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OK, what I am about to write will no doubt not sit well with some people.  But heck, I’m a dog, and honestly, we dogs don’t really worry what other people think.  We just want to be happy.  And we usually are!  And THAT’S why humans could take a lesson from us…

My human just joined another dog club.  She’s a member of several.  That’s one of the things some humans do – they join a particular breed club, like the Pogopogo Setter Club of Canada (there is no such thing as a Pogopogo Setter – at least not that I know of!) or they join what is called an all-breed club like the Halifax Kennel Club.  Now the purpose of these clubs, as I understand it, is to promote and share information about purebred dogs.  And ideally to promote good breeding practices.  The clubs may put on dog shows, or be involved in community projects – like the Halifax Kennel Club did – raising funds to buy animal sized oxygen masks for use by our local firefighters.  Certain clubs may form to focus on one type of dog activity – like obedience or herding or draft or agility.  In some of the more perfomance based clubs – dogs who participate need not be purebred. 

But the problem with “dog” clubs is that humans run them.  And humans come with their own set of agendas, their own ideas, and their own goals.  In THEORY, dog clubs SHOULD be happy places because they represent a venue where people come together because they ALL have the same interest. Dogs.  But somehow, humans act like humans – and not like dogs – who basically live for today, and rarely have an agenda.  And egos become involved and words get thrown around and people get mad and then they quit.  Or they have a mutiny.  And the next thing you know, the happy dog club is the cranky dog club.  Or in the worst scenario, the club folds.

It seems my human has stepped into a club like that right now.  And honestly, she is just NEW – so she holds no alliances, to anyone.  And she doesn’t know the “history”.  I suppose she could be voted off the island for even discussing this whole thing – but heck, I’m writing this – not her.   And you’ll note, I haven’t mentioned what club it is.  Or where it is.  In this day and age with the internet, one can easily become a member of a club in a different area or another country for that matter.

The one thing, as a newbie to this club, that my human recognized is that it is no wonder purebred dogs are in such a mess.   Humans are the problem when it comes to dogs.  Something brought all of these people together – an activity or a breed – and that’s what people need to keep in mind… And if they want to see their breed or their sport or purebred dogs in general, continue to grow and develop and be AROUND for a long time – they had better work together.   Unfortunately, with humans that is often easier said than done…What a shame…

OK.  I’m stepping off my soapbox, and instead, stepping up to countersurf.  And I’m going to form my OWN dog club – and no humans allowed…OK, just my human can come.  She has to type the minutes…

Have a good one.  PEACE and paws up! And be happy.

Seizure-free days: 5

Yesterday my human had the day off.  So of course, we wanted to make the most of it.  By getting her up early.  Like at 3AM.  This has actually become a bit of a “thing” now.  I wander around at 3 AM, and she figures I need to pee because of my medication.  So I get to go out.  And then everyone gets to go out.  Then we get a treat and are told to go back to sleep.  And she sequesters herself back on the sofa in the DFZ.  Yup – she’s still sleeping there.  She realizes it’s about time she heads back to her bed – because we are all sleeping FINE together – with the FG out of his crate.  But I think she’s gotten used to sleeping on the sofa – and I THINK she is actually enjoying not having any of us sleeping on the bed and pushing her off.  But she has decided that THIS WEEKEND we are going to try and all share the bed.  Now THIS should be interesting.  In the meantime, I wander in the middle of the night and we all get to go out.

So yesterday she took us all out and then announced that she would be sleeping in.  She had her alarm set, for the VERY late hour of 7 AM.  She HAS to get up at that time no matter what, because I need my medication at 7.  Anyway, after the 3 AM walk-about she fell SOUND asleep.  But before she went back to sleep, she gave each of us a treat.  But not just ANY treat.  She gave each of us a piece of Honey Beefer.  I think I have talked about this locally made canine delicacy before.  It’s dried beef.  Mixed with honey.  And there is not a dog on this PLANET who wouldn’t like Honey Beefers.  I guarantee it.  Even Picky Picard scarfs it down…

