Today is December 10 and it’s the birthday of Emily Dickinson.  Emily was an American poet who lived from 1830- 1886. She wrote LOTS of poems while she was alive, but it wasn’t until AFTER she died that many of her works became well known.  She reportedly owned one dog during her life – a Newfoundland named Carlo. Carlo lived to the ripe age of 16 and although Dickinson was considered by some as reclusive, Carlo was her constant companion.  Allow me to share two of Emily’s quotes having to do with dogs…

Two weeks from today will be Christmas eve.  My human has LOTS to do before then – although she  is feeling pretty good since the Christmas decorating explosion is over.  She has taken a number of antler photos with us – but the final elusive Christmas shot of all three of us remains to be taken.  Heaven help us.

Time to go and work on my letter for Santa Paws.

Have a good one.  Peace and paws up!

Well GUESS who got to sleep in the BEDROOM Thursday night OUT of his crate?!  The FG!   My human decided to give it a try.  Again.  BUT – this time she tried something different.  Which REALLY did NOT make me or Einstein happy.  She put up a GATE on the bedroom door and WE were not allowed in!  She wanted to see IF she could get the FG to actually settle down – and go to sleep.  And she KNEW if we were in the room, moving around throughout the night and vying for a good spot on the bed, that he would NEVER relax.  So she set up the gate and we looked at her incredulously.  In the meantime, the FG was bounding on and off the bed. He was checking out things on the dresser.  Licking the area carpet.  Sniffing my usual lounging spot under the stand next to the bed.  And wagging his tail as if it would FALL OFF.  A Picard  in  his GLORY.  While two dejected PONs – who were given extra treats I forgot to mention, just STARED at my human.  So my human shut off the lights and waited.  The FG was on the bed.  Then he got off.  Then he actually went to lie down next to the bed.  Then decided to jump back on the bed.  And lie down on TOP of my human.  It was at that point that she ALMOST gave up.  She warned him that he had 1 minute to settle down.  And guess what?  He DID!  Meanwhile Einstein and I were lying next to the gate for most of the night.  And promptly at 4:45 AM, Einstein announced that he had had enough.  He barked.  Waited.  Barked again.  And my human said “10 more minutes.” And Einstein said “I don’t THINK so.”  So he barked. And barked more.  So by 4:50, she was up.  As she opened the gate, we rushed in and the FG joyfully welcomed us to his new abode.  Einstein and I just stared at him.  

Last night,  she decided she didn’t want to make me or Einstein angry again, and she didn’t feel she was QUITE ready for the three of us being free.  So the FG slept in his crate – which he actually runs into at bedtime.  She figures she will continue this gradual exposure  and before you know it, all four of us will be sharing the same bed.  That is, IF we let my human on the bed.  We’ll see…

Have a good one. Peace and paws up!

Well, well.  Now isn’t this interesting. Yesterday I reported on the most popular dog names in the US. And now the list has come out in the UK.  The top name for boys was Alfie and the top for girls was Poppy.  So the top names are different in the two countries.  BUT – both of the top names in the US – Max and Bella DO appear in the top 10 list in the UK.  Two other boy names appear as well – Buddy and Charlie and three other girl names are the same – Daisy, Lola and Molly.  A name that appears in the US list as a girl’s name, Bailey, appears in the boys’ list in the UK.  So the bottom line – there are LOTS of dogs named Max, Bella, Charlie, Bailey, Buddy, Daisy, Lola and Molly in this world.  Now we just wait for the European stats to come out… I bet Balthazar might be in that list. 

So what’s new on the home front… My human received a text from a very dear friend the other day.  It started like this…”My sweet experienced dog vomit expert…”  It seems my human’s friend has a dog who was having some gastrointestinal issues.  Long story short – it is now getting better.  My human chuckled when she saw her new title.  She proudly carries that title .  That and poopologist.  She is wondering if she can advertise her expertise in these areas. 

