Viktorsviews. The Next Chapter.

The good thing about a power outage…..

January 8, 2018Leave a Comment

So who knew there could be an advantage to a power outage…

On Saturday, after we finished rejoicing when the power came on at 5AM, my human needed to empty some things from our fridge and freezer. She’s pretty cautious when it comes to food safety – so her rule is always “better safe than sorry.” So she disposed of two cartons of milk, her last carton of egg nog (WHAT will she put in her coffee in the morning NOW?!), a carton of whipping cream, and a container from ice tea that for some odd reason needed to stay refrigerated. She emptied the contents down the drain, and put the containers in a blue plastic recycling bag – which was to go in the garage. Was being the operative word. My human did the emptying and realized she was supposed to be meeting her mother and sister – soon. She had to take us out for a pee before she went, and needed to get a few other things organized. She got us all set, gave us some treats before she went, put the FG in his pony-sized crate and rushed out the door. Leaving the bag of recyclables on the kitchen floor in the blue plastic bag…

My human was only gone about an hour and when she walked in the door, guess what the first words were out of her mouth? “Who did this?!” Someone dragged the blue bag into the dining and shredded the milk cartons. And the egg nog carton. And the carton from whipping cream.. There were pieces all over the floor AND a dining room chair was knocked over – indicating a real rumble. Einstein and I just stared at my human as she went to get a new blue bag and proceeded to pick up tiny peices of carton. She wondered WHO started this chaos. And then she remembered – Big Brother. She would be able to replay the tape and see who the guilty culprit was. She grabbed her phone and the two of us just looked at each other. Meanwhile, the FG was lounging in his crate because he knew HE couldn’t be blamed for this one. My human opened the app, anxious to find the guilty party. Or parties. And guess what? A small miracle. After the power outage, the camera had not come back on! It needed to be reset. So there was no evidence! Einstein and I immediately did a happy dance. My human just looked at us and said “it’s your lucky day.” Not that there would have been any repercussions for the crime – other than perhaps one less treat. And another notch on the crime list. But we were off the hook.

So although the power outage was a nuisance, just like everything in life, if you search through the bad stuff there is often a silver lining. Always remember to look for it!

Have a good one. Peace and paws up!

Monkeys

January 7, 2018Leave a Comment

On this day in 1929, one of the first adventure comic strips was published – the story of Tarzan. You all know about Tarzan, the guy who grew up with apes in the jungle. My human LOVED to watch old Tarzan movies on Sunday afternoons when she was a kid. Tarzan lived with monkeys. Little did she realize way back then that she would one day be living with monkeys too!

And speaking of monkey dogs – my human has been following with great interest the adventures of a PON puppy by the name of Scout. Scout owns a friend of my human’s – someone she met through my blog – and who works in a similar field. Anyway, Scout went to his new home just after Christmas. And in typical PON fashion, he has already learned how to train humans. On the way home in the car, he screamed bloody murder – so he was able to get out and sit comfortably on a human lap for the rest of the journey. Well done Scout! Scout’s human has been telling my human about him and my human has labelled him as an EBM+. An Extreme Bad Monkey Plus. Which is obviously JUST the kind of puppies my human LOVES. Here is a discription of Scout’s typical shenanigans: ” He jumps into his laundry basket bed, climbs the stretch gate, flings himself over the top of the gate onto the chair securing the gate, jumps down from the chair, runs to Dad and puts his head on Dad’s slipper, looks up and grins.” I want to meet this guy. He sounds like a real PONdini! When Einstein was a puppy, he moved an entire ex pen across the room over to a sofa, climbed up the now leaning pen, over the top and onto the sofa. And he was OFF. He is the ultimate monkey dog.

If one does a Google search for Tarzan dogs – who knew that there really IS such a thing. Canine Tarzans are dogs who are easily excited – and who may not exhibit good manners around other dogs. Because they get SO excited. Sound familiar? If over exuberance is a characteristic of a Tarzan dog, the FG fits that bill. He’s happy to meet ANYONE. Dogs. People. Squirrels. Flying leaves. I think I’ll start calling him Tarzan from now on. It has a nice ring…

Anyway, I wrote about the challenges of having no power the other day…but tomorrow I’ll tell you about one ADVANTAGE. Stay tuned…

Now excuse me while we get into some monkeyshines.

Have a good one. Peace and paws up!

