Today is March 21 and according to the crazy calendar, it is Memory Day. So of course my human had to look into information about dogs and memory.  And boy did she find some lots of information and some of it was conflicting.  For example, according to some sources, they claim that we dogs live in the here and now.  And they say we dogs don’t have “memories” the way that humans do- we have “imprints of occurrences”and associations.  So for example, if, when we are a puppy, we meet something scary, like a motorcycle going down the street, we then imprint the fear of that loud scary vehicle.  They claim that if we perform a bad behavior, like pooping in the house, there is no point in scolding us after the fact, because we don’t remember or understand why we are being scolded.  And they say, as for remembering a person – or maybe even a dog from a long time ago,  it isn’t really memory – but rather our recognition of the SMELL of that person or dog.  We associate that smell with that person.  We also associate things like the sound of the treat jar opening with the treat.   They say that our short term memory is like 70 seconds.  They claim that after that amount of time, we forget that you just gave us a treat.  The thing is, we dogs supposedly don’t measure time the way that humans do.  They say that’s the reason we get so excited when you return after a short period of time, and we are as excited as if you left us for a few hours.  So those sources basically say our “memory” is much less complex than that of humans. 

BUT – last year, other research indicated that we dogs DO remember more than humans once thought.  Researchers in Hungary claim that we dogs may have a type of memory that was once thought to be unique to humans.  They say there are two kinds explicit of memory – which is the memory you use when you specifically want to remember something.  The first is called semantic memory and it is the kind of memory you use to consciously remember or learn a specific thing.  Like language and words.  For example, you learn that a certain word represents a certain thing – and memorize it.  Like when we dogs are learning that the word “sit” means to put our bum on the ground.   And we know examples of dogs who have great semantic memory – like that Border Collie who can recall over 1000 words for various objects.  The other type of memory is called episodic – where you remember things from the past, without actually trying to memorize it.  So it’s like remembering that trip you took last year.  Or the fact that you went to get gas for the car yesterday.  You don’t specifically try to remember the event at the time, but you are able to recount it later.  Anyway,  people always thought that we dogs didn’t HAVE episodic memory – because we live in the here and now.  And really, part of the problem is that we can’t TELL you about something from the past.  But through a several step experiment, the researchers in Hungary were able to demonstrate that we dogs MAY have episodic memory after all.  Now this was preliminary research and not everyone is convinced that we have this complex type of memory. Yet.

And I’m here to tell you, we DO.  Just because we can’t TELL you about what we did earlier in the day or last week, it doesn’t mean that we don’t remember!!  Case in point.  Human walks in the door and is greeted by a dog whose ears are all inside out.  Because he got in the garbage.  Ya THINK we don’t remember or have a memory of what we did?!  And when we return from a “call of the wild” and we slowly walk back to the house.  Ya think we don’t remember that we were just naughty?!  Some humans underestimate just how complex our brains really are!  

So that’s the preliminary scoop on memory.  Now I must go and remind my human to give me another treat.  Because we know, she has a tendency to forget…

Have a good one!

March 20. It’s here.  That long awaited day.  The first day of spring.  Spring – a fresh new start.  My human was looking at an article having to do with dogs and spring – and it didn’t make spring sound like such a good time of the year after all.  This article warned of the dangers of chewing sticks, eating poisonous plants, ingesting toxic spring cleaning products, problems with fleas and ticks, troubles with spring allergies… Wow.  Time to move to Antarctica!  We would have to live in a bubble if we worried about all of that stuff.  Not to say they aren’t important – but seriously, let’s not take away from the GOOD things about spring…like longer days to go for longer walks.  And more time to play games of fetch.  MORE time outdoors in the fresh air.  Grass to eat.  Butterflies to chase.  Holes to dig.  Moles to catch….

Just think – this is the FG’s first spring.  I just hope he doesn’t get MORE crazy with spring fever.  That would be hard to imagine.  The FG MORE crazy.  Heaven help us.

Anyway – I hope you enjoy this first day of spring – and even IF the weather isn’t cooperating for you today – just now that there are sunny days ahead!

Happy Spring!

So yesterday morning we let our human sleep in until 6:15 and then insisted she get moving – we wanted our EXTRA LONG Saturday morning walks.  First the FG got his chance.  They actually went up to the golf course, with his long line in tow.  And guess what?!  He was WELL behaved!  My human never called him – unless he was within grabbing distance of the line.  And he was GOOD.  He came to HER for fun and pats.  She also paid no attention during those times when he was on his leash and started grabbing and pulling and acting like a bumblebee on drugs.  She simply stopped, didn’t say a word, but would not move.  After several attempts , he FINALLY seemed to get the concept that if you act like a banshee, you don’t go anywhere.  AND you get no attention.  So he would stop pulling and chewing the leash, stare at my human and then walk along quite nicely.  At which point she would reward him and tell him how brilliant he was.  So perhaps he IS trainable during this teenage stage!

