Trike, in the film Lassie escapes from a place in Scotland and makes it back to Yorkshire ..... You can breath again, the ones with Scottish accents were to the best of my knowledge actually Scots actors ... Gregor Fischer (who played Rab C Nesbitt) and somebody whose face I knew but not the names as dog-catchers and others whose names I didn't know.  The other accents were either "posh" or northern English (though Nicholas Lindhurst sounded like he did playing "Rodney" in "Only Fools and Horses").  Peter Dinklage assumed an Irish accent which to be fair (to me at least but then I'm not from the Emerald Isle) didn't sound too bad though his American accent did come through a little at times.

Greatly relieved to hear that LiR, there is nothing worse for ruining a film than a dodgy accent*

Anyway here is the trailer, I must admit that I had never heard of this film until today;



*Luv-a-duck, Mary Poppins, whot's wrong wiv a dodgy accent

There have been some weird and maybe not so wonderful accents over the years ... somehow I was able to forgive French sounding Anne Boleyn (played by French-Canadian Genevieve Bujold) in "Anne of the Thousand Days" more than I was French sounding Morgan Le Fay (played by Eva Green) in "Camelot" (the Channel 4 version of a few years ago that mercifully was cancelled not the musical version back in the day when the late Richard Harris allegedly sang). Strangely Ms Bujold probably had the stronger French accent of the two but she was still the one that rankled less. Anne B did spend some of her formative years in France at least - Morgan le Fay would surely have sounded Celtic if anything.  Dick Van Dyke's "mocknee" has of course gone down in history .....  I am wandering away from the "doggy" aspect of the thread here though - though there's only one letter difference in the words "doggy" and "dodgy".  To get back to the "doggy" fold I liked the film of "Greyfriars Bobby" which dates from my younger days - from what I recall the powers behind the film managed to get actors with authentic sounding Scots accents.  It was a film that was played for sentiment, but a bit of sentiment now and again doesn't (in my view at least) hurt.  From what I have learned of the "Greyfriars Bobby" legend since, while Greyfriars Bobby did exist, the film may have put its own spin on the story.

Anne Boleyn probably did have a French accent. No doubt she put it on a bit for effect, too; anything French was considered tres chic at the Tudor court of the 1520s. AB used to wander about the Court openly reading the New Testament in French, wearing the latest French fashions. No wonder all the other women hated her.

Oh, dogs - forgot. Anne had a dog called Purkoy (Pourquoi). When Purkoy died (he "fell" out of a window - in all probability helped on his way), no one dared tell the Queen. In the end Henry had to inform his wife that her little pet was dead.

My favourite Tudor doggy tale is about the spaniel belonging to Charles Brandon's wife, Catherine Willoughby. Catherine hated the Bishop of Winchester, the thoroughly nasty Stephen Gardiner: she called her pet Gardiner after him. She would rebuke Gardiner in front of Henry VIII, calling him to heel and telling him he was a bad dog. Catherine was a great favourite with the king: he would roar with laughter at the joke. Bit of a dangerous game, though.

Temperance wrote:

Anne Boleyn probably did have a French accent. No doubt she put it on a bit for effect, too; anything French was considered tres chic at the Tudor court of the 1520s. AB used to wander about the Court openly reading the New Testament in French, wearing the latest French fashions. No wonder all the other women hated her.

There was a slight kerfuffle when Ray Winston played Henry VIII with an Estuary accent.

Back to doggies, on Saturday evening there was a programme about unusual animal friendships and this is one which featured between a Labrador and a Dolphin in the harbour at Tory Island;

In the early 1990s between the towns of Collioure and Port Vendres, which are on the coast just down from me here, we had Lucky and Dolphy. Lucky, a rather scruffy mongrel dog, was owned by one of the seafront bars, Dolphy was a female dolphin. Together they did a lot for the tourist trade. Sadly in about 1995 Dolphy was found washed up dead just over the frontier in Spain having apparently been hit by a speedboat.



Dolphy and Lucky 

... hardly the most imaginitive names though.

Baboons keeping dogs as pets;

A link to an article about dogs on the Titanic, some of whom survived and some of whom sadly did not.  http://www.historicalhoney.com/little-known-facts-titanics-dogs/

Look into my eyes;

Last night's opening Commonwealth games ceremony and every team was led in by:

From today's Daily Mash

Neighbourhood dogs enjoy ‘top-notch’ two-hour barking session
01-08-14
A GROUP of neighbourhood dogs said last night’s two-hour barking session was one of the best this year.


