After reading houndys sad experience today, I felt like telling that not all humans are son. Children are different, maybe there is still some hompe..?

Today I took two of my dogs to the park behind the school. My deerhound, and my wolfhound. On friday afternoon there is some play-arrangement with no scheduled lessons, if possible the younger kids are outside.

We had almost passed the school without any kids caught, as the dogs are so large, i keep them on leash there. Thus the kids who want to talk to the dogs can come and talk, while the others can leave it. My wolfhund began to howl, looking desperately towards the school.
But then the kids came, and soon both dogs were surrounded, being scratched really everywhere. My wolfhound chewed a girls finger, she found it funny. His big molars could have destroyed her young hand, but she just had some saliva on er fingers.
They have been playing something, as some of the kids had green and bue face paint. It must have tasted good. The dogs licked the face paint off. A broad IW tongue is effective in a kid's face. The narrower deerhound tongue gets better into the corners.
Today was last day of school, at least for the oldest classes. It is tradition that they bomb the younger classes with caramels from the upper windows (and sometimes waterbombs afterwards). At least caramels were readily awailable, and soon my deerhound was chewing on a caramel. They put two in my IW as he has a larger hatch.
One of the teachers came, not to complaint, but to scratch the dogs, and point out that they had misssed some face paint on Robert. The narrow deerhound tongue completed that holiday. The teachers were not pity about the kids being licked by dogs with heads in the same heigth as the kids heads. Comfortable working position for the dogs by the way.
The dogs were carefully investigated, like aliens from another planet would be by scientists. Lips lifted, and teeth admired. Ears looked into, nose and the looong tails checked out. They already knew the tongues of course.
Dogs that eat green face paint and caramel seem to produce more saliva. The wolfhound shaked his head, and the teacher and I succeded to clear a kid-free path in the centrifugal line of his head, so that no kids were hit, as if it would make any difference after they had already licked their face paint off.
Kids want to know, and I tried to answer properly. I think they deserve genuine answers, allthough without dealing with the inner structure of DNA molecules.
Lot of questionss were made. What are their names, how old are they, how much do they eat. These were common questions. But there were more triggy questions too.
Why does that one have so many bones. They pointed at my deerhound, because his ribs and spinal column is easy to feel when scratching and patting.
I told that hounds are fast runners, and that a fat dog cant run fast. Told that my IW can drag me on bicycle up to 45km/h witout me having to touch the pedals, but htat he burns out after one kilometer. And that my deerhound has the same number of bones as my wolfhound, or actually all other dogs.
A boy dragged a soft bag with two balls out from somewhere between my deerhounds' hindlegs and asked "what is this".
I told what it is. Penticton did not care, those kids up front had just given him another caramel.
Is it a boy or a girl, asked by the boy with the soft bag in his hands... Ok, my first explanation might have been better.
Why does the two dogs have different colour?
Well, they are not same family, and you kids dont have the same haircolour either, eh?
Then came the quizkiller questions.
Why does your dogs have black lips?
I have no idea how to explain to a child, or anyone else actually, why my dogs have black lips.
What would you have answered a child on that question, trying to be honest?

Hes been eating coal?

What fun you have with your hounds KimC! I'm afraid I would have passed that black lip question back to the teacher. Wonderful to be reminded of the many well adjusted dog lovers out there, particularly as you say, after houndy's traumatic experience. I hope she reads this as it will uplift her I'm sure. Thanks for sharing.

Hello Kim,

Thanks for the interesting report over your hounds and the childrens.


Best regards
Joerg and Yoki

Now I know.

Why the lips are black.

First, the lips are an important signaling mechanism in the communication between dogs. Before we began to change things, dogs/wolves had a light-coloured muzzle, where black lips will stand clear visible.

Second, black skin has a better ability to withstand being exposed to sunlight. Also the hairless areas around the eyes are black in "original" dogs, as are the lips, and nose.
Rosa/lightbrown noses, lips, etc, is something that human infuence has created.

Oh Kim - you do make me laugh what a lovely story We can across some school kids out on a field trip and them and the teachers were fasinated by my hounds and like yours, asked loads of questions about them. It is a lovely experience to be able to show them off. Well done