November 2015 – Page 3 – Viktorsviews. The Next Chapter.

Go to an Art Museum Today Day

November 9, 2015Leave a Comment


Frodo- next to a painting that was done of him when he was a puppy.

November 9. Go to an Art Museum Today Day. That’s a long title. I would like to go today – but I’m not sure I’ll have time. Besides – it’s not EVERY art museum that I would want to visit. I don’t really care about pictures of the Mona Lisa. I mean she’s nice and kind of spooky with that little smile of hers – but what I would want to see is dog art.

There are two kinds of dog art. Art MADE by dogs. And art with dogs as the subject.

We have probably all seen pawprint art – where you put non-toxic paint on a dog’s paws and let the dog step on a canvas. That’s one kind. And I read about another kind of art that was done in Brazil, where they took shelter dogs and put non-toxic paint on them and they let the dogs shake off the paint – to create an abstract masterpiece. Here’ s a slow motion video of that project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgpSFvipL9w

I’m not sure I can convince my human to try this. IMAGINE trying to get that paint out of my coat. Still – the idea IS a good one to raise funds for shelter dogs

The other kind of art is done by humans – and has dogs as the subject. Dogs in art have been around since the time of the pyramids – remember King Tut’s tomb. And throughout the centuries, humans have depicted us in all kinds of ways.

Besides dog books, my human likes to collect dog art. She has some cool stuff – many of which are prints. One of her favorites is a series of prints from 1793 depicting dogs. Take a look and see if you can figure out who my ancestor was. I’m not sure!

There is a gallery in New York City that specializes in selling dog art. My human went there once. But the place that she REALLY wants to see – and the place that is on her Bucket List is the American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog. It’s in Saint Louis, Missouri. http://www.museumofthedog.org/

She can’t think of lots of other reasons to go to Saint Louis (sorry Saint Louis) – although she DOES have a friend who recently moved there. So maybe her dream will come true! It looks like a SUPER cool place – with EVERYTHING dog!

We tried to find other dog museums in the world – but didn’t have much luck. It seems that lots of museums have traveling dog art exhibits – but we didn’t see many permanent exhibits. How do I work on changing that? Seriously. Every museum SHOULD have a dog section.

So today, go to an art museum – or even visit one virtually. And don’t forget to ask where the dog section is…..

X-ray Day

November 8, 2015Leave a Comment

November 8. X-ray Day. A day to celebrate X-rays. All those radiologists and radiology technicians out there are having a special celebration. And it’s a day for X-rays in our house as well – or it should be…

Remember how my human broke her toe a few weeks ago? Well it was slowly getting better- but she was still limping. And then on Friday, when she was at work, her building had to be evacuated due to a gas leak down the street. She had to take several flights of stairs– which she hasn’t been doing. Combine that with the fact that Bucket Head stepped on her sore toe, and she was REALLY limping on Saturday. She SHOULD probably have an X-ray – but she can be kind of stubborn. And she thinks I am the stubborn one? Anyway, we sadly had to pull out of our Rally trial that we were supposed to be doing today. Team Bark was having a reunion and I was also supposed to be in Advanced. She just couldn’t limp around the ring. In fact, when she tried to practice with me yesterday, I didn’t know WHAT to do. Our whole rhythm was off. So that’s the bad X-ray story.

The good X-ray story – we HOPE- belongs to Frodo. He went to the Vet this past week and had his hips X-rayed. My human has been meaning forever to have his hips evaluated – and she finally did it. Hip problems are seen in many dogs – and since 1966 the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals has been evaluating hip X-rays. The OFA now looks at and registers lots of health issues – but it started with hips.

Apparently the “good dog” lived up to his reputation, and he didn’t even need sedation. We don’t know the results yet – so stay tuned. But paws crossed they are good. If they turn out good, and he gets other good results in his health testing, I am thinking he will need to go on-line to a dog dating site- to find himself a girl. Hey – now there’s an idea – on-line dating for dogs! What could I call it? How about can-match.com? Short for canine match. Or e-fetchingly.com? Or K9crush.com? A place for canines to connect. Surprising that no one has thought of it!

So cheers to X-rays today. And I hope all of you have a perfectly radiant day!

Book Lover’s Day

November 7, 2015Leave a Comment

November 7. Today is Book Lover’s Day. A day to celebrate reading. And did you know that DOGS can be taught to read?! It’s TRUE! A quick search of the internet revealed several videos of dogs who could read flash cards. Including a Bernese Mountain Dog! That REALLY shocked me. I just don’t see Bucket Head as being a literary kind of dog. But who knows?!