And then you have us PONs…. So we went up the trail and then headed over to the golf course too.  Now we all know that Einstein is well behaved.  He can be let off the leash and will come when called.  99% of the time.  IF he doesn’t return on a first call, but comes back after his name is called twice, he gets no treat.  A “good boy”, but no food.  It’s like saying to a three year old, you can’t have that ice cream cone, but you are a well behaved little boy.  Who cares.  Anyway, Einstein KNOWS the drill.  Now my human wasn’t going to let me off the leash.  She has spotted some of those white Easter bunnies lately and figured they would be too much of a temptation should I see one.  But I was walking along with her SO nicely while Einstein was trotting ahead, she had this momentary lapse – and decided to let me off.  As she was bending over to let ME off leash, she called to Einstein to come over.  He immediately headed our direction then suddenly put his head in the air, and then pressed his nose to the ground and he was off…at precisely the same moment that the clip on my leash snapped and released me from my bondage. So you guessed it. TWO PONs off into the brush.   My human called Einstein.  She called me.  No returns.  She started heading the direction from which we had come, and suddenly Einstein appeared.  Knowing full well that his time of freedom would now come to an end.  But no sign of yours truly.  She called.  And called.  And probably said some words not publishable here.  Anyway, when I emerged from the brush in what was probably a minute later, I met the end of a leash.  And Einstein and I had our EXTRA long walk reduced to a long walk.  In bondage.  Still the walk WAS fun.

As a last note – and I almost hate to say this – I haven’t had any you-know-whats in over 12 days now.  Paws crossed the diet and medication  is working.  One thing we know for sure, though – neither the diet or medication change have altered my behavior.  Thank goodness.

Have a good one!

OK so the day of green attire is over.  Put those props away for another year. Or better yet – destroy them.

So you know how humans collect things?  Like stamps, or coins, or in the case of my human – old dog things.  And lots of other junk.  Well, we finally figured out that Einstein is a collector too.  Of rocks.  Tiny little gravel rocks.  We first noticed it a few weeks ago.  My human had taken us for a nice walk up the road.  And when she got home, she noticed something on the kitchen floor.  And in the hall.  A bunch of tiny rocks.  No bigger than the size of a pea.  She wondered if she had tracked them in herself, because she HAD come in with her boots for a minute.  She swept them up and went to the kitchen sink.  Einstein followed her.  And when he realized she wasn’t having anything to eat  he walked away.  Leaving a collection of rocks where he had been standing.  They must get caught in his fuzzy feet – particularly if the conditions are damp outside.  He has more coat than I do – so it’s not really a problem for me.

Now cleaning up his collection is not the bad part.  The BAD part is that if you don’t do it quickly, Jaws will help.  Which means he will pick up one and start chewing on it.  And just TRY and get him to drop a pebble smaller than a pea.  Ever open a dog’s mouth when he has something he shouldn’t?  Well you can open it, look inside and you will see nothing.  Like MAGIC, we can make the offending object disappear – only to start chewing again when we are released.  It’s quite a unique skill.  And I’m thinking rocks are probably a bit more roughage than anyone needs in their diet.

It’s the WEEKEND.  Let’s see what kind of mischief we can get into for a change.  Bwhahahahahahaha.  Like the day of the week matters! 

Have a good one!

Well here we are – the three unlucky Leprechauns.  I hope you readers are thankful for this latest display of Dollar Store attire.  Getting photos of each of us was hard enough.

 But THEN my human decided we should ALL dress up and take photos.   She started off with cheese as a reward.  Which she thought would work great.  PLUS she had a squeaky toy under her sweater.  I was delighted with the photo shoot while the cheese was available.  Frodo and Elroy – not so much.

While she went upstairs to get more cheese, I grabbed the toy with the squeaker which she had accidentally left on the chair.  Elroy and I proceeded to dissect it.  When she came back with the cheese, I was again happy to cooperate.  But you could have held a steak in front of Einstein and Jaws and they would NOT have smiled.

I can hardly WAIT for Easter.    Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!

