Greetings readers. Frodo here. Today our blog is what one might call a mish mash. Nothing particularly earth shattering has occurred- which given the current state of the world, I suppose that is a good thing.

You saw her highness’s efforts with regard to the tatort challenge. No doubt we will have more treats surrounding us in the coming days. Which is quite fine by me.

She also attempted to do a “selfie” with us. The word circus comes to mind. The beatnik did not want to look at the camera, and yours truly kept barking out in protest. Because I knew she had treats in her pocket – and I WAS sitting so what MORE did she want? Anyway, here are some results from the 3749 photos taken.

This photo is a strange angle. AND I might add, she had yours truly in a strangle hold. I look like I’m happy, but I’m trying to breathe.

In this one, the beatnik and I are bird watching instead of looking at the camera.

In this one…well….this is what we were thinking….

Then we all decided to study the treat on the ground for this one…

Given the most recent forecast about social isolation, I have a feeling there will be more selfies in our future. Heaven help us.

What else is new? Ah. The propane incident. The other day a truck arrived from the company that delivers the propane for our fireplace. Her highness cranked open the kitchen window to find out why he was here. Of course she could not hear a WORD he was saying because yours truly was throwing myself against the front door and shouting out loud warnings to the intruder. And interestingly, the beatnik joined in as well. Her highness ended up putting us in the garage so she could open the door to talk to the man – at a proper distance. It seems our tank was listing to one side, and a delivery man from the week before noted the problem – so this man was here to fix the tilt. That was all well and good. EXCEPT her highness did not know how to relight the fireplace after the work would be done. The man said he could not come in to do it – but tried to explain the steps to her highness – over the sounds of my barking from the garage. Her highness doesn’t fear many things. She is not bothered by bears. She loves flying. She doesn’t love snakes or spiders or mice – but doesn’t have to call in reinforcements should one appear. But propane…well I should mention that we have a charcoal barbecue because of some strange event having to do with an ex husband and a propane grill – that was well before my time. Her highness fears propane. So imagine her having to relight the fireplace. We were sequestered in another room and instructed to run for help should an explosion occur. Thankfully we did NOT need to perform a “Lassie” and after a tense half hour ( which included a call to the propane company after the repairman left) we heard shouts of joy when we again had fire. Like some prehistoric cavewoman – her highness did the fire dance of happiness. The beatnik just stared at her.

Today is Good Friday – a very holy day before Easter Sunday. I understand that it is a day of fasting. And no meat. Well that’s all well and good for the beatnik. He won’t care. But me? I’ll starve without eating my full meals. Thankfully, I eat fish and sweet potatoes – so I don’t have to worry about the meatless part. And honestly, I think dogs are exempt from the fasting part. It will be good for her highness. She could use a day of fasting after her many recent trips to the refrigerator.

Yikes. I JUST realized what I said. Sunday is EASTER. And you know what THAT means. We can only pray that she can’t find those blasted rabbit ears….I know she hasn’t gone to the Dollar Store – BUT there is a big bin in the garage with “apparel.” Excuse me while I hide….

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.

Howdy blog readers. Elroy here. Well you can see from the photo that boredom strikes again in our household. Um. I didn’t see photos of any readers doing this with their dogs. I’m thinking you must not be as bored as we are….

I hope you are all staying safe and distant. It’s so important – and as our Premier here in Nova Scotia has so eloquently said, “Stay the blazes home!”

As we know, the Boss maintains social distancing by barking at anyone he encounters. And you know – we canines have excellent mathematical skills and can easily calculate distances without a measuring tape. For example, we were out for a walk the other morning and while yours truly was on leash, the Boss was free. He can be let off leash because he is generally obedient. Note I said generally. One thing he does that drives her highness as crazy as a bunch of wet cats is his “sampling” of wildlife byproducts. In other words – he likes to hunt out poop. Rabbit poop, pheasant poop, goose poop – according to him, each one has its own delectable palate. When he suddenly picks up the scent, he can’t wait to find his treasure. And when he stops, her highness knows he has found his prize. Of course she shouts “leave it.” And that’s when the Boss’ distance calculation skills are put to the test. Can he consume his newfound snack BEFORE her highness races to stop him? Is his distance far enough away?