“It’s all about the pursuit of excellence”
The barking began shortly after 11pm in Peterborough and spread rapidly across a half mile radius, involving up to 14 dogs.
Martin Bishop, a black labrador, said: “I thought that session had a really good consistency. Very few lulls.
“Personally, I felt I was in very good voice. I was alternating between single, throaty barks and short bursts of extremely loud barking. I think it worked really well.”
Wayne Hayes, a springer spaniel, said: “Took me a while to get into it this time. I was tired as I’d been running around all day like a total and utter psychopath. But when a good bark starts you just get carried along with it, don’t you?
“I’m pretty sure I woke a baby, so I’m happy with my performance.”
Bishop added: “My owner came downstairs and told me to ‘shut my ******* face’. He was really angry with me, it was actually quite unpleasant. He even asked me ‘who started it’. I was like, ‘grow up’.”
“Anyway that was excellent. I feel so much better.”

Has the above to do with "the twilight barking" indulged in by the dogs in Dodie Smith's "101 Dalmations", Trike?

Edited: 5th Aug 2014 to correct "dog's" to "dogs"

My dog, a golden retriever, found that very interesting Trike, but we were both a bit bemused by the mention of "haggis hurling". Why, we both wondered, would anyone want to throw a frozen haggis down the lane? Why not just eat it?

"Is this a haggis I see before me?".

Meles meles wrote:

My dog, a golden retriever, found that very interesting Trike, but we were both a bit bemused by the mention of "haggis hurling". Why, we both wondered, would anyone want to throw a frozen haggis down the lane? Why not just eat it?

Sounds like American stereotyping, MM. (not until it was posted, did I realise the link was a year old)

You might like this site as well:

http://www.thegoldenretrieverclub.co.uk/

German Shepherds;






http://www.nsgsdc.com/breedhistory.shtml

From the National Dog Show website:


"Newcastle upon Tyne was the scene of the first organised dog show in June 1859, prior to which competitions of various sorts had been held in pubs and clubs up and down the country. The Birmingham show held in November 1859 was organised by Mr Richard Brailsford, gamekeeper. An organising committee of eminent gentlemen and sportsmen ensured the show, held in one of the galleries of the Horse and Carriage Repository, Birmingham was a successful event for the 80 or so dogs entered in the 14 classes.
Inspired by the popularity of this show the committee continued to make this an annual event and some of the gentlemen involved to became the founder members of the Kennel Club some 14 years later. The background to the early shows is fascinating.
Modern day exhibitors expect very high standards at dog shows - large rings, good layout and facilities. In the early days sawdust was the norm for the floor, the dogs were paraded between the benches and held by stewards while being judged. Lady exhibitors complained if there was too much wet floorcovering because of their flowing skirts; the exhibits were often despatched by rail.
In 1859 Pointers and Setters were the only breeds on show and there were 3 judges. Nowadays nearly 200 breeds will be judged, and Challenge Certificates will be on offer for every breed that has them. (For historical reasons the National is a representative show which entitles the Management Committee to elect a member of the Kennel Club Show Executive Committee and to have Challenge Certificates for all breeds as at Crufts and the Welsh and Scottish Kennel Clubs)."

Dog shows and the Kennel Club may have a bit to answer for;

an English Bulldog from the 1790s



and the modern version

Meles meles wrote:

"Is this a haggis I see before me?".

Meles, I completely missed this post. I take that is DD.

15 year old arrested for arson;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-29170371

Memorial to Byron's Newfoundland dog Boatswain at Newstead Abbey;

Since my new neighbours (who are actually nice people) moved in I had originally 2 dire wolves and presently 12 dire wolves living next door to me (the adult female had pups).  When they are old enough the pups will be sold.  Of course I am exaggerating somewhat - they are huskies rather than dire wolves (though I think in the first series of "Game of Thrones" husky or at least husky type dogs were used to play the Stark dire wolves).  There is a wicker fence between the two gardens but I have seen one of the dogs putting his/her snout under one part of the fence (the gardens are on a hillside so of course there is a slope).  Their owner does keep a wether eye on them but apparently one of them brought a fallow deer stag down at one time at a local beauty spot - and I've got a cat. Though I've seen her sit by the cat door without going outside when doggy has his hooter poking through the gap though I wonder should I put another strip of wood at the bottom of the fence in my Heath Robinson way to try and block the gap.  I actually think husky (huskey??) dogs are handsome creatures but I am fond of my cat.

