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My human is always  interested in how dogs are treated in other countries.  It seems that some countries are more dog-friendly than in North America.  For example, dogs are allowed on public transport, and there are more dog friendly outdoor cafes.  Now while Halifax DOES have a few cafes that allow pets, a recent bid to have dogs allowed on the local Halifax-Dartmouth ferry was denied.  And I was SO looking forward to taking that ride…

A good example of dog friendly comes from the UK – in London to be exact.  There is a movie theatre that is allowing humans to bring along their dogs for certain screenings.  Check it out:

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-london-41009367/london-cinema-hosts-dog-friendly-screenings

Is that great or what?  Mind you, my human laughed uncontrollably at the thought of taking us.  First off, NONE of us could settle down to watch the movie.  Especially if it was crowded and we had someone seated right next to us.  And just IMAGINE me trying to steal popcorn from other patrons.  

And what movies do they show?  Any dog film that involved barking at ANY point would be enough to send Einstein over the edge.  Other dogs would no doubt join in as well.  Picture a theatre full of howling dogs as Lassie tries to warn people that Timmy has fallen down the well.  I would THINK the movie would have to be very carefully selected…

I can just see the FG standing with his two paws on the seat ahead of him, licking the head of the person seated there… 

So while the dog-friendly cinema IS a great idea…it’s probably not meant for us.

Now.  What WE need is a dog-friendly butcher shop…

Have a good one.  Peace and paws up!

So we all endured another morning of Einstein’s running commentary on how to replace a roof.  Someone wrote to me yesterday and said that when they had their roof replaced, the roofer paid to put their dogs in a kennel.  Smart roofer.  But the job was completed yesterday.  And as typical of my human’s decision making abilities, she is uncertain as to whether she likes the color.  Too late now.  Gotta live with this.  So NOW she wants to paint the trim and change the shutter color.  One of the canine advantages of having limited ability to see a huge range of colors.  Roof color, wall color – it’s all the same to us. 

And speaking of seeing things,  I am QUITE the observant guy when it comes to open doors.  Yesterday while my human was having her breakfast, the FG was obsessively bugging Einstein, and the noises from the roof sounded as if it was about to cave in, I noticed something.  The fridge door was somehow not completely closed.  My human had her back to the door.  She heard something behind her and turned around just in time to see me surveying the buffet. “Hey hey HEY,” she shouted as she lunged for my collar.  Not enough time to grab anything – but be careful if that door is left open.  I’m IN.

Oh and the other thing about seeing things – we all survived the eclipse the other day.  There was this photo from a pet store circulating on the web, warning humans not to let their dogs out during the eclipse so we wouldn’t hurt our eyes looking at the sun.  And, this is sad to say that many people believed it.  AS IF we dogs would be foolish enough to stare at the sun without protection.  Honestly, AS IF we would care to stare at the sun at all!  We clearly have much more important ways to spend OUR time.  Like barking at roofers…

Have a good one!  Peace and paws up.

Well let me tell you something – it is a GOOD thing my human was home with us yesterday with the roof work being done….

We got her up at 5:15 – and we all went for our walks.  No sooner did my human step into the shower at 7AM, when the roofers arrived.  They had said they would be there at 8…

As you might expect, we went into full blown protection mode.  We heard those trucks arriving and did NOT want them in OUR driveway. And you cannot BEGIN to imagine our reaction when we heard them ON the roof.  This was NOT Santa and his band of jolly reindeer.  Einstein was the worst.  He REPEATEDLY told them to get the heck away from his house.  He paced from window to window as we watched pieces of old roof raining down on our deck.  The deck had been covered with a HUGE tarp by some strange man who appeared out of nowhere.  It was VERY interesting to watch him…

After they were working for a while,  I started to ignore the racket, but Einstein was on continual alert.  

While the chaos was going on, the FG obsessively followed Einstein around.  I think the FG must be going through some “hormonal changes.”  In the past week or so, he has become totally and completely OBSESSED with Einstein and with me to a lesser extent.  He wants to lick us.  EVERYWHERE.  I just give him a look – so he pretty much leaves me alone.  But Einstein…he cannot leave him alone.  And he squeaks and moans.  Einstein growls at him.  He shows his teeth.  But the FG doesn’t care.  And every chance he gets – he licks Einstein.  It’s a BIT much.  My human is continually telling him to stop. Oh and he also likes to lick the floor where Einstein has been before.  Gross.  Surely this behavior will not go on forever?!  WE never did that.  Or – I don’t THINK we did…

Anyway, they didn’t finish the roof yesterday.  It was too hot.  So they are coming back today.  At one point, my human went to take each of us out for a pee – she had to carry us over the mess of old roofing shingles and nails that they had thrown off the roof.  I was the first to go out.  One of the roofers wanted to make friends with me – but he had no treats – so I just gave him a perfunctory glance.   The guy asked “How many dogs are IN there?”  “Three” my human replied.  “Geez, it sounds like 10!” he responded.  No wonder a neighbor down the road called to see what was going on…

 Well – time to get my human out walking, and to get ready for the roofers.  Again.  Another day of roofers and woofers.

