm so glad he is safe. What about a GPS collar for him?


My son's wife brought her Bernie to our family, when they got married. When we go to the lake, we always take the dogs - our 4, my son's 2 and my daughter's 1. We don't have a fenced area, so we didn't let the dogs off their leashes for quite awhile. When we let Reese (the 8 year old Bernie) off his leash, he decided to take off. Let me explain, he kind of lumbers around due to a bad hip. But he was going down a slope, so he actually moved at a decent pace. And then there were the looks back at us, a kind of "aren't you coming to get me?" He was quickly caught and is never off leash now. The payback was he had to walk back up the slope.
I loved your story!

The problem is that Griff wears no collar unless he leaves the yard, in which case he wears his chain choke collar which has his tags on it. He had a lovely collar, but his dermatologist told me to get it off him because of his allergies. His regular vet concurs that he should not wear one.

Ideally, he would be in something that glows in the dark, which I bought to go on that lovely collar back when I thought he could wear one. I'll look for a photo of it! I had to have it made by a special company that makes collars for giant dogs, but I am sure his neck has now outgrown it. Our vet seems to think his neck is bigger than anyone's. She has a Newfie Neck Fetish. She doesn't call it that, but she has a lot of Newfoundland patients and she says that she loves Griffin's build more than that of any of her other Newfs, although he is not tall enough for championship status, because he has the classic, massive Newfie neck! he had not, yet, developed it when he got this collar, though. He wasn't yet two then.


NewfieMom
 

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#95 ·
Wow I'm so pleased he's home safe, I had a lab that used to find any way to get out and he would jump on the bus if it stopped at the end of our road to let people on and off when he was passing...go to the back of the bus, sit and refuse to get off until the end stop..five miles away! We didn't know this until I happened to be passing a stopped bus with him one day and he pulled me to try to get on,..the driver said 'oh he's yours is he!? He jumps on here and won't get off until we reach the station and then he's gone in a shot!'! :uhoh: We always wondered how he got so far so quickly!
I hope you find a solution quickly, I know how determined these boys can be. :doh: And how your stomach sinks to your feet as soon as you realise they are gone...again!
Griffin, you need to stop worrying your Mum...and us! Don't do it! Please! :no:
 
#101 ·
I had a lab that used to find any way to get out and he would jump on the bus if it stopped at the end of our road to let people on and off when he was passing...go to the back of the bus, sit and refuse to get off until the end stop..five miles away! We didn't know this until I happened to be passing a stopped bus with him one day and he pulled me to try to get on,..the driver said 'oh he's yours is he!? He jumps on here and won't get off until we reach the station and then he's gone in a shot!'! :uhoh: We always wondered how he got so far so quickly!
elly, that has to be the funniest, true dog story I have ever heard! Thank you so much for sharing that!

Deb
(NewfieMom)
 
#96 ·
Omg! Glad to hear that Griffin made it through his adventures unscathed each time. This must be such a stressful thing to worry about. Hope you figure out a solution soon!
 
#102 ·
One of my best friends had a big black dog (mixed breed) named Raven. When we would go out drinking - and we lived in a very small town so we walked to the bars and staggered home, no driving involved - Raven would always follow us to one bar. There were two doors, so if he got shooed out one, he came in the other. He would not leave until he was good and ready! I think he used to go out drinking without us on occasion too!
 
#103 ·
One of my best friends had a big black dog (mixed breed) named Raven. When we would go out drinking - and we lived in a very small town so we walked to the bars and staggered home, no driving involved - Raven would always follow us to one bar. There were two doors, so if he got shooed out one, he came in the other. He would not leave until he was good and ready! I think he used to go out drinking without us on occasion too!
Well, sure. You led him into a life of sin! ;-)

NewfieMom
 
#104 ·
Deb, wow. Just catching up Griffin's holiday 'adventures'. Scary for you I'm sure. It's funny how they escape when you're never dressed for it. Had my own scare with that when Murphy took off. Night-time, Black dog, no collar, me in bare feet. Luckily we found him within an hour, he probably never heard us calling him, just followed the sound of the whistle which works great for his recall.

The gate. Yikes. The problems with having dogs who are too smart for their own good. Glad he's home safe and sound for now. Hope you have a peaceful night without searching for him.
 
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