I can tell you used to work at the Natural History Museum, LiR, most people would say their neighbours have ordinary wolves Canis lupus, but you have dire wolves Canis dirus next door. You have my sympathy, though as you say huskies are handsome doggies and often with startlingly blue eyes. But your cat may be well able to fend for herself. My little black one has recently taken to attacking the poor old dog, purely out of spite I think as it's usually when he's just quietly dozing in the sun (she obviously doesn't know the old saying about letting sleeping dogs lie). I also used to get a big dog fox regularly taking a shortcut across the garden, but since the little cat intercepted him once, jumping onto his back with all claws out, he's never done it since.

Poor little Purkoy got defenestrated last night on Wolf Hall. Hilary Mantel did not make this up: the distressing incident really happened.

http://under-these-restless-skies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/anne-boleyns-pets.html

But who was responsible for the death of the Queen's pet? Or was it, perhaps, just an unfortunate accident, as Cromwell - not very convincingly - suggested? ("Maybe his paws slipped.")

No one knows.

I blame Chapuys, the Imperial Ambassador ... they have a long history of defenestrations in Imperial lands and Chapuys was certainly very chirpy when he gleefully reported the dog's "accident" to his master, Charles V.

But re your doggy link ... I rather doubt Purkoy could be a Havanese, a dog breed that originated in Cuba and "is characterised by the charming habit of tilting their heads in an inquisitive fashion": Pourquoi? Why? Because Havanna was only founded in about 1515 just twenty or so years before Purkoy fell off his window ledge. Purkoy was probably a French bichon, a small breed of lapdog that had arisen and gained popularity amongst the French court at about the beginning of the fourteenth century.... and which indeed after crossings with maltese and spanish dogs did later in the 16th century give rise to the true Havanese. French bichons were the court lapdogs of the period, much favoured in France, as well as in the royal/ducal courts of Spain and Italy ... Henry III of France was so besotted with his that he took it everywhere with him in a specially lined and decorated basket. In England Henry VIII's court had traditionally favoured more manly dogs like mastiffs, greyhounds, lurchers and coursers, and so Anne's tiny bichon was probably seen as exotic and so trés chic.

French bichons are still around today (much favoured in my experience by snooty French ladies with blue-rinses and attitude) ... and annoying, aggressive, yappy, snappy, méchant little bichons they are too! Frankly I would fully understand if anyone, from the highest lord to the lowest servant, hadn't simply given it a discrete nudge, just to get rid of the annoying little biche.

A bichon - Do NOT be fooled by the cute, teddy-bear looks:

That's really interesting, MM - I had no idea about any of that. Thank you. The picture you have posted does look rather like Purkoy in Wolf Hall. I've tried to google an image of the canine thespian, but without success.

It was a bad night for the animals last night: seeing Henry's horse obviously dying after the terrible jousting accident was distressing too. Such very good acting in this drama - even from a horse.

Just a thought (and not that it really matters at all in the grand scheme of things), but I wonder ... since Anne's dog was probably a french bichon, and that she called it Purkoy-Pouquoi-Why .... and, given that one of the defining traits of the modern Havanese dog is the habit of tilting their heads in an appealing, inquisitive fashion, ... and that the Havenese is thought to have arisen from the bichon, crossed with other small dogs of the period, principally spanish sailors' 'toy' dogs (ie dogs bred to be small to go onboard ship as companions, and to serve as watch dogs and ratters) ..... I wonder if the "inquisitive" pourquoi-purkoy-pour'qui-why-who-what, trait comes principally from the French bichon line of court dogs, .... who maybe had been deliberately bred, or perhaps just naturally evolved, to look cutely inquisitive and so seemingly to understand whatever their besotted master or mistress said to them?

(Sorry - bit of a long Nordmann/Henry James sentence construction there).

That's all of no real importance but nevertheless I wouldn't mind betting that's how the trait gradually evolved.

An entry from the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VIII dated September 1531:

"For a cow that Uryen Brereton's greyhounds and lady Anne's killed, 10s."