No power…

January 6, 2018Leave a Comment

Today is January 6 – also known as 12th Night, Epiphany or Feast of the Three Kings. I thought initially it was a day to honour me, Einstein and the FG – because let’s face it – we ARE Three Kings. But no. It’s the day that the Three Kings came to visit Baby Jesus – bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh ( which as I understand comes from the sap of trees and can be made into essential oils – for good health). Wonder what Baby Jesus did with that stuff…

It’s also a day when lots of people take down their Christmas trees. My human took ours down, as you know, the other day. And we are all still carrying around needles…

We were roughing it in our house for over 24 hours. We lost power from the storm on Thursday night at around midnight. My human had to go to work on Friday and was figuring that the power would be on when she got home from work. Nope. She got home and had about an hour of daylight to get us out, and feed us our dinner before it was pitch black. Try and tell three dogs at 6 PM that it is “bedtime”.

The worst part – more than half the houses on our road had the power restored on Friday. But four of us didn’t. My human has now decided that she could never live off the grid. And frankly, we dogs were pretty bored too. Not much you can do when it’s pitch black in the house. It gives a whole new challenge to playing Find the Bunny. Because my human couldn’t see if we found him. Luckily we have a propane fireplace so the house didn’t get TOO cold. We went to sleep but then woke up at around midnight. Still no power. My human took each of us out – with her trusty headlamp and the flashlight on her smartphone. Then it was “back to sleep.” And then like a miracle just before 5AM – voila- a true epiphany- the lights came back on. We all HAD to go out and have a celebratory pee!!!

You know, sometimes we take for granted those things that we have that are so easily accessible to us. We don’t appreciate them until they are gone.

So today, go and hug your electrical pole. Not the wires. Just the pole.

Have a good one. Peace and paws up!

Trivia. LOTS of trivia…

January 4, 2018Leave a Comment

So today, January 4, is National Trivia Day. I was going to come up with a series of trivia questions about dogs…and then I found the following page.

http://www.funtrivia.com/quizzes/animals/dogs.html

There are literally over 270 dog trivia quizzes here. So if you happen to be stuck in the house today because there is a storm outside (like we are forecast to have here today) OR you are taking a coffee break at work and you have some time to kill, check out this site and see how knowledgeable you are about ALL things dog. When you click on a particular quiz, if you don’t want to be timed, just click where it says Take Quiz: Single Page. Then just click away. You will also note that the quizzes are rated from Easy to Very Difficult. My human tried a bunch of them – of course, she likes to go straight for the Difficult and Very Difficult levels. She did pretty well on the training quizzes. Go figure – she KNOWS how to train us – but clearly WE know more. She also did well on some of the breed quizzes but she did concede that she didn’t get 100% on one or two rated as Very Difficult. She thought she knew rare breeds – but I guess she doesn’t!

Although we are not crazy about storms because of the challenges they can present for humans when they have to get from place to place, we ARE happy when it is so bad that my human isn’t going in to work! Bonus. We thought we might get to meet the new plow guy we have this year because the initial forecast was calling for snow. I think it was our driveway that caused the last guy to retire from plowing. We’ll see how it goes this year. But it looks like today we are going to get high winds and lots of rain, instead. Not fun PON weather in this household! But on the flip side we don’t have to plow or shovel rain!

Have a good one. Peace and paws up!

Apple computers. And Christmas tree needles…

January 3, 2018Leave a Comment

January 3. And on this day in 1977, Apple computers was incorporated. And who were two of the founders of Apple computers??? The late Steve Jobs. And Steve Wozniak. Who happens to share the same surname as my human! Yup cousin Steve made it big in the computer world. JUST KIDDING. Steve Wozniak is NOT related to my human. At least not that we know of. BUT – I suggest she study this pedigree thing a bit more because apparently Steve Wozniak is a dog lover!!! So they MUST be related. Way back in 1983, Steve was owned by three Siberian huskies, an Australian shepherd, and four “multi-breed” dogs. Personally, I don’t like the term “mutt” – I prefer multi-breed. Anyway, I digress. On one website, I see that Steve lists that he loves dogs and children. Pretty good guy if you ask me. Apparently he is a big philanthropist – and he has even been involved in supporting a dog park in San Jose where he lives. He has also been involved in supporting animal shelters as well. I read somewhere that his dogs eat filet mignon. So clearly he loves dogs.

My thoughts… He has the same last name as my human. They MUST be related. So “cousin” Steve, if you are reading this…I would love filet mignon too – please feel free to send me some…..

In other news – my human took down all the Christmas “stuff” yesterday. We dogs were totally bummed out – not because the “stuff” was being put away – but because it took SO long to do it. My human was at it for HOURS. And after she put everything away, she needed to take the tree out. Usually she cuts the branches off and puts them in a big bag – so she doesn’t have to take the whole tree out, shedding its needles. But no – yesterday she was SO tired of putting things away, that she decided to drag the tree from the DFZ, into the dining room and out onto the deck. She then lifted the monster and heaved it over the railing onto the lawn. While we dogs watched from the hallway where were we sequestered.

