One last thing. I love both breeds and have considered both but I can't face another dog lost to cancer.
That said, the newfoundland is the most noble of dogs. If any breed can be summerized by words then the words for the Newfoundland are:
For Valor
Below a roll:
Gander:
During the battle, an enemy grenade landed near a group of Canadian soldiers. Probably out of concern for his friends, Gander grabbed the grenade in his mouth and carried it to where it would do no harm. Unfortunately, the grenade exploded in Gander's mouth, killing him instantly. He had given his life saving the lives of the Canadian soldiers.
Gander, the Newfoundland dog, was posthumously awarded the prestigious Dickin Medal, equivalent to the Victoria Cross, the highest award given to soldiers of the British Commonwealth for their acts of bravery.
Seaman:
Meriwether Lewis (Famed Explorer):
" a bear came within thirty yards of our camp last night and eat up about thirty weight of buffaloe suit which was hanging on a pole, my dog seems to be in a constant state of alarm with these bears and keeps barking all night" – June 27, 1805
Some were curious "last night we were all allarmed by a large buffaloe bull, when he came near the tent, my dog saved us by causing him to change his course" – May 29, 1805
And other guests desired to travel with the Corps " walking on shore this evening I met with a buffaloe calf which attached itself to me and continued to follow close at my heels untill I embarked and left it. It appeared allarmed at my dog which was probably the cause of it’s so readily attaching itself to me" – April 22, 1805
Tang
In 1919 a ship crashed off the coast of Newfoundland during a storm and began to break against the rocks. Numerous attempts to get a rope across to the ship failed until Tang took the rope and made it to the rapidly sinking
Ethie. Securing the rope, 92 people were brought to safety thanks to Tang.
Tang was awarded a medal of Meritorious Service by Lloyds of London.
Rigel
Titanic lifeboat 4 was saved from being struck by the rescue ship
Carpathia when Rigel, who had spent three hours swimming in the sub-freezing waters of the Atlantic, began barking so loudly that the hands aboard
Carpathia saw the lifeboat and managed to push it to the side before it was struck. Nobody about lifeboat 4 was strong enough to shout and the captain of
Carpathia noted the lifeboat would likely had been lost had it not been for Rigel. Rigel was rescued. His owner,
Titanic First Officer Murdoch, did not survive.
I know I've left out possibly hundreds of Newfies who have devoted their lives to serve and save humans, sometimes at the cost of their own lives. This is just a sample of what this remarkable breed has done for us.
Only one man, one of the greats of literature, has managed to even vaguely express the proper gratitude mankind owes to the Newfoundland...
Boatswain
Companion of George Gordon, 6th Baron Byron (Lord Byron)
A tenant farmer told that whilst by the Upper Lake at Newstead he sometimes saw the poet "get into the boat with his two noble Newfoundland dogs, row into the middle of the lake, then dropping the oars tumble over into the middle of the water. The faithful animals would immediately follow, seize him by the coat collar, one on each side, and bear him away to land..."
Upon Boatswain's death, the poet was moved to write:
When some proud son of man returns to earth,
Unknown to glory, but upheld by birth,
The sculptor's art exhausts the pomp of woe,
And storied urns record who rests below;
When all is done, upon the tomb is seen,
Not what he was, but what he should have been.
But the poor dog, in life the firmest friend,
The first to welcome, the foremost to defend,
Whose honest heart is still his master's own,
Who labors, lives, fights, breathes for him alone,
Unhonored falls, unnoticed all his worth,
Denied in heaven the soul he held on earth.
While man, vain insect, hopes to be forgiven,
And claims himself a sole, exclusive heaven.
Ye! Who behold, perchance, this simple urn,
Pass on; it honours none you wish to mourn.
To mark a friend's remains these stones rise,
I have never known but one - and here he lies.
To his great friend, Byron erected a monument and upon it engraved the following, Boatswain's monument well serves his entire breed:
Near this spot are deposited the remains of one who possessed Beauty without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity, and all the Virtues of Man, without his Vices. This Praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery if inscribed over human ashes, is but a just tribute to the Memory of Boatswain, a Dog.
I do not know too too much about either breed. I've been around them in dog training classes before, but that's about it. And I've researched them a little, but not too much.
