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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.

It’s November 30.  And the LAST day of November.  OK. I really need to get working on that list for Santa soon.  Today also happens to be something called Computer Security Day.  Humans do so much on-line that computer security is a huge issue.  And guess what one of the ten most popular passwords is that humans use?  Their pet’s name.  I wonder how many of you used your dog’s name to log in today?! They say that in the US, the most popular name for dogs and cats is Bella – so you can bet that thousands of people use Bella to log in to their computers daily.  If you are using Bella – change it.  Really.  And apparently 67% of humans change their passwords ONLY if they have to.  My human has lots of passwords.  And of course, she can never remember which password she uses for which site.  And then she gets to the security question to help her change her password and she can’t remember what she put down for her favorite movie.  And when she put the birthplace of her third uncle twice removed did she include the city AND the state?  Or just the city?  And her first vehicle?  Did she put down the model and make?  Or just the model.  Because if you don’t put down EXACTLY what you did before, the computer won’t let you in.  And you know, computers KNOW when you are in a hurry to log in.  So that’s when they start acting up.  Kind of like us dogs.  We smell your need to hurry.  And we just want you to SLOW down.  You poor humans.  Life is just SO complicated for you.

My security settings would look something like this:
Password:  Food123
What is your favorite movie?  Lassie
What is your dream job?  Salesperson in a butcher shop
Who is your favorite move character? Cujo
What is your favorite thing to chase?  Bunnies
Who is your favorite teacher?  My human
Who was your first boss?  Frodo
What is the nickname of your closest sibling?  Einstein
What is your favorite food?   Anything
What is your favorite thing to read?  My blog!

Well it’s time to go and log on to do some secure shopping.   Still thinking about that diamond collar….

Have a good one. Peace and paws up!

So my human has put a serious dent in the Christmas decorating explosion.  Although she vowed she was not putting out as much “stuff” as usual, it still looks quite a bit like a scene from the Griswold’s Christmas vacation.  Inside.  We’ve got enough Santas, elves, tiny houses and bottle brush trees to stock ten aisles at Walmart.  OK.  Maybe not exactly ten aisles.  Try twelve.  She hasn’t put up the “real tree” yet – maybe next weekend.  She SAID she will get a smaller tree this year.  SURE she will.  After she finished the indoor explosion, she decided to put a few things outdoors.  Off she marched into the woods with her clippers – while we canines screamed at her from the back deck.   After she finished, she took each of us out (on leash) to show us her handiwork.  Einstein and I could not have cared less.  We just wanted to pee on the big container with all the branches and berries.  And we pretty much ignored the rest of the stuff.  And then it was the FG’s turn to go out…

The FG rarely barks – relative to us PONs.  And when he does, it is this weeny, squeaky, come-play- with-me bark.  However, when he went outside and spotted these snowflakes that my human hung in a few trees and bushes – well the bark that came out of him was one like I have never heard before.  It was like a LION.  Actually maybe I did hear that bark once before – at the scary garbage can.  Anyway, he sure let those snowflakes know who is boss…

So the FG is turning into a real guard dog.  As long as the burglars are wearing snowflake suits.  And pushing a garbage can.  Ya gotta love him…

Have a good one.  Peace and paws up!