If he calculates that the distance is not enough, he leaves his tender morsel. But if he sees the distance is far enough, it’s munch time. Then he bolts so she can’t catch him. He has distance calculation skills down to an art.

Hey do you know what day it is? Probably not if you’re not working. But I mean do you know what April 8 is? It is…..get ready….Dog Farting Awareness Day! I’m not kidding!! And did you know that some scientists have studied dog farts?! Her highness wants to know who funded the research. Here’s an article all about the science of dog farts.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/dog-spies/things-to-know-on-dog-farting-awareness-day/

I’d like to see the human who did the sniff rating introduced at a party. And what is it you do? Why I’m a dog farts Odor Judge. Wonder where you train for that.

The other night while we were all relaxing in the DFZ, SOMEBODY let out a series of audible farts. Her highness looked up from her book to see where the offending toots originated. Because neither I nor the Boss moved she tried to localize where the sound originated. She couldn’t figure it out. And we weren’t saying anything.

Hey – I just realized from the title of this blog that the subjects go together! And I wasn’t even trying to be funny. Anyway , I hope you let loose and enjoy the holiday!

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.

Cheery morning greetings my friends. Frodo here. We have an incredibly busy day ahead of us – following her highness wherever she goes. Although lately, a good portion of her time is spent on the sofa. Or standing in front of the refrigerator. Her time on the sofa is often spent swirling through social media. Which ended up resulting in a rather odd activity for us canines yesterday….

Her highness was looking at Instagrab. That’s what I call it as it grabs countless minutes and you don’t know WHERE they went. Anyway, she “follows” multiple pages – most of which are dog related. Surprise. Surprise. And she came across a photo which captured her forever wandering attention. It was a photo of a dog. Surrounded by treats.

Well. She had to explore this activity further. And she came across something called the Tatort Challenge. She couldn’t find an English language explanation of the task – but from what she was able to gather, it requires putting your dog in a position, surrounding him with kibble or treats and taking his photo. I gather the outline is like a crime scene outline. Here is a video depicting dogs attempting this task.

https://youtu.be/_9dxnAuU6y4

So. Need I tell you what happened next? OF COURSE she had to see if we could meet the challenge. Now she knew I could be obedient and stay in place – BUT could I resist the urge to sample a treat while she took photos? It turned out I could:

And bonus. You get all the treats when you are finished.

So the next question. Could the beatnik stay in place. Now we know he wouldn’t really care about the kibble – BUT could he stay still long enough for her to surround him and to take the photo.

Guess what? He passed too!

Next she will try to get us to stay in other positions. At least that’s what she said yesterday. Although with her wandering attention, who knows WHAT will happen next! In the meantime, I encourage you to try the challenge and post your photos on Facebook under our blog. We would LOVE to see what you can do.And let’s face it – you have lots of time… And if you don’t have a dog, perhaps you could try it with your cat. Good luck with that.

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.

Yo. Elroy here. So we’ve had some pretty wild weather here the past two days. Even wild for me. It was raining. And blowing. The Boss did NOT want to go out. He was frozen in the doorway. Her highness had to put him on a leash so he would even move. As soon as he pooped, she let him free and he raced back to the front door. I was pokey the first day but by the second day I produced almost instantaneous results. Hopefully today will be sunny.

So now for my serious message….

As everybody knows – the world is in a mess right now. Humans are sick. Humans are scared. And humans are dying.

And boy oh boy if humans watch the news it can get down right depressing. I’m mean this is a worse tragedy than chewed up pillowcases. By the way – her highness now has a matching pair. But that’s another story.

Yes. The news is not good. Not good at all. And it makes one very sad. And feeling helpless. With no end in sight. So. Here’s my suggestion. Don’t watch the news for hours on end. Watching just makes you feel worse. It’s kind of like sticking your hand on a hot surface. Would you keep doing that over and over again? Thinking it has instantaneously cooled down?! I hope not!!! Sure – you should know if some change has been happening in your community – but trust me – if something super good happens – you will quickly find out about it. For now – and for the next while – the news will NOT be good. So why torture yourself? Instead – do one thing that can make a big difference in this disaster. Do nothing. Go nowhere. Stay home. Play with your dog. We’ve been waiting for this pandemic all our lives.