March 15.  The Ides of March.  The day that Julius Caesar met his demise. So then they named a salad after him.  Rumor has it that people in Caesar’s time paid a lot of attention to their dogs.  As they should.  Dogs were featured in artwork, poetry and prose.  Dogs were seen as companions and were kept as guardians of the home and the flocks.  And they were later used in combat.  But Caesar reportedly rebuked the citizens of Rome and told them to pay more attention to their children than their dogs.  I guess he didn’t own a dog himself.  But he did have a giraffe.  Which he brought back from Egypt – while visiting Cleopatra.  And then he fed it to his lions in the Coliseum.  Seriously.  I couldn’t make this stuff up.  Seems to me that if Caesar had owned a big guard dog, he would not have met his demise.  Just sayin’.

And speaking of murder, one would have THOUGHT there was a murder occurring in the garage aka grooming torture palace the other night.  Which could mean only one thing.  Frodo was being groomed. Now we all know Einstein is the “good dog” in the house.  Yes – he DOES bark a BIT too much in the morning – but he claims it is just his morning wake up song.  But he doesn’t run off, doesn’t steal things, LOVES to pose for the camera like some kind of runway model and he remembers his obedience routines, even when he hasn’t been trained in FOREVER.

But put the genius on the grooming table, and his behavior is well…in a word – pathetic.  He moans and squeaks.  And pulls his feet away.  And generally looks like he is being TORTURED as he is lying on the table.  But stop the process for 1/1000th of a second and he HAPPILY pops up to grab a treat.  No signs of anguish or pain in THAT face.  My human gave him three, yes THREE pockets full of treats throughout the process.  He is SUCH a drama king – he knows how to milk it.  Yup.  A temperamental runway model.  That’s him.  But I BET he posed like a pro for the St. Patrick’s Day photos.  We’ll just see…

Have a good one.

Well, Crufts is over.  And which dog won the big silver trophy? A dog from the Gundog group.  Of course.  And although it wasn’t an ENGLISH Cocker Spaniel – it was still a Cocker Spaniel.  An American version.  I lost a lot of money on my PON and Picard bets.  My human was able to watch parts of the PON breeding LIVE on her computer – with our terribly slow internet service.  She saw enough to catch some of our PON friends – and after it was over, was able to see some of the videos.  Congrats to EVERY single dog who made it there – whether or not they took home hardware.  Just standing on that green carpet is an experience not many get to have. Well done!

So yesterday morning my human took Frodo and I for our morning constitutional and then she had a date to walk the FG with his buddy Jackson, and the human Jackson owns.  The FG and Jack had not seen each other in a few weeks so to say he was excited is an UNDERSTATEMENT.   In fact, he was so “overjoyed” he assumed his previous alias – Jaws.  He kept biting poor Jackson’s tail, his ears, his butt.  And unlike us PONs – who have hair to grab, Jackson, being a Labrador doesn’t have much grab-able hair.  AND he is a very nice dog.  A VERY nice dog – who also unlike us PONs does not tell Jaws to STOP.  Several times my human had to put Jaws back on his leash – because his tormenting would go a BIT over the top.  She discovered that if Jaws has a stick or something else to carry, it is PERFECT – because they both play, tug and steal it from each other – and if Jaws has something in his mouth it deters him from attempting to gather Lab hair.

She came home exhausted – after the walk that went on for over an hour.  And Jaws?  He was STILL not tired.  My human looked up “teenage canine behavior” and of course it was like they wrote the chapter about Jaws…This was taken from Dogs Naturally magazine:  An adolescent dog can be rowdier, mouthier, jumpier, and more obnoxious than at any other time in his life. They tend to have short fuses, test you, and even downright ignore you when given the opportunity.  Who does THAT sound like???  And how long will this last – since he is just 10 months old?  Looks like it goes on until around 18 months.  Poor Jackson will have to wear an armored suit, or learn to tell Jaws off.  I can certainly teach him to do that.  My human announced that there will be “a New World Order” – with more manners being required in our household.  Bwhahahahahahha.  WHO is she kidding?  Now THIS should be interesting.  As IF she is in control here…

Have a good one. 

So we survived the time change.  Sort of.  My human went into a panic the night before – because I need to take my medication at 7 AM and 7 PM each day.  BUT – with the change, 7 AM would REALLY be 6 AM – and I would be getting my pills too early.  Long story short, she and Aunt Glenda figured out a formula for giving me my pills just 15 minutes early – so that by today I would be back on track at 7 and 7.  I can hardly wait to see what will happen when the clocks change the NEXT time.