So we went back to sleep at 3 AM,  but  we woke up PROMPTLY at our usual time of 5:45.  However, my human was still sleeping.  But we were hungry.  And it seems, in my human’s half sleeping state at 3 AM, she left the Honey Beefers on the counter…

When my human got up at 7, she wandered into the kitchen and then noticed the FG flinging something in the dining room.  Tiny pieces of plastic.  Now what on earth could THAT be, she wondered.  She went and pried a piece out of his mouth and could partly read the label on the plastic. “Hon…”.  And she immediately recognized the color of the label.  She ran to the counter and sure enough, the BRAND NEW FULL PACKAGE of Honey Beefers was GONE.  We all looked at her with innocent eyes.  “Who did this?” she asked as if one of us would miraculously have the ability to speak and shout out “It was ME.”

But unfortunately, unlike the other day after the power outage, this time, Big Brother was working.  She attempted to roll back the video footage.  It was tricky, because, of course, this happened while it was still dark out.  BUT, she had left a light on in the dining room.  She kept scrolling and scrolling though the footage.  And suddenly she saw no one on the screen.  No one was in the dining room.  And although she couldn’t SEE what was happening in the dark kitchen, she could hear the rustling of paper or plastic.  And then, out of the darkness and into the light of the dining room a figure emerged.  Carrying a package of Honey Beefers.  It was…..me.  BUSTED.  I proceeded to rip open the package with the assistance of Einstein, and eat all the Honey Beefers.  I think the FG was in the kitchen, checking to see if there were any more packages of treats.

My human was NOT impressed and she worried that I might have some dietary issues – but as of last night, no problems.  We’ll see what today holds.  While she is at work.

Good thing I’m cute….

Have a good one! Peace and paws up!!

Seizure-free days: 5

I was reading an article the other day about new research that is going on to develop a “pet translator” that will help animals to communicate better with humans.  By using artificial intelligence, scientists are learning to translate animal vocalizations and facial expressions to translate what we animals are trying to say.  They have done work with monkeys and prairie dogs and they predict that within 10 years they will be able to interpret what dog woofs really mean – like “I want to eat now.” OK.  Maybe I’m missing something here – but my human already clearly understands that Einstein is yelling “hurry up with the food bowl – I want to eat NOW” every day.  Actually at every meal.  She doesn’t need a computer translator to tell her that.  No artificial intelligence needed.  And the article does say that the new technology won’t exactly allow humans to have actual conversations with us dogs.  So while it sounds all exciting and novel, I’m not certain it will reveal a lot more than what a good canine owner already knows.  I mean it doesn’t look like we will be carrying on conversations about our deepest thoughts.  Just as well.  We don’t really need you to know about our plans to take over the world.

Today, January 13, is Public Radio Broadcasting Day.  So I went to the PBS website and they have quite a number of dog-umentaries and info on dogs.  I also found this quick interactive quiz that lets you match a breed with it’s place of origin.  Which requires that you know the breed – AND you know  your geography:

 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/dogs-around-world.html

And if you have kids or grandkids, here are a BUNCH of dog related interactive games to play.  I wanted to try them on my human’s iPad.  But as is usually the case, the answer was no.

http://pbskids.org/games/dog/

The cornflake caper continues or should I call it the case of the cereal killer.  BEFORE my human read all the good suggestions that people had about training this trick – like USING kibble, or cheese popcorn or a toy, she tried it one more time with the cornflakes.  This time, the FG didn’t want to sit.  At all.  He is obviously not interested in wearing breakfast food.  And when she tried to entice him to get excited over the cornflakes, and she would grab them when they hit the floor, they just ended up crumbling into tiny little pieces.  She’ll try kibble or toys next.