There are also programs in which children read to certified therapy dogs. That’s cool. The kids feel less pressure reading to the dogs – so it’s great practice for them. Obviously, the dogs must be calm and well trained. I’m afraid nobody in this household could qualify for THAT program. But I admire the dogs who do it!!!

My human loves to read – AND she loves to collect books. Old books about dogs. She has some dating back to the 1800’s. And of course she probably has every modern book written about Bernese Mountain Dogs and Polish Lowland Sheepdogs. We looked in the old all-breed books to see if we could find any info about us PONs. We were not successful – except for ONE book called The Book of the Dog by Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald. It was written in 1948.

The two pages talk mostly about the “large protector-dog” generally found in the Podhal and Tatra areas. But it also describes the “smaller animal of about 24 inches in height at the shoulders, weighing about 65 pounds, short-tailed, and known over almost the whole of the Polish lowland territories.” That would be us PONs. But holy moly, I don’t weigh anywhere near 65 pounds. I KNEW my human should be feeding me more!!

The article goes on to talk about other breeds related to the Polish Sheepdogs and describes what the Polish Tatra Sheepdog did for a living. They guarded the sheep and even pulled carts like Bernese! They never said exactly what we PONs did. But I did like the last line – which referred to both types of Polish Sheepdogs…”In general the Polish Sheepdog is a vigorous animal of lasting stamina (sounds good so far), sensible make-up and an essentially suspicious nature (yup – I don’t trust that neighbor’s cat), a fine and loyal companion UNDER DISCIPLINE (my human said YES – they got THAT right), but dangerous when encountered alone (and SUPER dangerous if more than one of us live in the same house).

So that’s your reading lesson on PON history for today. I think this reading stuff is very interesting – but I do fear that my human is going to try the flash card thing. I don’t follow commands when she says them – so reading commands….heaven help us….

This book has nothing to do with the dog on the cover – but it sure looks like a PON!

An Apple a day….

November 6, 2015Leave a Comment

Oh my. We had problems in our house for the past two days. And for a change, it wasn’t us dogs who were in trouble. It was our computer. Now I don’t know a whole lot about computers. I know that there are two “kinds” of humans – the PC humans and the Mac humans. It’s kind of like political parties. Just like in politics, humans switch parties. Years ago, before my time, my human was a religious PC human. Then just about the time Frodo was born she became a Mac human. And she got our computer who I call MacTavish Macintosh.

Anyway, it’s a LONG, complicated story – something about a 23 hour software download. As I understand it, computers have to get nourishment every now and then – it’s the stuff that makes them run. Kind of like dog food. Food makes us work well. And TREATS REALLY make us work well. So these downloads make the computer work well.

But our download did NOT go well. Combine download problems AND a server problem and we had a HUGE mess. The server thing is kind of like the delivery guy. He brings the food. But our server ALSO had a problem, and his delivery truck was running WAY below the speed limit. And the two problems made our computer unusable. Which would NOT have been a total tragedy. EXCEPT, my human had a lecture on MacTavish – that she was presenting Thursday afternoon.

Anyway, after many hours of anguish for my human, two hours before the lecture, MacTavish was again working. Oh and yes, she does have a backup for MacTavish – it’s kind of like having a spare bag of dog food on the shelf. BUT, the dog food on the shelf was an old version of the lecture – so she was VERY happy to see MacTavish working again. And so were we. The stress was just too much. Cough. Cough.

Anyway, when it comes to apples, I’d rather have the edible kind. I’m not REALLY a computer dog. But then again, if I wasn’t into computers, you wouldn’t be reading this story, would you?

Have a great Friday!

Coyotes

November 5, 2015Leave a Comment

So. It seems we have new company in the neighborhood. My human got a text from a neighbor that a coyote was spotted on our road twice on Tuesday. Someone spotted one in the early morning hours, and someone else saw one in the early evening hours. Apparently rumor also has it that a fox was killed by “something” too on the golf course. Spooky.

Coyotes seem to be popping up in the news more and more. As humans take over more and more of their habitat, they become more accustomed to and brave around humans. Sadly, here in Nova Scotia, in 2009, a 19 year old woman was KILLED by coyotes. That’s a pretty RARE occurrence – but it happened and raised awareness about wildlife – and being careful around wildlife. Hence the name WILDlife. Sometimes humans just don’t get it – but sadly in the case of this young woman – there was not much she could do. She was hiking in a National Park.

