What's there?

This morning I went for a dog walk with my sister-in-law's better half and their dog. The dog ambles along looking for deer and things, he is very different from my mother-in-law's poodle who is more smell oriented and is keen to sniff under things and search in the undergrowth.

The breed is old but new. It's been used as guard and herding dog for cattle in Flanders for a number of years, and has probably had Irish wolfhound or Scottish deerhound added in. During both world wars it was nearly driven to extinction so the modern version is very much a reconstructed breed.

He is very friendly and playful if he knows you, but the breed is a good guard dog, so needs to be watched when new people they don't know are about as at up to 40 kg for a dog you don't want to be in the wrong side of them. He is quite fast for a big dog and has a rolling gait when he moves, and he is a lot more agile and nimble than you would think, but nothing like my mother-in-law's poodle who is really agile.