On this day in 1978,  a St Bernard was awarded the title as the World’s strongest dog, pulling a 2909-kg  (5055 lb) load.  Since then, people still do this form of competition with their dogs, but it has been controversial.  Some people say it can be very hard on a dog and can cause serious injuries.  The proponents compare it to human powerlifting and strongman competitions.  I’m not so sure. 

Mind you,  Velcro dog and I could probably pull that amount of weight if you put a food bowl in front of us.  And just think how we were able to pull the Hulk during the whole duck fiasco.  And then we have pulling a cart – which Paxton used to do.  That’s quite different than weight pulls– as draft dogs are not pulling  something the weight of a Volkswagen. 

The pulling topic kind of goes along with the fact that according to the crazy calendar, today is also National Tug of War Tournament day.  I LOVE to play tug.  But it is ALSO another controversial practice.  Some people argue that if you allow your dog to tug, he will become aggressive.  My human feels that as long as your dog is trained to release the toy on command, tugging CAN be fun.   And good exercise.  Even for the human.  Velcro dog is a good tugger and as SOON as my human says “stop” he does.  I’m not QUITE that willing to give up the tug toy.  But I will.  Especially if enticed by a treat.  Treats make my world go round.

The other thing that we dogs are good at is pulling and tugging on human heartstrings.  We excel at that!

Well excuse me while we go out for our morning constitutional.  And I promise not to pull.  Maybe…

July 20.  Today is Moon Day. On this day way back in 1969, two guys by the names of Aldrin and Armstrong took “one giant leap for mankind” on the moon.  My ancient human actually remembers it. 

The word lunatic is said to derive from the Latin word lunaticus which means “of the moon” or “moonstruck”.    Lunatic can refer to mental illness or even foolish, erratic behavior.  It is a word occasionally used to describe me.  Actually, frequently used. 

The Full Moon is known to bring out unusual behavior in people and in animals.  One study reported an increase of 28% in dog visits to emergency rooms during the Full Moon.  My human decided to look back in my blog – and sure enough – SOME of my bad behavior was right around a Full Moon.  Like that encounter with the porcupine!  That explains it.  Mind you….there was lots of bad behavior and it didn’t have ANYTHING to do with the phase of the moon.  But if I can find an excuse, I’ll use it.

So even though the Full Moon was last night, I invite all my canine friends to go out tonight and give it a howl.  

Have a good one!

July 19.  According to the crazy Calendar, today is Stick out your Tongue Day.  And no, I don’t make these up.

Sticking out one’s tongue is generally not considered to be a polite thing to do.  Unless you are some kind of rock star.  

Anyway, as we all know, my human LOVES to take photos of us.  And I have talked about how she takes 3,974 shots to get one that she likes.  Which requires that we dogs sit and behave.  Now sometimes, I will practice picnore – the art of looking anywhere, except at the camera.  Or when that fails, my favorite thing to do is stick out my tongue.  My human generally deletes those photos, but she decided to look back to the beginning of the year – and to see if she could find any.  And guess who was the consistent tongue sticker outer?  Moi.  Of course.  And here are some  samples for this year.

Getting two dogs to take a good photo is tough.  And three is nearly impossible.  It’s a miracle my human actually got good shots of me, Velcro dog and Bucket Head together.  I think it’s time we have three dogs again.  But I’m not so sure I will be able to convince my human.  But you never know…

Happy Tuesday.  And no sticking out your tongue.  Unless you are a dog and your human is driving you crazy taking photos….

So I have decided I am not moving to Florida.  Or Texas.  Or anywhere hot.  Not that my human has any plans to do so – although I KNOW I will hear her saying that she wants to around mid-January. And no offense to anyone who lives there – but I just don’t know HOW any of you dogs survive.  I mean we have had some hot weather – which is in the 80’s – and CLEARLY not as hot as places in the south.  And even with our moderate heat, my human won’t let us play fetch.  ESPECIALLY during the day.  Even when she DOES let us play in the early morning or evening, when the temperatures have cooled down, we don’t get to play very long. I am SO bored.