Dogs attacking livestock is clearly not a new problem.

and from May of that year:

" Reward to one who brought home Ball, the King's dog, which was lost in Waltham Forest, 5s."




http://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol5/pp747-762

Here's just the thing for Anne Boleyn's greyhound, the kennel at Ightham Mote manor house in Kent ... the only Grade 1 listed kennel in the country:

I'll see your medieval kennel and raise you an iron age one.
In brochs and roundhouses, built into the walls of the entrance and just outside of the door slot, are often what might otherwise be considered guard cells, - except they are under about 1m high. Unless there was a tribe of guard dwarves that we haven't heard of, these are usually interpreted as kennels for the ravening hounds.

Here's one of the pair at Gurness:

                                                                         

Perhaps I need a scale indicator - surely that little hole is not for mail and parcels? Dog bowl? very small Island terrier? Am getting mybthreads in a twist - all right, silly point noted.

OK Ferval, I can't match your kennel on age, but maybe for sheer bling ... 

This kennel was built circa 1778 by the famous cabinet-maker Claude Sené for Queen Marie-Antoinette's pampered pooch, 'Coco', who supposedly repaid her mistress's affection by loyally forsaking the regal canine quarters, and accompanying M-A into prison, to await her majesty's 1793 rendez-vous with Mme Guillotine:



".. constructed from gilded beech and pine, and covered with luxurious velvet on the outside, the interior is lined in a striped blue and beige silk. The carved neoclassical motives throughout are of acanthus leaves and Greek keys, and are typical of the period... "

It's now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Meles meles wrote:

Here's just the thing for Anne Boleyn's greyhound, the kennel at Ightham Mote manor house in Kent ... the only Grade 1 listed kennel in the country:

Just come in and seen above posts - really interesting doggy stuff. MM, I love that posh Grade 1 listed kennel.

Trike - Ball was one of a pair. He and his chum, Cut, were always running off and being brought back by locals eager for a reward from the king. Apparently Henry paid the equivalent of £200 for their return on one occasion. You would have thought royal dogs would have been better behaved...

The little house designed for Marie-Antoinette's pet left me gobsmacked. I read that Anne Boleyn's Pourkoy was fed only on finest manchet bread - makes one wonder what delicacies the French queen's pampered pooches were offered - cake perhaps?

Any ideas about doggy food from history, anyone?

What apt timing, having just fed DD and the pussies for this evening on a mix of dry croquettes, boiled veg and pasta scraps, two out of date yoghurts, a raw egg including the shell, and a raw pig's heart, roughly chopped ...

From, 'The Sportsman's Dictionary', (1785):

"A dog is of a very hot nature: he should therefore never be without clean water by him, that he may drink when he is thirsty. In regard to their food, carrion is by no means proper for them. It must hurt their sense of smelling, on which the excellence of these dogs greatly depends. Barley meal, the dross of wheatflour, or both mixed together, with broth or skim'd milk, is very proper food. For change, a small quantity of greaves [?] from which the tallow is pressed by the chandlers, mixed with their flour; or sheep's feet well baked or boiled, are a very good diet, and when you indulge them with flesh it should always be boiled. In the season of hunting your dogs, it is proper to feed them in the evening before, and give them nothing in the morning you take them out, except a little milk. If you stop for your own refreshment in the day, you should also refresh your dogs with a little milk and bread."

.... can't you hear Howard, Duke of Norfolk, lecturing Thomas Cromwell in language just like that?

I've always found that the availability of commercial pet food to be a reliable indicator of the economic state and cultural norms of a country, particularly away from the big conurbations. Had one tried to buy a tin of Whiskas in a Spanish village or on a Greek island in the 60s, it would have provoked astonishment at such silly profligacy.  
Much the same applied to soft toilet paper.

Meles meles wrote:

I can tell you used to work at the Natural History Museum, LiR, most people would say their neighbours have ordinary wolves Canis lupus, but you have dire wolves Canis dirus next door. You have my sympathy, though as you say huskies are handsome doggies and often with startlingly blue eyes. But your cat may be well able to fend for herself. My little black one has recently taken to attacking the poor old dog, purely out of spite I think as it's usually when he's just quietly dozing in the sun (she obviously doesn't know the old saying about letting sleeping dogs lie). I also used to get a big dog fox regularly taking a shortcut across the garden, but since the little cat intercepted him once, jumping onto his back with all claws out, he's never done it since.