Have a good one.  Peace and paws up!

Well, she survived another year with us.  Sometimes she didn’t think she would make it because of some of our antics – but she did.  And so my human is celebrating another birthday.  And she’s well over 400 in dog years.  The photo you see is of her and her sister, with a neighbor’s dog.  They wore kerchiefs when they were in style.  THAT’S how old she is.  I bet if you asked a millennial what a kerchief was, they might not even know.

My human is now at that age where, when you need to add your year of birth on a form on the internet, you need to scroll.  And scroll.  And SCROLL. She remembers when cell phones weighed 10 lbs.  And her family had something called a rotary phone with a party line.

She remembers  feeding chocolate kisses to her grandmother’s dachshund and it was no big deal.  Cleo ate table scraps and chocolate kisses, and whatever the grandkids gave her and she lived to like 20 years old.  Dogs just seemed to live longer back in the day…

My human remembers something called record players with and 33’s and 78’s.  She entered into the techno age when she got her first Texas Instruments calculator.  It did things that she never, ever understood.

She hates to admit this one – but she remembers when a guy named Amstrong walked on the moon – and she has vague recollections of the day President Kennedy was assassinated.  She was super excited when she got her first transistor radio.

She entered her first dog show with their Irish Setter, Mickey at the Erie County Fair in Western New York.  They entered obedience.  She recalls they didn’t do everything correctly, but somehow they still got a ribbon.  Maybe it was a consolation prize.

And as she gets older, she thinks of every dog she has been owned by in her “adulthood.”  Elroy is number 9.  She is grateful for each and every one and each one holds a special place in her heart…

She is also grateful more and more each year, for family and friends.  Both are precious gifts, that one should never forget or take for granted.

And she is also amazed and grateful for her new circle of friends around the world, that the internet has provided.  Once upon a time, when my human was a girl, she would have a penpal in another land, and she would wait for weeks for a piece of mail from a gal she never met.  Today, she has “penpals” that answer her messages almost instantaneously.  And she has had the pleasure of actually meeting some of them!

And when my human was a girl, she had something called a diary.  She would write her thoughts and feelings and it would be a record of what she had done.  And no one really read it except her.  Today we call it a blog.  And it’s out there for all the world to read.  My how times have changed… Now mind you, she doesn’t write the blog – I do.  But occasionally I ask for her input.

So today, in honor of my human’s birthday, I am going to ask each of you to give her a gift.  A perfect gift.  For her birthday, go out and do ONE random act of kindness.  Heaven knows the world could do with more kindness these days!  Hold a door open for someone.  Let someone ahead of you in line at the grocery store.  Play an extra game of fetch with your dog.  Give your dog an extra treat.  Call someone you haven’t talked to in a long time.  Or send them a message.  Pay someone a compliment.  Do ONE thing that you hadn’t planned to do today – and that would be a great gift.  And trust me – the gift will be good for you too!

Have a good one.  Peace and paws up.

So according to the Crazy Calendar, today is National Soft Ice Cream Day.  A human treat, that REALLY isn’t all that good for us dogs – because the lactose COULD cause stomach upset.  But, everything in moderation.  A BITE of an ice cream come will GENERALLY not be harmful to most dogs.  But if you want a non-lactose EASY alternative, freeze two bananas, put them in a blender, and voila – banana soft serve.  Safe for us dogs.  You can also freeze it after blending, if you want a more solid version..

But speaking of soft serve ICE CREAM – GUESS who got to go back on the waterfront for another walk the other night?!  Yup.  The FG.  For SOME reason, Worry Wart thinks he needs socialization.  I’m not sure why – he practically knocks over neighbors if he meets them – and he IS VERY sociable.  Probably a bit more than us PONs.  But she has something up her sleeve – so she wants to get him out.  And get THIS – he even got a BITE of ice cream too. 

In the meantime, Einstein and I continue to enjoy the marrow bone zone.  It’s almost a comatose state.  That’s a tough call:  soft serve ice cream or a bone.  I think I’ll take the bone. 