Yesterday my human got this bright idea about how too keep us cool.  She remembered she had these canine cooler coats.  You get them wet, put them in the fridge and then put them on your dog. They are made of a chamois-like absorbent type of material, so although they are damp, your dog doesn’t get wet.  Seemed like a perfect idea.  With one SMALL glitch.  Both of them were made for a Bernese Mountain dog.  So obviously WAY too big for us PONs.  Velcro dog didn’t seem to mind wearing the cool, but oversized garb.  But me?  NOT. A. CHANCE.   I kept trying to chew it off – so immediately after my human manged to get the photo, off it came.  And I ran to the garage door to stare at it – with the hope that the fetching toys would come out.  No such luck.

Today is Monday, and the last CRAZY week my human has at work.  She loves her job, but her days are quite long right now.  Then one more week of work and THEN she will be OFF for a few weeks.  And she promised me that SOMETHING will be happening while she is on vacation.  Maybe we are going on another road trip?  Or maybe SHE is going somewhere.  The excitement is building and the countdown is on.  But I’m not sure what I’m counting for!

Have a happy Monday!  And keep your cool.

July 17.  According to the crazy calendar, today is World Emoji Day. Emojis are those little symbolic cartoon-like images that first appeared in Japan on mobile phones in the 1990’s.  They started with smiley-type faces and have now exploded in a huge variety of images – that include faces, clothing, animals, places, weather, tools – you name it.  People use them all the time to communicate.  No wonder kids can’t spell today!

With the recent release of the film, The Secret Life of Pets (which my human has yet to see), there is even a site where you can create your own emoji to resemble your dog or cat.  My human tried it.  But it looked nothing like a PON. But here it is if you want to give it a try!
http://www.mypetmoji.com/

So in honor of World Emoji Day, allow me to write a very short story about my day yesterday.  In emojis!

 🌅 😴  🐶🐶  🔊  😩  🐶🐶   🔊  😕  🐾 🌞 🌲 💩💩 😊     

🐶🐶 🍲 🍌

🐶🐶  🎾  😓

🐶🐶 🍪  😐 

🐶 🐇 😳  😠

🐶 🏡 😅

🐶🐶 🍲

 🌠 🐶🐶 💤 😃 🍷

Have a fabulous Sunday!!   👍

My campaign for DOTUS has begun.  Leave it to my human to find a website where dogs are running for President.  I think I may have started too late – because right now, I am in 1219th place.  With one vote.
https://wagwalking.com/dog-president/pres-viktor

My human thought it would be clever to put in a photo with me and George Washington – but my head is half cut off and I don’t think it is my most flattering shot.  She should have used my Donald Trump shot.  Then again.  Maybe not.

Right now a pug named Moose is the front runner. With over 6,000 votes.

I was going to put in a photo of me and Frodo – because he would be my Vice President but I suppose I would have been accused of nepotism…But heck, I’ve never been bankrupt and I carefully monitor my emails…. So what’s a little nepotism?

Interesting that other people are considering a dog for President…

As I mentioned yesterday, something is going on around here.  My human has been on the phone and talking rather excitedly.  I THOUGHT I heard the word “pony.”  But I haven’t seen my human building a barn, so that’s unlikely.  I WONDER what is going on…

Have a great Saturday!

Well the front page of the Halifax paper had a story on some special dog news.  In fact, the news has also been on TV and radio.  A local dog just got a Canadian Agility Championship title.  Which is cool but she is certainly not the first dog to get one.  But what IS remarkable is that she is believed to be the first DEAF dog in Nova Scotia to get one!

The nine year old Border Collie was surrendered to the SPCA when she was a pup – because she was believed to be untrainable.  But that didn’t stop her owner, Adina MacRae from trying.  And after 7 years, the dog (named Seven) attained the challenging title.  Seven learned to follow her owner’s body language and silent gestures as to where to go on the courses – because we dogs pick up a LOT from human body language.  So after hard work and perseveration, they made it.  I guess Seven really IS a lucky number. 

My human was encouraged to know that a deaf dog CAN be trained.  Because as we all know, I CAN be deaf at times.  But my deafness is selective. BecauseI sure can hear that treat jar being opened – no matter WHERE I am!