So on Saturday, we (the FG and I) decided to drive my human just a LITTLE bit crazy.  For those who have been reading my blog for a long time, you may recall how Paxton used to run off into the woods at times – probably to get away from us PONs.  But he couldn’t escape – I would be his loyal sidekick, following like a bee drawn to a flower.  Or a fly to drawn to…something not so pleasant.  We would race off and disappear, only to reappear 10-15 minutes later – or when my human would hunt us down – usually at the neighbor’s place.  Ah.  The old days….

On Saturday, we had a dusting of snow.  Dusting sounds so light and pretty – but in March, humans do not associate snow with anything attractive.  So as my human was pushing off the white stuff with the shovel, we canines were running around the yard.  Racing, barking, chasing each other.  

Today is March 12.  And it is, according to the crazy calendar, Check your batteries day.  Humans are supposed to check and change things like the smoke alarm battery and the battery in the carbon monoxide detector.  It’s a good practice to do this regularly.

Batteries can be very dangerous to dogs, if we swallow them or chew on them.  I’m sure there are many TV remotes that have been destroyed by dogs – and sometimes the batteries are swallowed.  My human used to have Bernese who loved remotes.  Thankfully, he never swallowed or punctured a battery.  She walked into an electronics store once, and asked where she could find the dog treats.  I hate to report, he destroyed more than one.  My human was actually careful in not leaving the remote handy  – but obviously not diligent enough.  He would grab one if he had the chance.

Sources say that IF a dog chews and swallows a battery, do NOT induce vomiting.  The contents of the battery will burn going down and will burn coming up!  Get your dog to a vet right away.  Batteries DO show up on xrays – so it is easy to confirm if one is in the pit.  If a battery shows up, the dog may have to undergo surgery – which is NOT fun, but a necessary procedure.

Today is the last day of Crufts.  AND it is the day that the PONs and Picards will be in the beauty pageant.  I hope one of them goes ALL the way to Best in Show.  I’m sure the oddsmakers would put them at a LONG, LONG, L-O-N-G shot.  I looked at the stats on the breeds that have won Best In Show and since 1928, when Crufts began awarding the Best In Show title (with a few years when the show wasn’t held during the war), and dogs from the Pastoral Group have only won five times –  in 1965, 1969 and 1971 – German Shepherds won, in 1989 it was a Bearded Collie and in 2006 an Australian Shepherd took home the BIG prize.  And what breed do you think has won the most?  Well, let’s start by saying that breeds from the Gundog group have won the most with 23 wins, followed by breeds in the Terrier group with 22 wins.  I bet you are guessing the Labrador Retriever. Right?  Well your answer would be wrong.  The breed who has won THE most Best in Show titles at Crufts is none other than the English Cocker Spaniel – with 7 wins.  Gundogs.  I guess their license allows them to carry a firearm.  And they certainly have shot to the top of the winners circle.  Sorry but I couldn’t resist.

Anyway, have an active battery- charged day.  And may the best PON and Picard win today! I have money betting on you – so the payout would be HUGE if either of you win Best in Show.  But even if you don’t take home the BIG silver trophy or even a small ribbon, have fun – and remember you are ALL winners – just for being there!!!

OK.  So the FG has a NEW routine.  According to several sources, Picards can be picky eaters.  It is a concept SO unfamiliar to me – it is hard for me to believe.  Since he was a little puppy, the FG would watch Frodo and I wolfing down our food, and he basically followed our lead.  But lately, he has decided to “eat at a leisurely pace.”   I guess he read the Picard manual. He eats a bit, and walks away. A while ago he would start eating and then stare at his food so my human had to lift up his bowl.  Now he just walks away, or sometimes doesn’t even START eating.  CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!!!!!!!!!   Luckily, he is sequestered in the front hall while eating – or Frodo and I would be helping him polish off that food.  We STARE at his unfinished bowl through the french door – while we are leaving lovely olfactory art on the glass.  My human has to PRY us away from the door to go in the pick up his dish.  He eventually eats all of his food later when she puts it down again – he just likes to think about it.

And he has another new routine.  This one is SO funny to watch.  Whenever my human has clean clothes on – especially when she is getting ready to go to work, he LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to wipe his face in her clothing.  Black pants are a favorite target.  She can be wearing the ugly dog sweat pants, and he won’t do it – but put on a pair of pressed clean trousers – and they are like a magnet to him.  I am NOT joking.  It is QUITE funny to watch as she runs around the table trying to fend him off while he is lurching and trying to wipe his face.   Must be another Picard thing. 

On a different note – don’t forget to turn your clock ahead tonight.  Which means my human gets even less sleep tonight than she usually does.   No problem for us – we are always raring to go.  Except the FG.  This could kill Mr.-I-Sleep-In.  

See you bright and early tomorrow!