Some scientists are actually claiming that there is a new species – a coywolf – who is part coyote, part wolf AND part dog. I’m thinking the dog part is not a toy poodle. The range of this new species is spreading throughout the Northeast US and Canada. They are even showing up in CITIES like New York and Boston! They’ll be riding the subways next!

Of course, my human got the text about the coyote sightings at 5:30 AM – just before we went out for our morning constitutional. In the dark. And of course, as SOON as we walked out the door, I started to pull and stare at the woods. I was on full alert. There was nothing there – I just did it to tease my human. Good one.

But I WILL be on the lookout for any new “canines” in the ‘hood. And of course I’m ALWAYS on the lookout for the neighbor’s cat (who had better be careful. If that cat thought I was trouble, he may be in for a BIGGER surprise if he meets a coyote!). Come to think of it, maybe I should be going with Paxton on walks in the future. I mean what coyote in his right mind would go after Bucket Head. The coyote would probably think he’s a bear! Mind you, Frodo is able to keep me in line QUITE well – so no coyote wants to tangle with him either!

Coyotes, porcupines, raccoons, foxes – quite the menagerie in our neighborhood. Not to mention two crazy PONs and a Berner. Who, in my human’s mind, are often scarier than all the others combined!

King Tut Day. Honestly.

November 4, 2015Leave a Comment

November 4. It’s King Tut day. I have no idea who celebrates King Tut Day, but obviously someone does. But I decided to see if there was ANY connection between King Tut and dogs. And of course, there is. In fact, I found three different Tut-dog connections…

1. Apparently King Tut, the boy king, did have a dog of his own. There were even dog related items that came out of his tomb. I’m not sure what they were – likely a tennis ball for fetching. Also, the walls of tombs in Ancient Egypt often show dogs – that look kind of like Pharaoh Hounds. I didn’t see evidence of PONs or Bernese. But it’s cool to see evidence of canine buddies way back then. Probably about when my human was born.

2. In 1953, the mascot for the sports teams for Southern Illinois University was a Saluki called King Tut. He was quite the star until he was hit by a car a year later. Years later, a fraternity marked his grave with a pyramid, and in 2010 when the old stadium was torn down, they put up a big Saluki statue in his honor and they moved his pyramid to the stadium entrance. That King Tut had a pretty short reign – but they sure did honor him. Wonder if I could become a team mascot?

3. The last King Tut was a Belgian Shepherd – who was owned by Herbert Hoover, the 31^st President of the US. While King Tut used to patrol the grounds of the White House, apparently the job became too much for him and he had to be moved to a different home. He never quite got over the stress of being a Presidential pet (no wonder) and he died at 8 years of age. Politics will do that to you.

So those are MY stories for King Tut Day. Hope your day is golden!

Cliche’ Day

November 3, 2015Leave a Comment

November 3. Cliché Day. Cliches are overused phrases or expressions, that have lost their original intent or power. For example, here’s a short story with several clichés: The PON, who was fast as lightning and clever as a fox, frightened his human to death when he disappeared into the woods. But he returned in the nick of time, before she went to search for him. And they all lived happily ever after. I like clichés, but they can’t be used in “serious” writing. I decided to see if I could find any dog clichés – and as luck would have it (there’s another one!) I found several. I don’t know about the original intent for these sayings – but I do have my own definitions now:

· It’s raining cats and dogs: typical Nova Scotia weather

· Dog tired: how my human feels at 5 AM when she gets to take us for our morning walk!

· Let sleeping dogs lie: LET me stay on the human bed at night. I’m comfortable. I deserve to be there.

· You can’t teach an old dog new tricks: No point in training us -unless you have REALLY, REALLY good treats.

· Sick as a dog: gastrointestinal issues seen after eating grass. Or in Paxton’s case, anything Inedible.

· Once in a dog’s age: what I WISH our grooming routine would be.

· It’s a dog-eat-dog world: Vying for the closest spot so I can be the FIRST to get a treat. Which never works. Since I am the youngest…

· In the doghouse: where I usually am.

· It’s a dog’s life: what you humans WISH you could have!

So read between the lines for those clichés today, and have a nice day!

We LOVE you…..

