Mixed Breed Dog Carving

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This is my latest….and one of the few mixed breed dogs I have done. This is Kaylee. She is black to charcoal with two small white patches on her back feet, a streak of white down her neck into her chest and some grey muzzle even at 7-8 years old.
Kaylee was our rescue dog. I think this might be the only carving I have loaded here that was not a customer job. She just passed two weeks ago at 14-15 years of age from cancer. This was one of my dogs I could carve her as I saw fit. So I carved her at age 7-8 so that she would be proportionally accurate to period in her life and attractive as a carving.
We did not know when we rescued her at about 6 months of age that she had been beaten mercilessly. Dogs are never afraid of me…not ever . She was so afraid of men when we got her that the first time I put my hand down to pet her, she squatted and peed right there on the floor. Now the first 3 months of a dog’s life, they don’t know or understand anything. So that means they treated her so badly for the 2nd three months of her life that in that short space of time they had just about completely wrecked her.
So how does a dog like our Kaylee have fun? Fun for Kaylee was stopping fights…fights between other dogs, fights between people…that was her thing. She would walk right into a dog fight at the point when the dogs gave her just the tiniest bit of room to get herself between them, stick herself right in the middle of it and separate the two dogs. She was a big girl. So she basically got her way. With people, she would stick herself right between two people she thought were getting out of hand and make a judgement about which was the more out of control…face that person and walk him away from the other combatant grinning and wagging her tail the whole time.
Notice how I carved her tail. If she wanted to get your attention without being too threatening about it she would stand with her head turned just as you see it here and wag her tail purposefully whomping you with it…just her way of sending a friendly warning that your temper might be getting the better of you and you might just want to rethink things a bit. She was so good at stopping violent activity that her nickname was Police Dept. She was a great dog. I really feel fortunate to have gotten her.... fortunate for us and for her as through no fault of her own...she was a handful. I am pretty well convinced that virtually anybody else would have brought her to a shelter and she would have been put down because nobody would have wanted to put up with her special needs. I really miss her already and probably always will. Hope you guys enjoy her carving.

Thank you for the inspiring carving, and for the story of Kaylee.

Thanks Eric. Don't know how Kaylee got to be Kaylee. Did she come out of one of those dog fighting camps where they beat her mercilessly and continually trying to get her attitude up to "fighting trim"? Did she come out of something like that not only petrified of men but indelibly imprinted with a desire to stop fights FOREVER? I just don't know.

Here instinct to stop them that while being a fairly obedient dog within her special limitations, off leash she would gently push me aside or try to and go do her job as she saw fit. On leash she would try to drag me over there. If I was worried about her, I had to find a way to get her isolated from the fight. As I said, she was a big girl. So physical or mechanical barriers were mere inconveniences to her, of small consequence and literally not worthy of her respect.

When I get another opportunity between customer jobs, I think I will carve her in a more sympathetic and carefree pose and show them as the two faces of this one dog. I did enjoy being able to choose Kaylee's age for the carving and the ability to carve her as an adult, solid physical specimen as opposed to a senior dog. A good number of the dogs I carve are senior dogs and I am often caught on the cusp of doing an unflattering carving vs an unrealistic carving. Some of my legs in these carving are too heavy as a means of trying to hide a girth that is a bit out of control for the senior dog.

But Kaylee is spot on true to life for her appearance at ages 7-8. So any criticism of this carving as a work of art positive or negative is much appreciated.

Thanks again Eric.

Interesting story and good work. I don't often get a chance to agree with "all sides".

Thanks Mel. Kaylee had a good and happy life surrounded by people and pets that cared for her. So what must have started as just the most horrendous start of a dog's life you can think of at least turned out OK once we got her. She was a real handful for sure. Her early life turned her into a fear biter for one and that was just one of if not the worst of what she came out with from that experience. So I really had to make sure she was not in danger of biting anybody.....probably more trouble than your average bear dog owner would have put up with for long.