And speaking of poop – I don’t think I have ever talked about a strange habit the FG has with regard to poop.  I’m not referring to his habit of walking while pooping and leaving a trail – like Hansel and Gretel leaving a trail of breadcrumbs.  Nope. I’m talking about poop kicking.  You see, sometimes when the FG poops on our trail, my human will simply kick the deposit off the trail into the woods.  I mean, it’s organic – and better breaking down in the woods than in a plastic bag in a landfill.  At least I think so.  However, when my human attempts to kick the deposit into the woods, the FG goes CRAZY.  I mean totally nutso.  He jumps on her, pulls the leash, and goes out of his MIND.   What’s up with that?  It’s not like she is kicking it at HIM!  He REALLY does not like her to kick poop.  Mind you, it can be a bad decision sometimes… good thing she wears dog walking boots.  Maybe he is just warning her about consistency…

OK, enough talk about poop.  It’s FRIDAY!  Let the weekend begin.  Hope yours is NOT poopy!

Have a good one  Peace and paws up!

So a list of the top dog names in the US have come out for 2017.  This is timely – because my human has a friend who is trying to come up with a name for a PON puppy she will soon be owned by.  According to an article in Travel and Leisure about the names for 2017,  Max wins for the most popular male name and Bella wins for the most popular female  name.  Didn’t I tell you about Bella when we were talking about passwords the other day?!  The other boy names were  Charlie, Cooper, Buddy, Jack, Rockie, Oliver, Bear, Duke, and Tucker. And the girls were Lucy, Daisy, Luna, Lola, Sadie, Molly, Maggie, Bailey, and Sophie.  The article also said that 44% of dogs have human names.  I am named for my human’s grandfather (with a slight spelling variation).  So that works.  Elroy could be a boy’s name – although I must confess, I don’t know that I have ever met an Elroy.  Except a cartoon character.  Frodo is a fictional character in the Lord of the Rings – but my human didn’t actually pick his name.  His treasurer was calling him that, and my human thought he looked like a Frodo – so she kept it.   It is interesting to note that  “53 % of dog owners named their pet after a character in a book, TV show or movie”.  So Frodo and Elroy actually both fit that theme.  Cities are apparently another source for dog names – like Sydney,  and Dallas.

So you can use human names, character names, and cities.  Here are some other options for helping you find a name for your dog…

Computer or Internet terms:  like Ram, Cloud or Pixel
Crayola Crayon colors:  Like Peach, Indy (for Indigo) or Cerise
Nature terms:  Like Sky, Meadow or Rocky
Greek or Roman gods: Like Atlas, Thor or Juno
Sporting terms:  Like Hoops, Coach or Ace
Musical terms: Like Jazz,  Bongo or Treble
Candy names: Like Hershey, Truffles or Taffy
Flower names:  Like Rose, Lily or Holly
Car names: Like Lexus, Bentley or Charger

And the list goes on.  I suppose humans could call their dog something related to their job or profession.  Like a butcher could call his dog Meatball.  My human should have named one of us “Talker.”  Actually, that’s what she SHOULD have called Frodo.  Mind you, I still prefer Einstein.

 You know, I bet there are a gazillion dog names.  And humans spend COUNTLESS hours finding the perfect name.  Only to call us a variety of “other things”- usually when we are bad – some of which I cannot type here. When I Googled unusual dog names, I found a list with names like Draino, Huckleberry and Podunk.  Seriously.  Who would call their dog Podunk?  Remember when I wanted to change my name to Balthazar?  That was on that list of unusual names.  I still DO like it though…

My human says it doesn’t matter WHAT she calls us.  We don’t listen.  But we DO listen to the sound of the treat jar opening. Actually, she has more success calling us “TREATS” than just about anything else. We always respond to THAT name.

I’m sure my human’s friend will know JUST what to call her puppy as soon as they meet.  And whatever name she picks, it will be PERFECT.

Have a good one.  Peace and paws up!

It’s December 6.  And time for a history lesson…  100 years ago today, the largest manmade explosion (before the atomic bomb) occurred.  Right here in Nova Scotia.  Two ships, the steamship, Imo and the Mont-Blanc, a munitions ship, collided here in the harbor.  When they hit,  a fire broke out on-board causing a massive explosion – that could be felt more than 200 miles away.  More than 10,000 people were killed or severely injured.   Half of the city was decimated.