November 2, 2015Leave a Comment

So my human found more of “those” websites that tell you about your dog and your dog’s behaviors. These sites explained the things that we dogs do to tell you we love you. Some of them made complete sense to me – and I am a pro at them – like wagging my tail, sleeping with my human and smiling. But some traits – well let’s see…

Another trait is to follow your human. Frodo is the one who follows her around. EVERYWHERE. He waits outside the bathroom door for her. He waits if she goes in the garage. He waits if she goes in a closet. He HAS to be where she is.

Another trait was leaning. That one belongs to Paxton. He leans on her. ALL THE TIME. They didn’t mention sitting on your feet. Paxton does that WHILE he is leaning on her. Such PERFECT behaviors for a 100 lb dog.

Another trait that says we love you is to take care of you when you are feeling sick. I’m SURE there ARE dogs who do this – but the nursing gene is not really strong in this household. I mean Paxton would eat any tissues if my human had a cold, and I would jump on her if she was lying in bed. We need to work on this one.

Face licking is supposed to be another loving behavior. My human doesn’t REALLY encourage this – because we are also good at licking our brothers. And licking the floor. And certain anatomical parts.

Another trait that was kind of weird was “peeing in front of you.” It supposedly means a dog respects you as a leader – and I guess that is a loving behavior? Try to convince THAT to my human when we pee on the pumpkin, or the solar lights, or the statue of Rocky the dog, or the NEW bush she JUST planted…Or the BBQ…..I think my human would debate this one. That’s the same site that said jumping on you is another loving behavior. Now I AGREE with this – but my human – well, again it’s one of those adorable loving gestures that is NOT encouraged. Especially with Bucket Head.

The last trait or behavior that is supposed to show that we love you is…errrrr…well I might as well just say what the article said. It’s crotch sniffing. Trust me. My human would NOT consider that to be an acceptable, loving gesture. We don’t even TRY that here.

So none of us exhibits ALL the loving traits, but each of us has our way of demonstrating that we DO adore our human. The article neglected to mention jumping for joy when she comes home. Or going through her legs. Like Paxton does. Rather dangerously. Or staring at her lovingly. OK, maybe that one doesn’t count- since we usually do it when she has food.

But we DO love her very much and we are so glad we picked her. I think we’ll keep her. And we know, that even when we are bad….she loves us too!

Shower Barking

November 1, 2015Leave a Comment

November 1. All Saints Day. Clearly this is NOT a day that refers to the dogs in THIS household.

Yesterday we were ever-vigilant for all the kids who were Trick or Treating. All one of them. Yup. That was it. But not to worry – we were prepared with enough treats for 50. So if we have a horrible storm and we are stranded, we have enough junk food to keep us alive for a month. Well at least they will keep my human alive. We can’t have the chocolates. But those fake cheese snacks could probably keep us going for a few days….

Although our Halloween adventures were pretty darn boring, Frodo did manage yesterday to keep things interesting by further perfecting an excellent canine skill. You see, Frodo is a MASTER at the art of Shower Barking. What is Shower Barking? It is a skill where a dog waits patiently until his/her human either steps INTO the shower, or is just about to step OUT of the shower – and he barks. A LOT. Like someone is either breaking into the house or at very least is waiting at the front door. It is an exact skill. If one barks TOO soon, before the human is actually wet, the human wins. BUT. If the dog waits JUST until the human is wet – and/or is ready to get OUT of the shower, the dog wins. It is SO much fun. I must say, Frodo is outstanding in this game. He doesn’t do it ALL the time. If he did, our human would know he was faking. But instead, he does it intermittently – kind of like the intermittent reinforcement humans give us dogs when training us. Or when they THINK they are training us.

Yesterday was Saturday and Frodo KNEW it. So, he figured a good game of Shower Barking was in order. He was also doing it because PAXTON got to go for a run with Jackson yesterday. Paxton. Not me. Not Frodo. Paxton.

So. My human got in the shower. Frodo listened carefully for the shower door to close. And he waited. And waited. And then he started. Shower Barking. He’s really good. He can even get Paxton and I to join in. So my human jumped out of the shower, threw on some clothes and dashed into the kitchen– only to find three dogs staring at her. There was no one at the door. SCORE. Dogs 1. Human 0. Remember – it was ME who had to wear the devil horns for Halloween. I guess Frodo won’t be wearing that angel costume for Christmas after all. Oh and by the way. NO ONE told us about the clock going back – so we were EVER helpful in getting our human up nice and early to take us out this morning. Dogs 2. Human 0.

We are SO helpful We really ARE saints…