So here is my “brilliant” human. She drags the tree out. She leaves a trail of needles. She sweeps and vacuums the needles. She let’s us out of our incarceration room and we run onto the deck. We run through all the needles that are on the deck. Which she had not yet swept. We bring them back in the house. She’ll be finding needles from now until July. The joys of a “real” tree. Oh – and when we found it on the lawn after it was tossed over the railing (and before she dragged it into the woods) – we PROMPTLY peed on it. We’ve been waiting a month to do that.

So she is back to work today. WHY does her vacation time go SO quickly?! So OUR vacation is over as well. Back to guard duty….

Have a good one. Peace and paws up!

Eating. Bad stuff…

January 2, 2018Leave a Comment

January 2. Today is National Buffet Day and National Cream Puff Day. Just perfect for all those humans who made a resolution to eat healthier and diet. My human was feeling sorry for herself yesterday – I think 24 hours without junk food is already getting to her…

But the good news – when she took the FG out for his morning walk, she tried something… She was carrying the tug toy she has been using with the whistle to work on his recall. She hid it behind her – in her belt so he wouldn’t see it. And she had her trusty whistle on a rope around her neck. And she waited for JUST the right moment when he was intently sniffing something and not paying attention to her. She carefully removed the toy, without him seeing and quickly blew the whistle. His head jerked up and he raced forward to grab it. BINGO. Just what she had been hoping for. Now of course he WAS on a leash – and will stay on the leash until he is about 10 years old – or until she is SURE he will come – but this preliminary test indicates that the whistle may work after all. Once he grabbed the toy, they tugged and had a good play with it. Now mind you, if left off leash he WOULD have run away with it… so they clearly have more to work on. But it is evident that those brain cells are trainable.

Meanwhile, the “good dog” – Einstein has gotten himself in hot water the past couple of days. When my human has taken him and me down to the lake, on TWO occasions, Einstein has “found” and eaten SOMETHING in the woods. Once he was ready to come in the house and he raced off to the woods on the side of the driveway. My human followed him and saw him gowing down something. She shouted “drop it.” Too late. He turned around – looked right at her and smacked his lips. Don’t you humans love it when we smack our lips after devouring something we shouldn’t?! And then he did that AGAIN yesterday. She can’t figure out what he is eating. Probably something dropped by a crow. Or some animal poop. Speaking of which…I probably shouldn’t tell this story – although Santa has already come and gone – and although you will no doubt be disgusted- you’ll probably still love me. Who doesn’t? The other day while walking on the trail, I stopped to poop – about two feet off the trail in the woods. My human left it there – don’t panic, it’s organic and on our property – and it’s not like it is on the lawn. Anyway she continued to walk on – and Einstein was with her. She went around a bend and waited for me. And she called. And I didn’t come. She called again. Same response. So she walked back to see what was keeping me. Let’s just say I was recycling. Or we could say I decided that since she didn’t pick up, that it was my job. Oooooooo-eeeeeeee. Did she give a shout. And for some odd reason, she refused to give me any of the yummy treats in her pocket when I came running. Smacking my lips. Go figure. Ya try to help out and that’s the thanks you get.

Today the Christmas explosion comes down. My human started yesterday, but still has more to do. I know many people wait until January 6, but it’s back to work for my human tomorrow- so she wanted to have the place back to normal before then. As if our household is ever normal.

Have a good one. Peace and paws up!

Happy New Year!!

January 1, 2018Leave a Comment

Happy New Year! So here we are. 2018. A clean slate. We can officially leave 2017 behind and start anew.

I was reading about New Years resolutions, and it appears that about 35% of humans make them, but only 10% who do are successful in following through with them. There are some studies that say almost 20% are successful – but still, the overall success rate is NOT high. Right now, your chance for carrying through is slightly better than the FG’s recall. So that’s not saying much. Let’s take a look a list of typical human resolutions once published in Time magazine, and see if I could carry them out:

1. Lose weight and get fit. I don’t need this one. I’m skinny. Well, I’m a GOOD weight – although I still maintain that I should be getting MORE food. This is, however, a good one for my human. But don’t tell her I said so. I’ll just keep squeaking to get her to take me out – so I can help her with this one…

2. Quit smoking. I think I’ll use this one and so will my human. OK. None of us DO smoke. But at least we could be successful with one…

3. Learn something new. I like this one. Maybe I could get back into my Rally training. My human has LOTS of ideas for “new” things. If she just had the time…we’ll try to encourage her for this one.