I always knew this story – but I learned a new fact this year.  It’s the story of Ralph.   Ralph was a dog who lived aboard the Imo.  He reportedly survived the blast.  He had a good friend on board – the third mate,  Bjarne Birkeland, and reportedly Ralph stayed with the unconcsious, Birekland until they were both rescued.  Birkeland could not keep the dog, so he gave the dog to a Britsih officer on another ship and made him promise to take good care of Ralph.  I’m not sure what happened to Ralph after that – but he did survive and his story appears to have a good ending…

And the other good news part was the fact that in times of tragedy, humans DO come together.  Relief after the explosion poured in – including help from the New England states.   To this day, Nova Scotia sends a huge Christmas tree to Boston each year to say thank you for all that the citizens did to help. 

So the next time your are playing Jeopardy, and there is a question about the Halifax Explosion – you will know some of the facts!  Including the part about a trusty, loyal dog.

Have a good one!  Peace and paws up!

So where do you think Kody went for over 2 years?  Who is Kody?  He’s an 11 year old Siberian Husky who went missing in September 2015 from his home in Algonquin, Illinois.    He was found on Sunday, 50 miles away – wandering the streets of another town.  He was picked up and his microchip helped to identify his owners.  IMAGINE how surprised they were to get the call that he had been found!

What’s your theory?  Was Kody living with another family and he decided to leave them too?  Or was he just traveling around – seeing the world? At least the world within a 50 mile radius of his home.

There are all kinds of new tracking devices if you lose your dog.  I know that you have to read carefully how the device works – sometimes they only work with your smartphone if your dog is within a certain radius.  So obviously, if Fido goes outside the range – your tracker will not work.  I think with all the new GPS technology that there SHOULD be a way to find us.  I know that the AKC is selling a new device – my human looked into it, but it doesn’t work in Canada.  But it also appears that the collar needs to be able to access a stable cellular connection.  So if Fido takes off for the woods – his tracker may not pick him up.  At least that’s how it looks to me.  The device also advertises itself as a fitness tracker – calculating how much exercise Fido gets every day.  As if we dogs care how many calories we burn on a walk.  Seems to me the fitness part is more for the HUMAN than the dog.  Because one would ASSUME Fido isn’t going off to exercise all on his own.  Then again, as long as he stays in range of his GPS, maybe he is.   I think the technology still needs some work.  Better idea.  Don’t run away from home.  Problem solved.

The dust from the Christmas explosion is settling.  The real tree – in the DFZ – is all decorated.  We sat outside the gate (which incidentally works VERY well – there have been NO security breaches since it was installed) – and we watched.  The FG squeaked the WHOLE time my human was decorating.  As if he wanted to help.   Sure he did.

Now the next thing will be the photo shoots. and of course, as the day gets closer, the obligatory holiday bath.  As if Santa really cares how we smell.  Seriously – he rides behind reindeer all night – you think he worries about stinky dogs?  I don’t think I’ll win that argument though…

Have a good one.  Peace and paws up.

So a new study came out which provided us with info that we already knew.  Dogs are smarter than cats. Yup.  Sorry all you cats.  Scientists looked at the number of neurons in the brains of animals – and dogs had TWICE as many as cats.  We had something like 500 million and cats had around 250 million.  Now some might argue that counting neurons is just one way to measure intelligence – and if I include ALL the details – well we dogs had similar “intelligence” to raccoons and lions.  Cats were on par with bears.  Orangutans and gorillas have something like 6-9 billion neurons and humans have 16 billion. Elephants were up there with over 5 billion…

They say they still need to do more research on this topic and they have yet to study the neuron numbers in marine mammals.

While I like the fact that we dogs beat out cats…as I OFTEN emphasize in my blog, I’m not always so sure that HUMANS are smarter than us canines.  Think about it.  They give us run of their house, feed us, bathe us (which I could skip), walk us, take us to the doctor when we are sick, and best of all, clean up our poop.  And they are smarter than us?  Seems we have it pretty good.  So I’m not sure exactly how we interpret all these numbers. 

But I still like having more neurons than cats…

Have a good one. Peace and paws up!

So my human has begun the Christmas explosion.  The dog tree (as you can see) is up – decorated with all dog ornaments, leashes for garland and of course, ribbons won in the past year.  Today the real tree will go up.  She will be careful to keep us away from  it – for fear we would pee on it.  Apparently there is a whole LIST of  dangers with Christmas trees and dogs.  For example, if we eat the needles, it could be dangerous as they could actually puncture our gastrointestinal tract.  Who knew?  The water for the tree could be dangerous as it may contain pesticides, fertilizers or preservatives.  Chewing on lights could cause electrical shock or mouth burns.  Of course, breaking and swallowing bits of ornaments OR ornament hooks could obviously be dangerous as well. Would you ever believe that your lovely tree could hide so many dangers for us dogs?!

