You know your Newf is big when.....

All newf owners hear it at one time or another. "Man, that dog is HUGE!" To us, our dogs are proper sized dogs, it's everyone else's dogs who are small. A friend (Jack V.) posted this observation to the Newf-List, and fellow listers chimed in with their stories, which they have kindly allowed me to share here.

You know your Newf is big when......

... a first-time visitor to your house is greeted in the foyer by your 8-month old 80lb female Newf and he says "Wow, what a big dog." You then say "Actually, she's our small dog; the big one's over there" while pointing to the family room, where your 7-yr-old male Newf is getting a belly rub from a couple of kids and doing a very good imitation of a bear skin rug. Visitor's jaw drops perceptibly. It's a funny reminder of perspective: Newfs long ago stopped seeming big to me; most other dogs just seem small.... ;)
Jack V.

...Or when people say, "You're going to put those dogs in that car?" or stare & point when we go down the road.
Susan, Deacon, and Lyric

...ah yes, the stare and point ... my daughter always laughs her head off in the car when that happens! She'll tell me to drive over to a crowd of people just for the reactions. Or here with a snow covered street we hook them up to the sled and you should see the people looking out their front windows as we pass by!
Dorrie and Sammy

...When people comment on Rocky's size, I always deny that he's a dog, and say "Oh, you mean my web-footed Holstein?"
Demeter and the gang

...Yes, I have to agree. Here's a quick little story about Watson and the FedEx guy.

Watson loves spending time out on our fully enclosed porch. He has his box which he sits on, a box of old magazines that I never got around to throwing out. It's now officially 'Watson's box". He also sits in a wicker chair positioned right up near the window so either way, Watson has a great view of the entire block.

Well, a few days ago, I received a delivery from FedEx. I keep the door locked, so he rang the doorbell. Watson went with me to answer the door. Watson stayed on the stairs while I opened the door and greeted the FedEx guy. When I looked at him, his eyes were totally focused on Watson. He never said a word to me...not Hi...nothing. So, I said.."This is Watson...he's a Newfoundland." Watson never moved and the guy never said a word. Just kept looking at Watson. I wasn't sure if he was in shock or awed. Very politely, and trying to distract him, I thanked the guy and he very slowly walked away from my house. Watson watched him walk all the way back to his truck.

I guess I, too, forget other people's reaction to a big, black Newfoundland. So, was it because he saw a big black dog sitting in a chair on the porch? Or possibly that he had never seen a dog that big, I don't know. Whatever it was, Watson left him speechless. :)
Sharon and Watson

... I have to chime in here, too. The other day, while Brogan and Weezie were out in the backyard, a guy from the gas company came to the front door to check something in the house. I directed him on thru the house following behind him, when he passed by the back door. Unknown to me, Weezie was standing up on her hind legs peering in thru the screen door to see who came. All 125 lbs. of her, stretched out full height. When the guy abruptly stopped dead in his tracks and clasped his heart with both hands, I ran smack into him. He didn't even notice. Continuing to clasp his heart in his hands, he simply said....."Dear God!" : )
Pat

...My own favorite big dog story was driving with my Mack, who was a very long slabby dog, and when I was in paying for my gas, the teller asked me how many dogs I had in the car. I answered "Just one..." and then followed her line of vision, to see Mack standing in the back seat of my car with his head out one side window, and part of his tail sticking out the window on the other side, wagging...
Cindy

...My favorite just happened again this morning! Jade, my very tiny 7.5 year old granddaughter is bored, she wants to take the dogs for a walk. We bundle up and put leashes on 135 lb Zulu and 25 pound Chewy ....
We go out the door with Grammy holding both leashes until the boys figure out we mean to WALK not take a run down the hill. Then, Jade takes Zulu (who has manners on a leash) and I walk Chewy (who will still cut and run, or try to, after the squirrels in the trees). We stop traffic, and people ask Jade how she walks a dog that is 6 times her size.

Jade responds: "It is easy, because he knows I'm the boss. I just walk and he comes with me."
Good boy ZULU!
Mary

...We actually put our meter reader to a run one morning when we surprised her checking the meter. We were going out for our first tinkle of the day, and she was checking our gas usage. She almost howled when she saw Nanook coming out the door, yelled, "I'm just checking the meter!!!" and RAN for her car.
Bwa ha ha ha.
I'm hoping she misread it that day in our favor.
Vanessa and Nanook

...We had gotten a 5 month old Dogue puppy. She has now topped out at about 100 pounds. My Mom keeps telling us we need to get her to the vet because 'There's something wrong with her - she's not growing.'
Our UPS guy tosses the packages from a distance and runs like hell!!!
Lori

...
This thread is so funny! My son had 3 teenage girls over last night...he said they squealed and yelled "OMG BEARS" Wish I would of been downstairs for that one!

...Tonight at Petsmart...granddaughter brought grandmother over to see what she found. All she could say was "oh, oh, oh, oh, oh" each "oh" got higher pitched then the one before. I had a friends Newf with me, so maybe thats why she hit such a high note. : ) After she stopped doing, whatever it was she was doing, I told her they wouldnt hurt her. She finally came over and pet Josie, and seemed to have a little bond going....til Josie laid the "Newfie lean" on her....luckily she was close enough to the shelves, and she didnt fall far....she picked up the treat that got knocked down, and that bond was broken. And she had nothing else to say to me. I dont see a Newfie in her future...EVER!
Tara and Josie

...We took Nanook shopping today and one little old lady exiting the store saw Nanook and said, "do you have a trailer for that thing?" with a smile on her face. I laughed and told her, "heck no. I rode him here!"
Vanessa and Nanook

... My favorite moment was when I was taking Elvis on his daily walk, and a delivery man yelled out his window that he thought it was illegal to keep bears as pets!!
Bronn

...I like to get folks before they can ask. When we walk on our favorite trail and I see another dog-walker's mouth open, I say, "Wow, that's a tiny dog you have!"

Now I'm going to make a bumper sticker which says, "Newfs are normal-size dogs, all others are stunted."