We do know, though, that not everyone has the luxury of staying home. And much as you may feel it’s horrible to be in hibernation – it IS a LUXURY. Be thankful for those folks who are allowing you to enjoy your luxury – like those who work in food services – from grocery store clerks to truck drivers who deliver the food. And of course – the many medical professionals.

I fully advocate an “ignorance is bliss” motto for the next few weeks. Heck – I advocate that all the time. Ever see me training in obedience? The less you know – the more treats you get. The Boss taught me that.

Staying at home and staying away from others will not “cure” the virus. It will slow the spread. And it will buy the scientists time. Time to find a super quick test to see if someone has or has had the virus and time to develop a vaccine. I know there are some super smart humans out there – the Border Collies of the human race who WILL find a solution. But just like you can’t train a Picard all the exercises to compete in an obedience trial in a week or two – you can’t expect a quick answer to this pandemic. The scientists need time. And YOU can give it to them.

So that’s my speech. OK. OK. Frodo helped. But the ignorance is bliss part was all mine….

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. And stay safe.

Frodo here. I am here to proclaim that her highness is officially losing the few marbles she has left. Yesterday she did something that made us realize she is spending too much time with us…

Yesterday morning began like most. She arises from her bed when one of us breathes on her face. First thing she does is she goes to the kitchen to give me one of my pills – which I am supposed to take an hour before meals. She then gets dressed, takes us for our walk, feeds us and has her breakfast while she reads the paper. Since she has retired, if she then goes to shower, we know that she is going out. Before this virus, she might have gone out to meet a friend for coffee, she might have gone to get groceries, she might have browsed some shops – anyway we knew she would be gone for a few hours.

But since this pandemic, she goes nowhere. Showering is only scheduled if she has a FaceTime chat – so she looks presentable. She does not go out.

So imagine our surprise when she announced yesterday that she was going out for the day. She had her breakfast – and announced she was taking a shower. She came out all fresh looking- except for her hair – there is no help there- and announced she was leaving. She gave us treats, grabbed her purse and her keys and went into the garage. We heard the garage door go up and we settled down for guard duty. We heard the car start up and we heard her drive out. We listened as the car went up the driveway.

Within 10 seconds, we heard the garage door open and the car pull in. She raced in the house and shouted “April Fools!” The beatnik just looked at me. I’m telling you – she’s losing it.

Last night after supper we decided to go for a walk. It had rained earlier in the day but had stopped so we were ready for some fresh air. We trotted up the driveway and around the curve. And that’s when we spotted “them.” Two people on the road. Walking two dogs – a husky and a fuzzy Bichon-like dog . And both dogs were loose. It was one of those slow motion moments one sees in a movie…

Of course, yours truly HAD to protect my home turf. I immediately exploded into a cross between Cujo and a tornado. Well. The husky, whose name we quickly learned was River, saw that as an invitation to visit. His social interpretation skills are clearly lacking. And obviously he didn’t know about social distancing. He dashed down the driveway toward me, the leaping Picard and her highness who was holding our leashes as if we were about to run into the path of an oncoming freight train. River’s human shouted his name repeatedly- but he was clearly interested in meeting us. Especially me – because he had probably never met a Cujnado before. Her highness was frozen saying “it will probably be OK.” Which was ridiculous- because who knew what might happen. River got close enough to sniff at me while my tail was spinning like a clock whose spring had broken. As soon as River’s human got close enough to grab him, he hightailed it back for the road. The human said something that appeared to be apologetic in nature, but her highness couldn’t even hear him because I was still making enough racket to wake the dead. Meanwhile the beatnik was leaping up and down on all fours. Squeaking that high pitched thing that he does.

Her highness caught her breath and told us to sit. It is very hard to sit when one’s adrenaline is rushing. But we did because there were treats. She then said “Easy” as we began to walk toward the road. Like slingshots, we both bolted toward the end of our leashes and I began my frenzy again. I couldn’t even SEE the dogs, but they left their scent behind. My inner hound dog went into overdrive. And the beatnik followed suit.

Needless to say, our walk was much shorter than planned. Her highness feared yours truly was going to have a cardiac arrest. And she could barely hold onto the beatnik. So home we went. I am frankly surprised that neighbors didn’t come out of their homes to see what the racket was. I put on QUITE the performance. I think her highness just needs to carry a grooming tool along on our walks. That would make me settle down quickly….maybe.

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.