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Red, yellow, green or pink dog? Yellow Dog Project

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2013-02-23 11:50:38 - Graham Ellis

Is your dog a yellow dog?

It takes a strong man to wear pink - and Billy is nothing if not strong. And the pink rosette tells you that he came in 5th in last June's dog show in Bristol in (as I recall) the rescue greyhound class. That was the day he showed how untypical of greyhounds he is by fidgetting, barking, and generally becomeing the joke naughty / awkward dog of the show. "It's Billy again!"


Gypsy looks good in green - and those rosettes indicate that she came 4th in the rescue lurcher class, and in one of the other classes she was entered for. Probably something like "dog with sweetest temprament", where she contrasted Billy that day!


What would a yellow rosette have meant that day?

It would have meant that somedog came in third in someclass. It's hard to find out for sure, but I think the stanards British colours for rosettes are Red (1st), Blue (2nd), Yellow (3rd), Green (4th), and Pink (5th) ... with the American system starting off with Blue (1st), Red (2nd), Yellow (3rd) ... and white comes in there somehere too?

The Yellow Dog Project (their web site encourages me to reproduce the logo) encourages owners of dogs that need a little more space to have them wear a yellow ribbon or something yellow on their lead. It could be that a dog's scared or reactive around other dogs, has health issues or is in training. The general public (and especially other dog walkers) are then encouraged to give the yellow dog a little more space than they normally would.

The overall idea seems like a good one to me ... but it would need to be taken up quite strongly within an area to be effective. Otherwise, I think it could be counterproductive - "what a lovely dog - why's he got a yellow ribbon on his lead?". And do you remember "tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree" ... which asks a loved one to tie a ribbon on a tree if a long-separated partner is welcome back. The song ends with tears of joy ... "and what do I see, a HUNDRED yellow ribbons round the old oak tree".