 
I have to own up to being lowbrow, MM. My reference to dire wolves comes from the TV show "Game of Thrones" rather than my time at the Natural History Museum.  GoT is a fantasy (loosely based in part at least on the Wars of the Roses -  well the novels that inspired the show were). Being  a fantasy it  can have  humans  interacting  with dire wolves even if  that never happened in reality. 

By the way thanks to you and Ferval for the info about the ye olde worlde kennels; in my hometown many of the older interesting buildings  were demolished in  the  1960s  though there is an old "lock-up" (where they would put a drunkard to 'sleep it off'  in  the old days) still standing and while it  is  somewhat taller I can  see  a resemblance to  the Grade I  kennel,  though the kennel may be more posh.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-31792152

and it's now reported a further two dogs have fallen ill;

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crufts-2015-irish-setter-jagger-poisoned-by-slug-killer-as-two-more-dogs-reportedly-fall-ill-10094879.html

Whilst searching for pictures and information about armour, I found this  ....

 

I showed it to Doggy-Dog but he didn't look too impressed.

I love it!

Do they do a similar suit for cats? Bosworth could do with one.

Here's a nice Saracen-style cat armour, but that's probably more suited to a Persian:



I'm guessing this is more Bosworth's thing:

I imagine it would be a job and a half to get a cat into one of those feline suits of armour.  It's bad enough when I give my cat drops in her ear (and she is a 11-12 year old spayed female who is supposed to be "docile" - I don't know her exact age because she was a rescue cat).

That doggy armour is just a modern novelty but I did find this drawing of a genuine 16th century dog armour from Spain. I knew that in South America the conquistadores took full advantage of the Indians' unfamiliarity with both horses and dogs (horses were unknown and the only domestic South American dogs were small, like chihuahuas) and used both animals for their effect of striking terror into the native populations. Aggressive-looking spiked dog-collars are quite common from the time, but I'd never come across an actual dog armour. This one isn't made of steel plate or mail, but of reinforced padded linen ... although that was probably sufficient to ward off Aztec and Inca obsidian-tipped arrows. In style it's very like the modern nylon/kevlar protective suits worn by military guard-dogs or those used to sniff out hidden explosives.
 


Talking about the military use of dogs ... didn't the Romans sometimes use big 'Molossian' mastiffs in battle? I wonder if they had armour too?

I love this:

“An Ancient Dog Grave, Unearthed During Construction of the Athens Metro” by A.E. Stallings


t is not the curled-up bones, nor even the grave
That stops me, but the blue beads on the collar
(Whose leather has long gone the way of hides),
The ones to ward off evil. A careful master
Even now protects a favorite, just so.
But what evil could she suffer after death?
I picture the loyal companion, bereaved of her master,
Trotting the long, dark way that slopes to the river,
Nearly trampled by all the nations marching down,
One war after another, flood or famine,
Her paws sucked by the thick, caliginous mud,
Deep as her dewclaws, near the riverbank.
In the press for the ferry, who will lift her into the boat?
Will she cower under the pier and be forgotten,
Forever howling and whimpering, tail tucked under?
What stranger pays her passage? Perhaps she swims,
Dog-paddling the current of oblivion.
A shake as she scrambles ashore sets the beads jingling.
And then, that last, tense moment—touching noses
Once, twice, three times, with unleashed Cerberus.

Phodography;

http://www.cnet.com/news/nikon-camera-triggered-by-a-dogs-heartbeat/

ferval wrote:

I love this:

“An Ancient Dog Grave, Unearthed During Construction of the Athens Metro” by A.E. Stallings

"It is not the curled-up bones, nor even the grave
That stops me, but the blue beads on the collar .... "

Thank-you for that ferval ... it did indeed bring a wee tear to my eye. Especially when I look upon my pooch, my doggy-dog, my loyal canine companion, sprawled at the foot of the door .... asleep (maybe for the instant), yet ever awake and guarding the house. Loyal above anything else.

Yet at the same time I am acutely aware that his days are numbered. He is now six, and he might well live to be twice that ... but not much more ... and that's really not so far away is it?. But there you go ... we're all mortal, dogs as well as men. And who would actually want to live forever anyway, knowing that it would inevitably be without all one's dearest loves, who themselves being mortal, had already passed on before you into the shades ...

Now you've got me going as well......... But at least I've be able to pay the ferryman for my three dogs, and more cats, to make that final voyage as smooth and comfortable as possible.

Although I suspect they would probably have sniffed Ceberus's bum