We were all driving her a bit crazy the other night and after we EACH played a game of find the treats (which are hidden all over the room), we STILL wanted to do something ELSE.  So my human said, “OK, let’s do some obedience sit-stays.”  She basiaclly sits us in a row, sets a timer and we have to sit and wait until the timer goes off.  The timer is set to different times each time, so we don’t get used to a pattern.  Einstein and I wanted to play this game.  It’s boring – but easy.  But the FG was feeling lazy after eating all the cornflake crumbs, so he would’t sit up.  She asked him several times.   He would just lie there and look at her.  I think he was afraid to sit up for fear the cornflakes would come out again.  She physically had to lift the limp Picard into a sit.  All the time we PONs just wanted the stupid timer to get started so we could get our treats.  The whole sit-stay training ploy works GREAT for my human – she can do other things while she is waiting.  Like check her email.  The time period is anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes.  After a couple of sits, then we got to do down-stays which the FG loved because he really did NOT want to sit.  Anyway, we ALL passed every sit-stay and down-stay exercise.  And my human read all her email….

Today is Saturday.  And hopefully the rain that is forecast will hold off so we can have good walks.  Enjoy your weekend!

Have a  good one. Peace and paws up! 

Wow.  Thank you for all of the good wishes and healing thoughts!  We were overwhelmed with all of the comments and feedback an d the sharing of stories. I had a good night after the day of drama.  Well – I did anyway.  My human probably got like 15 minutes of sleep.  Every time I MOVED she would wake up.  I started my new medication yesterday – so we’ll see what happens.  The person I feel most sorry for is our vet…My human sent her SO many articles and literature. At 3 in the morning.  I’m SURE the vet is ready to scream “enough.”  But she doesn’t know my human – the Queen of Google Research.  Heaven help my vet.

I think that in order to keep you abreast of my progress – I am going to put a little counter at the end of my blog.  Kind of a score card – indicating seizure-free days.  Let’s hope I can have LOTS.

So now on to some comic relief.  And who provides the best comic relief much of the time?  The FG…

My human got this “idea” the other day.  She decided it was time she start training the FG to catch.  You see, she hopes to show him in beauty pageants this year.  And last year, a professional handler (the people who get paid to show other people’s dogs) asked my human if the FG could catch things.  Because apparently, one way to get a dog to have ears up and look all attentive in the ring is to teach him to catch a treat.  The dog looks at the treat and gets ready to catch it.  My human said she hadn’t tried it with him, but she would.

So the other day she sat the FG down in the kitchen and told him they were going to do some “training.”  He looked at her like she was speaking Greek.  Which she might as well have done because his reaction to most things she requests is pretty much hit or miss.  She put Einstein and I in the hallway – as she knew that there was NO way the three of us could do this at the same time.  So.  First step.  What to catch?  She figured kibble might work, but given that the Picky Picard sometimes doesn’t even CARE about kibble, she didn’t think that would work.  ALSO – I should note, that the Queen of Google Research had actually not bothered to look up how to do this. 

She decided that maybe she should try something “light” in weight that would fall more slowly.  (Sometimes you just have to wonder about her logic.)  So given this premise, what to use?  Marshmallows are light.  But clearly not good for dogs.  And we didn’t have any in the house anyway.  Treats?  Too heavy.  Ahh – the solution.  Cornflakes.  Seriously, I couldn’t make this stuff up.  So she got out the box of cereal and poured a pile on the counter.  She then proceeded to pick out the largest flakes.  Stop laughing.  This really happened.  She fed one to the Picky Picard.  Who immediatley dropped it and had to examine it on the floor.  After about 8 cornflakes, he decided he liked them.  So now he was watching her hand.  And here is where she messed up.  Instead of getting him revved up to catch the treat, she just tossed it up in the air, thinking he would grab for it.  It landed on his head.  He sat there staring at her with the cornflake on his head.  She took it off and gave it to him.  She tossed another one.  He made NO attempt to catch it.  It landed on his muzzle.  This time he flipped it off and scooped it off the floor.  Try again.  Cornflake again on the nose.  And he sat with it there.  She ALMOST grabbed her camera – but he flipped it up and again scooped it off the floor. And so the process was repeated. Again. And again.  By now he was getting annoyed with cornflakes landing on his head and nose.  And he became more intent on cleaning up the tiny crumbs from the cornflakes on the floor.  After about 12 futile noggin landing attempts, she quit.  She THEN looked up a YouTube video on how to actually train this trick.  And she discovered that the dog has to WANT the treat really badly.  And you have to grab it if it drops on the floor before the dog eats it.  So he’ll be really interested in it.  And you also try to toss it into the dog’s mouth. 

