Gatton Country Fair near my Surrey home often has a Newfoundland dog water rescue team doing displays in one of the lakes with their owners.
These working dogs love being in the water, and are incredibly strong, and they do various mock rescues. These include jumping after their owners from an inflatable boat and towing up to 5 people ashore at once, and even towing the boat itself, complete with passengers.
I’ve been along to see them several times now, and I’m usually with other people, but last time I was earlier than my family and I had my sketchbook with me. I sat alongside the resting dogs in the glade for a short time during their first display and did a couple of quick sketches of these gorgeous dogs.
Newfoundland dog quick sketches
By the time the dogs were doing their second display of the day my step-daughters had arrived, along with my 23-month old grandson, who absolutely loves animals. When the enormous Newfoundland dogs were pointed out to him, he exclaimed “a bear!” and kept repeating it, refusing to believe they were dogs, even when he heard one of them bark! One of the friendly owners took my grandson and his mother to meet one of the dogs (bears!) under the trees, which was really lovely of him.
If you haven’t seen these amazing dogs in action, you can find out more about the Newfs in Action team and the funds they raise for various charities here – look out for the Newfoundland dogs water rescue displays across the UK.
The dogs were great, but I can’t wait to show my grandson a real bear!
To see paintings of bears (dogs?!), take a look here!
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