Hey – you know my human prides herself on THINKING she knows a bit about dog sports.  She’s even tried and competed in a number of them including obedience, rally, draft, agility, and a working certificate (which is basic field work).  We also TRIED herding – but we know how that turned out – for us PONs.  And there are LOADS of other activities – tracking, lure coursing, barn hunts, dock diving, and disc catching.  Some sports are better for some dogs than others.  I can’t exactly envision a Saint Bernard catching discs.  It probably wouldn’t be a good idea. 

Another sport is treibball.  My human saw it on the internet once and went out and bought one of those giant balls to see if she could get us to do it.  It’s kind of like a combination of herding and soccer.  Check out this dog:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBJ9DVp9dyM

So we have this big ball.  I hate it, Einstein likes to push it around – but where HE wants it to go and the other day, my human witnessed the FG peeing on the ball.  I guess that’s his opinion on treibball.

But the latest sport she JUST found out about is canine parkour.  Who knew about this one?!  It’s all about a human and dog approaching a variety of obstacles in the environment. Apparently you can even get an international title by sending in a video to the International Dog Parkour Association, demonstrating a series of prescribed exercises.  Check out his novice routine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTqirE9epOI 

If you want more info on the details and rules, check out this site:
http://www.dogparkour.org/

Worry Wart thinks Einstein could PROBABLY pass the beginner level.  So you know she’ll be getting him to hop up in logs in the woods from now on.  Poor Einstein.

So there are lots of cool things you humans can do with your dog.  And after a hard day at any sport, time for an ice cream.  Or a frozen banana!

Have a good one! 

So by now, if you have been following my blog for ANY amount of time, you must know that besides helping me write this daily account on the lives of three crazy canines, Worry Wart likes to take photos of us.  That’s my new nickname for my human.  Now I should probably mention that she actually likes to take photos of LOTS of things – but if you looked at the 35,679 stored in some imaginary cloud in outer space, 34,998 are probably of dogs.  Proper thing.  And she is always looking to find a UNIQUE image of us.  I mean she has LOTS of close up shots of us, lots of posed shots, and lots of shots wearing horrid holiday attire.  She also LOVES to catch a candid shot of us – when we are NOT posed.  And those, of course, are the hard photos to catch – as we rarely stay still.  Anyway, those candid shots – IF she manages to get one, are often her favorite photos – and honestly, you would not BELIEVE what she goes through to get them.  And the other night – she almost hung up her smart phone for good – the photo result was almost not worth the effort.

On Monday night Worry Wart decided she needed some of that “relaxation time” that I referred to yesterday.  So after supper, out came the marrow bones.  The three of us went on the deck and proceeded to experience dog heaven on earth.  We went into the chewing frenzy zone.  So after a while, Worry Wart looked out and saw that we were about to have another magnificent sunset.  Her sunset photos don’t tie the dog photos in number – but they are right up there.  So she decided to head down to the lake, and she decided to take the FG with her.  Einstein and I didn’t care – we were in the “marrow zone.” 

Worry Wart hasn’t had a chance to trim the grass on the shore for over a week – so she figured it would already be tall.  So she wore her rubber boots.  And off they went.  As they came through the woods, they were greeted by an amazing sunset.  So Worry Wart rushed to snap some shots, while the FG gorged on grass and sniffed around.  So she’s shooting away – and of course, the FG suddenly decided HE needed to be IN the water.  So now the sunset photos include a dog.  That’s OK – it’s the illusive candid dog shot.  She shoots away.  She glances through them after she takes a few and decides they are not all that great, but by now the FG has come back on shore.  Keep in mind – he IS on a leash.  So in her not-so-infinite wisdom, Worry Wart decides to entice the FG back into the water.  She is wearing rubber boots after all, so she steps in.  And he follows.  He wades out.  She thinks she is about to capture the National Geographic award winning candid dog photo.  But nope.  The FG  turns around and BOLTS back onto the shore.  At this point, Worry Wart has her smart phone in her left hand and is holding onto the leash in her right hand.  His sudden movement catches her off balance and her rubber boots IMMEDIATELY fill with water.  And she is heading down.  She CANNOT let her left hand go into the water.  It’s one of those slow motion moments. Only one thing to do – hold her left arm above her head and fall onto a rock that’s on the shoreline.  Her knee meets it with a crunch and for 2 seconds Einstein and I look up when we hear the shout “THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE PRETTY.”    We just shrugged our shoulders and went back to chewing.

Five minutes later, we see one very revved up wet Picard and one achy human limping along with a scraped knee and rubber boots full of water. The phone survived, and THANKFULLY out of the 89 photos she quickly shot – she DID like a few.