Hey – ever hear of that video game called Pokemon? Personally, I have never played it – I’m STILL waiting to get my OWN iPawd. Anyway, I guess the game has been popular for a long time. Well we have our OWN version of a game. It’s called PokePON. It is generally played by a Picard. At least the Picard in this house. The one with the death wish.
Here are the rules:
1. A PON must be engaged in some stationary activity – like drinking water, or chewing on a bone.
2. The Picard must quietly and stealthily approach said PON from the rear.
3. The next step is for the Picard to poke the PON in the rear end with his nose, or his paw.
4. The Picard must then jump backward as if having received an electric shock, and must dodge the teeth of the irritated PON.
5. After the jump, it is ESSENTIAL that BOTH dogs bark during the game.
The game is usually continued until the human in the houselhold can no longer tolerate the PONdemonium.
Sometimes one will see tufts of PON hair rolling across the floor when the POKE includes a grab. As well, tufts of Picard hair are also observed when said Picard doesn’t jump back quickly enough. But keep in mind, that this does NOT deter the Picard from playing the game. Ah yes. Fun and games….
Thanks for all of your birthday wishes yesterday. As usual, I received more than my human. But who is counting?
It’s SATURDAY. My human is home, so no doubt there will be LOTS of games played today. Including PokePON.
Have a good one. Peace and paws up!
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WORLD holiday
October 27. It’s a WORLD holiday. In my mind anyway. Why? Because it’s my birthday! I am 6 years young today. Happy birthday to me.
My human attempted to take my photo with the well-used birthday crown. It has seen better days. The candles kept flopping down and I was more interested in eating the thing than posing with it. I have done the crown photo in the past – I voted that we skip it this year. We need a new crown. (Suuuuuuuure we do.) So my human agreed and the photo you see is better in my opinion. Although my human said I should have had a big grooming for my big day. Personally, I like my rugged look.
So for my birthday, I have one wish. That every reader does one nice thing for someone else today. And as I have wished in the past – it doesn’t need to be anything huge- like giving a charity a contribution (although that would be nice!) – it can be as simple as holding a door open, smiling at someone passing by, calling an old friend, sending someone a quick e-mail greeting, playing an extra game of fetch with your dog, giving your dog an extra treat….and think of me when you do it!
Now excuse me while I go and enjoy my birthday treats! And some extra banana for me!!! Although if I follow my request to do something nice, perhaps I really should share….OK. I will. But maybe just a little extra for me – because it IS my day!!!
National Pumpkin Day
I couldn’t find a good PON… I found an Old English drawing which might work…scroll to the bottom of the page.
Human-dog matching
She’s at it again. Another on-line quiz. This time, the quiz analyzes your personality based on the Myers-Briggs assessment. And then, based on your personalty type, it tells you what kind of DOG you should have. So I looked at the dog breeds which were options: Labrador Retreiver, Siberian Husky, Collie, Border collie, Saluki, English Toy Spaniel, Standard Poodle, Schipperke, Papillon, German Shorthaired Pointer, Dalmation, Newfoundland, Tibetan Mastiff, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Shar-pei, and Briard. Note there is no PON. Or Picard. Because WE are TRULY unique.
Anyway my human took the quiz. And admittedly, she filled it out VERY quickly. So can you GUESS what kind of dog fits her personality?? We PONs and Picards don’t “fit” any particular type of human – because we mold them as we go.
So given that we were not ON the list you will NOT believe what she got. She kind of figured a Lab – since she had one before. Nope. Then she thought MAYBE a Newf – as they are KIND of like Bernese. Nope. Then she figured Briard. Herding breed. Smart. Yada. Yada. Nope. Are you ready….based on her personality type….she got…..a POODLE. A POODLE. Now mind you, the description DOES sound a BIT like my human – although she is rather shy and not very outgoing. JUST KIDDING. She can find out someone’s life story in an elevator – going between two floors. If you ever meet her, let her tell you the story about the day that she went shopping with a friend in a small town, and managed to get a tour of three people’s homes in the process. And no – the homes were not for sale.
But given that she keeps her own hair short since it is “easy” and she enjoys grooming us abut as much as we enjoy it, she cannot figure how she would EVER be owned by a POODLE. I’m hoping she doesn’t bring one home – just to find out.
If you want to find out what kind of dog would be a good “match” for you (this sounds a bit like a dating site for dogs and humans) – here is the link:
https://www.psychologyjunkie.com/2015/11/10/which-dog-breed-fits-your-mbti-type/
If you don’t know your personality type, first you take the quiz, THEN you look back at the dogs that match your type.
Excuse me now, while I go and put my hair in a topknot. Not.
Have a good one! Peace and paws up!
Leaf me alone.
So my human gets this crazy idea the other day. She decides she “needs” a photo of us in the leaves. So she gets the leaf blower out and blows the leaves into a big pile. Then like somebody going on a safari, she outfits herself to prepare for the photo shoot. She puts on this fanny pack thing that is never used for anything but dog walking or dog photo shoots. She fills it with extra special treats. But first she must entice us with them. We get a sample, just for sitting while still in the house. Like serving a fine wine to special dinner guests, she has to break out the GOOD treats for these things. Then she has to find some toy that makes a weird sound that we have never heard before. Good luck with that. And heaven knows she has made every noise a human can possibly make to get our attention. Then she lets us loose. Well, Einstein and I were loose – the FG was on a long line because there was a good chance he would take off – if given the chance.