Yesterday my human went to some kind of local craft show to look for Christmas presents.  But she wouldn’t let us inspect the contents of the bag when she got home – so I am wondering if there is something for us canines in that bag.  Let’s just hope some crafter has not designed any kind of doggie attire for the holidays…I haven’t seen any big bags from the dreaded Dollar Store yet – but I’m SURE those horrid antlers are still around here somewhere.  You KNOW that photo shoot will be coming any time now.

And speaking of photos – my human is almost finished with our calendar – and is ready to send it off for printing.  She does one each year – and then takes it to her office so she can look at our lovely faces every day while she is at work.  The hard part in making the calendar is deciding which photos from the last year she should use – out of the 563, 122 taken.  No kidding.

Well, I hope your holiday preparations are going well.  The countdown is ON!

Have a good one.  Peace and paws up!!!

So there is SOMETHING out there.  I don’t know what it is – but I have a suspicion…

The other morning, my human took Einstein and I out for out morning walk in the dark.  We were sniffing around like crazy but didn’t see or hear anything unusual. By the time my human took the FG out, it was starting to get light.  But not completely.  She decided to take him up to the golf course for his walk.   Off they went – with my human in her regular position in tow.

As they approached the first fairway, the FG stopped dead in his tracks.  The wind was blowing quite hard – right into their faces.  He stopped, put his head up and then stared off into the woods.  He wouldn’t move.  And then he did something he has NEVER, ever done before.  He turned around and headed back in the direction from which they had come.  He didn’t want to go any further.  Now my human is not one to get nervous about the great outdoors.  She knows that MOST wildlife around here is not very menacing and if you make enough noise, will run away.  But on that particular morning, she could FEEL that the FG was uncomfortable.  He didn’t let out a bark (like he did at the scary snowflakes) and he didn’t growl, but he was clearly smelling SOMETHING and he did NOT want to go in that direction.  He kept stopping, looking back and smelling the air.  He was quite happy to go home – and trust me – that is NOT typical behavior for him! 

I know there are coyotes around and we have heard them in the past.  We also noted some interesting poop on our trail to the lake.  It had what looked like fur in it….Mind you, it could have been mine – I do like to lick Einstein’s ears and it wouldn’t be the first time I have fuzzy poop.  But I’m not so sure it was mine…

We’ll be extra careful when it’s dark out.   Mind you, one look at my human in her headlamp and bulky hair-covered dog walking attire,  and most wild creatures would be running for the hills….

So yesterday, my human had a day off.   And she thought MAYBE she could sleep in a bit.  But not in this household.  Allow me to provide canines with some suggestions on how to get humans out of bed.  I call them my Steps to Rousing Humans.
Step 1.  Jump on the bed.  Jump off the bed.  Jump on again.  If that doesn’t work, go to Step 2.
Step 2.  Begin scratching your ear.  And make noises like you are in extreme discomfort.  Most humans will get up to examine your ear.  If there is nothing wrong with it, they MAY go back to bed.  If so, go to Step 3.
Step 3.  Begin licking yourself.  This often drives humans crazy – so they will sit up and tell you to stop.  Stop when they say so.  But then begin again when they lie down.  If this doesn’t get them up, go to Step 4.
Step 4.  After licking yourself – go to lick THEM.  Preferably on their face.  This will USUALLY work.  BUT if they STILL are not up – resort to Step 5.  Which is not always easy to perform.
Step 5.  Begin the urky gurkies.  That telltale sound we dogs make JUST before we throw up.  GUARANTEED to get ANY human to BOLT out of bed. 

We resorted to ALL five steps yesterday.  I performed Steps 1 through 4 and called on Einstein for number 5.  He even went so far as to throw up.  But don’t worry – he is fine.  I think we have come to the conclusion that marrow bones (even when chewed on for JUST 10 minutes) are a bit too much for his delicate constitution. 

Thank goodness today is Friday.  My human has to work today but tomorrow we can again engage in my Steps again…Who needs alarm clocks?!

Have a good one.  Peace and paws up.