4. Eat healthier and diet. Anything that involves food – I’m in. We all need more veggies in our future. My human included! But I’m skipping the diet part…

5. Get out of debt and save money. I don’t HAVE any money – or any way to earn it. Although the FG and Einstein actually “won” some money for participating in a dog show last year. And they didn’t beat anyone. I still think that was a sweet deal. I think it was kind of a consolation prize. No matter – we’ll take money any time we can. Maybe we can try that this year. Sure and just watch. They’ll change the prizes to something like a new grooming tool. That would be just my luck…

6. Spend more time with family. I spend all my days with Einstein and the FG. That’s plenty in my mind. Now we just need to get my human to retire – so SHE can be here too…

7. Travel to new places. We went to Cape Breton in 2017 – but we had been there before…I think we need some new road trips this year. Even short trips… But we need to act civilly when we get out of the vehicle. Let’s just say our overexuberant behavior when arriving at a new place IS a bit over the top…Maybe we need to go to new places ONE at a time….

8. Be less stressed. This is a typical human issue. Humans are always stressed. They could take a cue from us dogs at how to be less stressed. Unless we think it is time to eat, and our human has forgotten. THEN we are stressed. Or we arrive at a new destination…

9. Volunteer. My human used to do volunteer work with the Halifax Kennel Club – visiting nursing homes and recreation centers with her dogs and performing in a Drill Team. The club stopped that a number of years ago now. I think that would be a fun thing to do. I’m not so sure, though, that any of us would REALLY qualify as certified therapy dogs. Unless you want people to NEED therapy after they meet us…

10. Drink less. I thought you were SUPPOSED to drink lots of water. Wait – Einstein just indicated that it’s ALCOHOL they are referring to. OK. None of us dogs drink. We DO however, drive my human to drink. Can’t blame her for this one. But she does need to drink more water too – I could give her lessons.

Some sources say that if you want to be successful with your resolution, just pick one. Here are a few to think about – most of which would be prefect for my human…

Clean out your closet. Admittedly it would take a week – but right now, we dogs could get lost in there. And we love to go in, on the off chance that we can find some kibble in a coat pocket or a pair of pants…
Empty your inbox. She started this the other day. She’s actually down to just over 10,000. Yes. You read that correctly…
Go to bed on time. Because it is likely one of us will wake her up anyway, either wanting to go out (like I did the other night), or by making the urky-gurky sound – because we ate something unsavoury in the woods.

No matter what you choose – make your resolution a good, attainable goal. And if by March you have already ditched your goal (like most humans), just start again!! You know what they say, if at first you don’t succeed, pick something easier. Or something like that.

Have a good one. Peace an paws up!

New Year’s Eve…

December 31, 2017Leave a Comment

Well. Well. Well. Here we are. The last day of 2017. It wasn’t a bad year – but at the same time, we are looking forward to a fresh new 2018.

So what happened this year? Hmmmm….A German Shepherd dog won the Westminster Kennel Club show and an American Cocker Spaniel won Crufts. The World dog show winners included 4 dogs – #1 was a Great Dane, #2 was a Fox terrier, #3 a Beagle and #4 the American Cocker Spaniel. No PON. No Picard. Maybe 2018 will be the year.

And speaking of dog shows, the FG made his debut in the beauty pageant ring and on his second weekend out (he only was in two weekends of shows) he got a Group 3 placement. All I know is that is a good thing and the ribbon was on the Christmas tree.

The FG also met sheep this year – and put Einstein and I to shame, earning his Instinct certificate on the first try.

Einstein and I didn’t enter any obedience trials this year. Probably because we are not obedient. Just kidding. Sort of. My human had a busy year – for a number of reasons, and we just didn’t get out to compete. Maybe in 2018.

This year I met my resolution from last year to NOT chase bunnies. Probably because our bunny population seems to be down. No matter. I met my resolution. I can’t say the same for my human and her resolution to take off those Halloween candies from 2016. Actually, I looked back and it’s from 2015. But who’s counting?

We had a new dog sitter this year. And we didn’t scare her off. At least she SAID she would watch us again. We’ll see what happens when my human puts in a serious request for time. Not that we are letting her go anywhere soon.

This year my human began to seriously contemplate retirement. HOWEVER – she told us that IF she retires, she will be home with us more (which is a HUGE plus), BUT we won’t necessarily be able to get special treats whenever we want them – as she would be on a “budget” (which is a BIG MINUS in my mind). I admit it – I’m spoiled and I like special treats and great toys. So one more year of work will be OK. Maybe.