So she directed us to the leaf pile. Where Einstein and I immediately peed. She shouted “no – not THERE!!!!” Too late. She moved the peed leaves around and lined us up and told us to sit. And stay. Which she said probably 458 times. Now getting us to sit and stay is one thing. And we actually DID stay because we REALLY liked the treats. But the next challenge is to get EVERYONE looking at her. AND everyone smiling. It never fails. Two of us smile and one of us looks like you just took away our favorite bone. Or alternatively, NONE of us smiles. Like in these photos. Cute photos. But we DO look rather cranky.
But after numerous attempts she DID get the following photo – which was her “THANK YOU” to the heavens above photo. It resulted in DOUBLE the treats.
So AFTER that fiasco, she then decided she wanted INDIVIDUAL leaf shots. She really is a glutton for punishment. So she started with our “model” dog – Einstein. All you have to do is set him up and he does whatever you want. My human covered him in leaves and he willingly stayed in place. ALTHOUGH, like a temperamental model, he DID get into the “pout” mode.
Getting him to smile involved telling him to speak. Which he does QUITE well. But he threw back his head to do so.
Let’s just say that our “model dog” ended up taking WAY more shots than were even required for the group photo.
Then it was MY turn. I wasn’t big into lying down for the shot – but agreed to sit in the leaf pile. Unlike the pout face of Einstein, yours truly does the “funny lip” thing. My human kept telling me to stop with the lip thing – but I had NO idea what she was talking about. Well….actually I DID, but in order to get me to stop the lip thing, she would give me a treat.
After numerous treats, I finally gave her the smile she was looking for.
And THEN came the FG. He had been watching the proceedings with me and Einstein from the deck. He couldn’t WAIT to get out. But just TRY and cover him with leaves. It was impossible. She would cover him. He would get up and shake them off. Again and again. Finally she gave up with that and let him just stay on top of the leaves. But he is a picnore pro – and he refused to look at her.
She would toss leaves in the air and he would LUNGE for them. Or he would bury his head in the leaves.
In the end – she DID get a shot she liked. THANK GOODNESS.
What IS it with humans and your urge to take photos of us? Don’t you have enough photos of us ALREADY? Imagine if we dogs did the same thing to you. I really need a Go Pro camera. Wouldn’t it be GREAT fun getting photos of my human when she gets up in the morning – while she is walking us wearing her headlamp? Now THAT would be entertaining….
Have a good one. Peace and paws up!
E-learning
Anyway happy – learning!
If at first you don’t succeed…
Failure? Or not…
The last few days I have mentioned dogs that have a job to do. Like those who help individuals with physical or mental health challenges. Then we also have dogs who work in the military or with the police. Some of these dogs are detection dogs – who sniff out drugs, contraband and explosives. I read the following article about Lulu. She was in training with the CIA to learn to detect explosives.
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-41679118
In the article, you see that Lulu failed the program. She isn’t going to make it as a detection dog. Detection dogs work very hard – and are always on call. Their work is amazing. And it’s too bad when dogs don’t make the grade – but they no doubt end up in great homes. But then I started thinking….maybe Lulu wasn’t REALLY bad at sniffing out bombs. MAYBE she was really SMART and she realized that the potential for being blown into bits was quite high – so she preferred the life of a household guard dog – like us- who lounge around all day, barking at the sound of the oil truck or a delivery man or blowing leaves. Maybe Lulu was a LOT smarter than she is being given credit for…
I’m not sure I would want the job of an explosive detection dog. I mean I admire those dogs – but count me out. On the OTHER hand, I would make an excellent airport detection dog. But not for drugs. I don’t care about that. What I would LOVE to do is detect illegal meat products brought into the country. I bet I could get that job with MINIMAL training. I can detect dog treats in a coat pocket from 20 yards away. Wonder what the salary is like for the job…
Well, it’s Saturday so you know what that means – EXTRA LONG WALKS!!! Gotta go!
Have a good one! Peace and paws up!
Olly-like
OK. Maybe what I am about to post is something you have seen before. But for some reason – I JUST saw this for the first time this week. Or at least I think it’s the first time. But even if you have seen it, you will no doubt enjoy seeing it again. This is a video of Olly – a terrier -cross who competed in agility at Crufts. And when you see the first few seconds you may say “OH no!!” because it looks like Olly might have hurt himself. But he gets up – no worse for wear – and keeps on going!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=477F71a_A9Q
I love Olly. I think Olly is the face of resiliance. And joy. Just LOOK at how he keeps on going – and clearly does so with total reckless abandon. While some agility competitors may cringe at the clearly faulty perfomance, I think he is the embodiment of what we dogs represent. Fun. Curiousity. A willingness to fall down and get back up. Excitement. No worries – not a care in the world.
Humans could take a lesson from Olly.
I hope YOUR day is truly Olly-like! Just don’t break any bones!
Have a good one. Peace and paws up!
Mental health
So a good news story – instead of a rant today. I just read about a cool study going on in Australia. They are looking at the use of assistance dogs with individuals who have dementia! The dogs are trained to sense the mood of the individual and help if the person wanders or gets lost. How cool is THAT! I’ll be watching for the results of this one. Yet another example of how brilliant we dogs are.