And in other news, something ODD is going on around here.  I’m not sure WHAT it is – but I have a sense, something is about to happen.

Stay tuned and have a great Friday!

So my human saw another one of those crazy lists about dogs – you know the ones – “Best dogs for kids;”  “Happiest dogs;”  “Best dogs for fetching;” “Dogs you can carry in your purse;” “Dogs who are smarter than humans”…  OK- I made some of those up, but you get the drift.

The most recent one my human saw was the “Dogs who jumped the most in popularity in 2015.”  Dogs who made the list include the Xoloitzcuintli and the Portuguese Podengo Pequeno.  No surprise there.  I sure have been seeing LOADS of those breeds around.  Not.  Who makes up these things?  PONs didn’t make the list and I would think people would be lining up to have one.  Mind you.  Maybe they are read my blog.  And I scare people off.  I’m going to have to start lying about how well-behaved I am.

On the other hand, popularity is NOT always a GOOD thing.  When breeds become popular, everybody wants one.  And when the demand is there, some people begin breeding just to produce puppies – without any care for health or longevity.  Which obviously is NOT a good thing. 

When I am out in public and if, or should I say WHEN I misbehave, if someone asks my human what breed I am, she tells them I am a Nova Scotia Lobster Retriever.  Or a Ploodle – a Polish Lowland doodle.  She tells people to Google them.

So while I may NOT be on the rising popularity list, I definitely should be on the “Congeniality” list. Or the “most adventurous” list…

Have a good one!

July 13.  On this day in 1939, Frank Sinatra made his recording debut.  Apparently Ol’ Blue Eyes had a passion for dogs!  Sources say that he didn’t have dogs growing up – so he made up for it as an adult.  He had many different kinds of dogs (and cats and horses too) but he was said to have a soft spot for Cavaliers.  Reportedly, his daughter once asked him where heaven was.  His response: “Where all animals go.”  Well said Frank.

And we’ve been thinking of heaven a lot in the past few days.  Every day my human gets “memories” that pop up on her Facebook page.  And the memories usually include photos – of me.  And Velcro dog.  And Paxton.  Life certainly goes on when a loved one goes to heaven.  But life is different…

Frodo still seems to be sad at times.  Probably because he lived with Pax longer than I did.  But I do miss running off into the woods after Pax.   He taught me that.  Those were the days.  Crashing through the brush on the heels of my giant buddy.  With obedient Velcro dog back at the house with my human.   My human always figured Pax was running off to get away from me.  But of course, I couldn’t let THAT happen.  There we would be over at the neighbor’s house. Just stopping to say hello…

Velcro dog and I have worked out the “pecking order.”  He’s the boss.  I concede that.   Well actually, my human is the boss.  Or we let her THINK she is…

So even though we sometimes feel sad – and we know our human does too – we wouldn’t trade a single minute we had with Bucket Head.   And we know he looks over us every day.  All of those in heaven do…

Humans.  Humans.

Several years ago, a team of researchers from France did an interesting experiment with 9 dogs.  They wanted to see if dogs could recognize the faces of their own species. They saw 144 pairs of photos drawn randomly from the two different pools – one was a pool of images of 3000 different dogs – purebred and mixed breeds – the other was a pool of images of 3000 other animals and people. 

The dogs were rewarded for indicating the dog in the pair. And despite the huge diversity in the photos of the dogs that they saw, the dogs in the experiment consistently recognized and selected the photos of the dogs – they knew which photo in the pair was a dog. 

They didn’t care what the other dogs looked like.  They recognized one of their own.   Short hair, long hair, white dogs, brown dogs, dogs with floppy ears, dogs with bat ears, dogs with narrow muzzles, dogs with pug-like faces….they were all dogs.  Underneath it all – we are all the same.  The dogs didn’t show prejudice or ignore certain dogs, based on the way they looked.  And their reactions were all the same.

Given the horrible events last week in the US…perhaps humans could take a lesson from us dogs…remember underneath it all – you are all the same…

And while I realize this analogy is simplistic – remember – I’m just a dog…