This year I managed to post to my blog every single day. It still surprises me that I do this every day – and that people read it. This year my human also got to spend time with people that she has met through my blog. She LOVED that and she hopes to meet up with them again! And she welcomes the chance to meet others who read about our crazy adventures in the future – if anyone is planning a trip to Nova Scotia in 2018, let us know – Viktor’s Adventure Tours is currently taking bookings!

Although 2018 was also a tough year in some ways, overall the good times outweighed the bad. I think it was a glass half full kind of year.

Tonight as you welcome in 2018, if you manage to stay up that long (most likely my human will be asleep), be grateful for the glass half full. And think about how you can make it even more full in 2018!

Have a good one. Peace and paws up!

A bone to pick…

December 30, 2017Leave a Comment

I think that the FG is reading my blog. And he was embarrassed by his bad behavior. So yesterday when my human took him on an EXTRA long walk on a trail in the woods, he was VERY well behaved. No bolting on the leash at all. Well – leashES. You see my human attached one leash to the top of his harness and the other to the front of his harness. Power steering. And it worked. They had a perfectly long walk which they both enjoyed!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, instead of allowing Einstein to bark incessantly while they were gone, my human gave the two of us knucklebones. Real honest to goodness raw knucklebones. Well – cut in half by the butcher. So when the FG and my human walked out the door, we didn’t pay the least bit of attention. And when they came back in, we didn’t even look up. We were in a bone trance. We were suspended and couldn’t move. My human had to trade yummy treats to get the bones from us. And then we stumbled outside – we were bone drunk. Einstein immediately threw himself on the lawn and began to roll – his drunken stupor made him crazy. As you can see…

So I think we have found the perfect solution to our chewing craving. Elk antlers, while we loved them, were too hard. Marrow bones are good, but for very short periods at a time – or we are plagued with “poop” issues. Knucklebones SEEM to be perfect. No dietary issues, and not so hard as to break our teeth…Of course we MAY change our minds- but so far they are the bones of choice.

Now excuse me while I go and stare at the freezer. Willing them to come out…

Have a good one. Peace and paws up!

Old friends

December 29, 2017Leave a Comment

Well last night was the annual old-friends-drinking-wine-at-Christmas-time celebration. My human has this old friend who she has known for 35+ years – since she first moved to Nova Scotia. And although they no longer live near each other, they stay in touch, and when her friend visits our neck of the woods, they try to get together. And every Christmas, they make it a point to meet up – usually at our house, and sit for hours, drinking wine, eating junk food and laughing at old stories. Einstein has heard the stories told over and over again, and rolls his eyes – but they somehow manage to delight in the tales – and enjoy them as if they have never been told before. Oftentimes, the stories relate to us canines. And canines that have come before and are no longer with us. And most of the tales are about canines behaving badly. Which is QUITE ironic because you see, both of these humans are WELL VERSED and knowledgeable about behavioral training techniques. I mean they BOTH know about positive reinforcement schedules and rewards and how to shape behavior. So in THEORY, one would think that both of them would be owned by extremely well-behaved dogs. Nope. My human’s friend was once owned by an Australian shepherd who demonstrated flight risk behavior his entire life. He even disappeared once in the middle of the night during a snowstorm when he got off his leash, leaving my human’s friend crying in the middle of a snowbank. Luckily he returned and she managed to fling herself onto him as he reappeared out of nowhere racing by. Sounds familiar.

And then there is the story of how a certain Bernese Mountain Dog named Guinness, managed to get into the DFZ during one of these Christmas gab-a-thons, when they were not watching, and grabbed an entire cheese log off the coffee table. And then the story of when her friend accompanied my human on a final visit to the vet with another Bernese. Tears for happy times and sad…

Last night the party nearly ended before it began, when my human’s friend bent over to pet me and the FG wanted to say hello and gave her a head butt in the process. Thank goodness he didn’t knock her out – and thank goodness she is SUCH a good friend, because she just laughed as she staggered into the kitchen. A trip to the emergency room with a concussion would have put a real damper on the evening. She definitely deserved a glass of wine after that collision. More than one glass..

Old friends are truly something to be cherished. And while you may not be able to spend time with them often, when you do, it is as if no time has passed. I hope each of you has at least one special friend like this – and if for some reason you don’t, may you make a new treasured friend in 2018 and share in that unique bond. Just like you do with us canines! And nowadays, the internet also allows us to make new friends around the world. Many we may never meet – but the virtual friendships that we have also provide a unique connection! So cheers to friends – old, new, near and far! And let’s close with a quote that was shared with my human and written by C.S. Lewis:

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.

I wonder if that quote was written with reference to being owned by bad dogs….

Have a good one. Peace and paws up!