Black dog

[derek kelly]

Another site that I frequent is strictly for ex forces, many of them suffer serious depression or PTSD, they refer to their low points as a visit by the black dog, I don’t know who coined that phrase & I really don’t want to make light of their suffering but personally I think the term Black dog is not really an appropriate title when you consider many people going through depression or PTSD rely on Man’s best friend to get them through it. Just my take on it.

 

[slim63]

Its just an expression & if it conveys a meaning everyone understands it serves the purpose, no different from I've got a monkey on my back or any other similar expressions

 

[derek kelly]

Its just an expression & if it conveys a meaning everyone understands it serves the purpose, no different from I've got a monkey on my back or any other similar expressions

I understand that but it just seems odd that you’d refer to a dog visiting as a bad thing, maybe because a couple of my GSD’s were black & helped me through a bad time in my life.

 

[vbird]

Winston Churchill was known to talk about his "Black Dog" (depression) not sure if it came from there or somewhere before. Australia has a charity group run by bikers called Black Dog Ride, they do a lot of good things around Aus, I`ve been on a couple of ride outs with them, great way of raising awareness for people who are in a bad place mentaly, their mascot is...yep, a black dog, they called it Winston. Look them up, the founders story is a tough read.

The problem we have in this society is some people can only see the bad side of everything and twist meanings to suit an argument when there isn't one, the press are a great example.

As an aside to the above, we were on a Black Dog ride out in 2013 about 600 of us in total, with police escort for most of the ride, apart from when we were out in the bush about 100klms from anywhere, and the cops had set up a speed trap hidden in the bushes, my how we laughed. think I was riding about 3 different bikes that day.

 

[Cougar377]

I know what you mean Derek. I've had several Newfoundland dogs over the years. They've all been black ones (as opposed to the black & whites and the brown ones) and I defy anyone to stay depressed for long in the company of one of those big slobbery bears.

 

[derek kelly]

I know what you mean Derek. I've had several Newfoundland dogs over the years. They've all been black ones (as opposed to the black & whites and the brown ones) and I defy anyone to stay depressed for long in the company of one of those big slobbery bears.

My idea of heaven.

 

[Squag1]

Black Dog was a character in Treasure Island.
https://www.google.com/search?safe=...QQxNS4xmAEAoAEBsAEP&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-hp

 

[slim63]

I think its partly to do with black being associated with bad moods or evil...…………. its a good analogy if you think of a big nasty black dog attacking you (coujo ?)
in those terms its quite a good descriptive saying if you think of how helpless you would be if ten stone of rotty wanted to feed on you as that's what depression is like eg something happening you can do very little about no matter how hard you fight

 

[DEG5Y]

Also used to represent evil, as in The Omen.

 

[derek kelly]

A puma is black & more likely to rip you to shreds

 

[Cougar377]

And then there's Led Zep's Black Dog, which is about..... a black dog.

 

[Minkey]

If I'm having a down day, I always say I'm down in the dumps

 

[derek kelly]

If I'm having a down day, I always say I'm down in the dumps

As kids we used to love playing in the council dumps.

 

[Cougar377]

If I'm having a down day, I always say I'm down in the dumps

If I'm having a down day, I always say [CENSORED].

 

[Squag1]

As kids we used to love playing in the council dumps.

Used to go there to. It was at the end of the village, long since cleaned up and gone.
There was a pipeline going through it to the treatment works which was encased in concrete and on concrete pillars. It was quite a few feet above the ground as it progressed. So the dare was to walk along it until you came to the fence.

If you fell off at one point you would be up to your knees in sludge as it was beside the river.

 

[JayTee]

As kids we used to love playing in the council dumps.

Built me first pushbike with parts off our dump, had to keep it at a mates place though cos it didn’t have any brakes and dad would have probably quarantined it.
Had cow horns as well much prized back in the day.

 

[slim63]

Although the pit had been shut a while when I moved into the village there were still people cleaning up so we would always watch out for the buckets going up the derrick then hang on the side for as long as we dared before dropping off, more than one got it wrong & left it too long so got all the shit in the bucket dumped on them

Next to that was the tip it was a lot smaller but full of all sorts of stuff we would ride bikes down it & hope not to get it wrong & end up in the sludge pit at the bottom, rumour had it that someone drowned in there at some point in the distant past & I can well believe it

 

[ogr1]

Ever had a dump and a down day..It's feckin murder.