So it’s back to the cereal drawing board.  Now this is training is going to be interesting.  I suggest she  keep her camera handy.  Just in case.

Have a good one.  Peace and paws up! 

Seizure-free days – 1

Well I’m afraid I have some bad news to share.  Very bad news…

We all know that I have been battling my seizures for over a year and a half.  And we have had to adjust my medications over time.  I even added the Cannabis terpenes a few months ago to my regular meds.  And every time I ALMOST make it to a month seizure free, I have another one.  Back in December I actually had two within one day.  Which really worried my human.  But then, I was fine.  Three weeks went by and I had another one.  So we went to the Vet last week to look at changing my medications again.  In addition to the last seizure, my human wasn’t happy with some side effects of one of the drugs I was taking, so she wanted to see if that could be changed.  So they ordered in my new meds and my human was to pick them up yesterday.  Unfortunately, at 2AM Wednesday, I had a seizure.  And then another one at 8 AM.   My human was working from home – so she could keep an eye on me.  And then at 2PM, BAM I had number three.  That’s when she really got worried.  So she whisked me off to the Vet and they decided that although I wasn’t having a seizure at that point, they would give me some Valium to stop the cluster from happening again.  Unfortunately, the Valium seemed to have an opposite effect on me.  And I had another seizure.  To say my human was beside herself is a gross understatement. LONG story short, they ended up giving me another medication to help me rest while the Valium was wearing off.  And after a few hours, I was back to “normal”.  Well – pretty wobbly and tired, but back to myself.

So please keep me in your thoughts and prayers and send good healing wishes.  I know that we can beat this.  We have to.

Have a good one.  Peace and paws up.

So yesterday was Word Nerd Day – but let’s continue the theme today.   Today we’ll talk about collecting terminology.  For example, my human is a deltiologist.  What’s that you may wonder?  It’s the fancy term for somone who collects old postcards.   She doesn’t collect ALL categories of postcards – just holidays. And old dog postcards.  Now some of you may have heard of  philatelists –  humans who collect stamps.  Or numismatists – who collect coins or currency.  My human used to be an arctophile – a collector of Teddy Bears – but given the dangerous life those stuffed critters would have in THIS house, she has pretty much weaned off her collection.

Who KNEW there was a word for someone who collects umbrellas – it’s a Brolliologist.  And guess what a cartomaniac and a sucrologist collect?   Maps and sugar packets.  Yes.  Sugar packets. 

All this search for collecting vocabulary started because of Einstein’s collecting hobby.  Einstein is a petrologist.  Or in other terms, a Rock Hound.  No pun intended.  Yup.  He collects rocks.  It happened the other day.  And the weather conditions have to be JUST right.  Not too wet.  Not too dry.  Just in between.  And if the humidity and temperature are JUST right, Einstein brings home a HUGE collection of rocks.   If you look closely in the picture, you will see a bunch of black spots on the floor.  Those are rocks.  That came in on Einstein’s feet.  It’s not unusual for any of us to bring in all sorts of flora in our coats – but Einstein is the only rock collector.   My human literally had to get a broom to sweep up the rocks.  

I tried to find the names for some of the other things we dogs collect, but I couldn’t find them.  So I made up a few of my own:

cartilagologist – a bone collector.  We have so many bones lying around the house, it looks like a dinsouar graveyard.

tetherologist – a leash collector.  We have enough leashes to walk an army of dogs.   But not to worry – if my human sees an interesting new type, she will definitely add to the collection.

caninamusologist – a collector of dog toys. And one can never have too many, in my mind.

So that’s your vocabulary lesson for today.  Oh – one last one – given our sometimes “undesirable” behavior, it would be QUITE easy for my human to become a helixophile.  A collector of corkscrews…. Good one…..

Have a good one!  Peace and paws up!

Well its’s January 9 and it’s a national Word Nerd Day.  So time for some new entries from the Viktionary: