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We have lift off!  It looks like the FG’s ears are up again.  THANK goodness. The suspense was killing me.

He had the funny looking antennae ears for over a week.  The tape came off a bit early because he REALLY didn’t care for them while my human was away.  But he went to the Vet again for a re-check and now he just has to exercise his ears to keep those muscles strong – and to keep those ears up! So the Vet told my human she would have to make all kinds of funny sounds and noises – so he will pick up his ears.  I can JUST imagine what this place is going to sound like.  Because you KNOW – Frodo and I will bark if she makes odd sounds.  Well, Frodo anyway.  I should audio record “a day in the life.”

I still think his ears look too big for his head.   But if he grows any more – I’m really in trouble.  My human DID get to see me semi-play with the FG yesterday.  It all started because I had an unsightly case of the cling-ons – and my human needed to wash my butt in the tub.  Sorry for the description – but heck, you are most likely dog people and you are well aware that poop happens.  Anyway, when I came in from the garage – with my wet butt – I went CRAZY running around.  Which got the FG all excited.  We played a game of chase and attack under the dining room table.  The FG is VERY submissive when it comes to me – which I guess is fine.  Anyway, I did stop from our “attack and run mode” to lick his ears for a few seconds.  All under the watchful eyes of my human.  She wants very much for us to get along – and I do think we are getting there. 

Well time to start working on my letters.  Have a great day and cheers to ears!

So on Saturday, my human got home.  Our dog sitter had left about an hour before my human got back because she had an appointment. She made arrangements with my human to stop by on Sunday to pick up her danger pay.  

When she popped in, she mentioned that on Saturday night, she was dog sitting for a Newfoundland dog.  As she remarked how QUIET and low key he was.  On a scale of 1-10 for energy and excitability, she said he was a “one.”  And then she just looked at us.  And said WE were a BIT higher than that.  Whatever do you think she meant?!  I’m low key.  And so are Frodo and Elroy.  When we are asleep.  Which is rare, mind you…No doubt we have earned a special place in her journal of dog sitting experiences…

And speaking of experiences…my human was at it again.  Remember the giant exercise ball?  The one that Elroy adored.  Until he deflated it by biting it?  Well, her royal genius HAD to get another big ball for him.  THIS time, she got a ball that can be used for horses.  AND she bought a protective covering for it.  So it would be LESS likely to be ripped.  In theory. 

So she gets the thing in the mail and it comes with this little foot pump.  Pump is a bit of a misnomer- it’s like a little plastic accordion – and it has a little plastic hose that is SUPPOSED to attache SOMEHOW to the ball.  After repeated attempts to keep the thing attached and after repeated foot stomping, the ball was less than 1/100th full.  And every time my human squeezed the “pump” – Frodo barked like crazy.  And Elroy jumped around – interested but not so sure about this thing that was blowing air.  Ever so slowly.  So then my human got the idea to try one of her bicycle pumps.  Sounds like a good idea, but the ball would still not stay attached.  So THEN, she decided to try our dog blow dryer.  The one with the jet engine.  The one that could blow a chihuahua 50 feet off a grooming table.  So she took the ball into the garage – while Frodo continued to bark.  And Elroy continued to jump around.  And I just watched the circus.  Well.  Let me tell you that when my human held that ball up to the rocket blower, that ball filled up in .07 seconds.  Magic.  And she quickly stopped for fear of causing the thing to explode.  Wouldn’t THAT have been a sight?  So she comes in from the garage all proud of herself.  Elroy has now figured out it is another giant ball – so his BRAIN explodes.  But before he can play with it, my human has to put on the protective covering.  Dum da dum dum.  For SOME reason, she thought the thing would have like a huge zipper in it.  And she would wrap it around the ball.  BUT – she NOW opens THAT package and discovers that the hole is small.  Like 6 inches wide.  NOW she reads the instructions – which indicate that the DEFLATED ball goes in the covering FIRST and THEN you inflate it.  Genius I tell ya.  Sheer genius.  So NOW she has to take the peg out, and deflate the ball.  While Frodo barks.  And Elroy jumps around. Deflating the thing took a whole lot longer than inflating it with the dryer.  While Frodo barks.  And Elroy jumps around.  

Once it was fully deflated, she again took it into the garage and used the dryer.  And voila – the thing was filled and ready for play.  Elroy pushed it around and barked at it.  Here’s a very short video of him beginning to play with it.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BZMqm3FZ20

I still think that if he gets REALLY excited about playing with it, we COULD hear that familiar deflation sound.  Wonder what else we could put under that protective cover….

My human and her “ideas.”  Good thing we love her.   She is a never ending source of entertainment.  Hey – kind of like me!  Let’s face it – in our house, life IS a ball!

Have a good one!

Time for some news from the world of dogs.  Here’s a bad news – good news story.  It seems that in Idaho, a police dog was shot in the line of duty.  That’s the bad news.  The good news – because two dogs donated blood,  the police dog was able to undergo surgery and it looks like he is going to be OK.  Tail wags for a Golden Retriever and a Pit Bull who donated.  What a good idea!

There’s this strange new thing that humans are doing called a Mannequin challenge.  They basically create a “freeze frame” and don’t move.  And then someone videotapes them acting frozen.  Why?  I don’t know.  It’s something to do.  Go figure.  You know I always say humans are strange.  More evidence… In this particular example, it was not the HUMANS who were remarkable – it was the DOG.  Check it out!    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3938290/Did-hit-paws-DOG-steals-unexpected-twist-mannequin-challenge.html#v-7528258348751734128

Let me be perfectly clear on this one – there is not a CHANCE that you will catch the three dogs in THIS household in a Mannequin Challenge.  Do you have ANY idea how hard it is JUST to get us to stay still for .6 seconds to take a photo?  Yeah – no Mannequin Challenges happening here!

And finally, former President George Bush and his wife Laura are the proud owners of a new puppy.  In the past they were owned by two Scottish terriers – one of whom bit a member of the Press Corps.  Oopsie.  Their new canine kid, whose name is Freddy came from a shelter.  It seems the Bushes visited an Animal Care center to thank them for their work – and voila – they fell in love.  No matter what you think of George – I always say any President who has a dog can’t be ALL bad. Perhaps the President -Elect might want to pay a visit to that shelter too….

Have a good one!!!

November 17.  It’s a special day in France.  It’s the third Thursday in November – and it’s Beaujolais Nouveau Day.  As I understand it, the day is all about wine.  It is a day to mark the arrival of the first wine of the year – the “New Beaujolias”.  While some wine aficionados would argue that the early vintage wine is not overly remarkable,  there are big festivals to celebrate the arrival of the wine – and even a race to Paris carrying the first bottles of the stuff which attracts lots of media attention. Lots of the wine is exported to Japan, Germany and the US.

So all this hoopla about wine got me thinking about us canines and wine.  And while we shouldn’t drink human wine, leave it to somebody to come up with a wine just for dogs.  Yup.  The Apollo Peak winery in Colorado first developed a wine for cats.  It was said to contain ingredients similar to  catnip – to give Mr Kitty a bit of a buzz. So this year – they developed a wine for dogs.  Like the cat wine, it is non-alcoholic and contains all natural ingredients, like herbs and beets.  They have two varieties – CarDOGnay and ZinfanTAIL. http://www.apollopeak.com/

Then there is also Chateau La Paws.  Now THIS wine is for humans – BUT it supports dogs.  It’s a winery in California – and it supports no kill animal shelters.  In fact, the dogs on the bottle labels are shelter dogs!  Now that’s a cool idea.  https://www.chateaulapaws.com/

And lastly, we have books about all those dogs who hang out at wineries.  It seems that there are dogs all over the world who roam vineyards – and for many it is a job! The books are photo journals, telling the stories about these lucky dogs.  http://www.apollopeak.com/

Given that Elroy is  French breed, I think he should really be celebrating today.  And you know, we PONs never need a big reason to celebrate something.  Bring on the CharDOGnay!  Merci!

It’s official.  The Freedom Harness has almost passed the one month novelty test.  I talked about this harness in a previous blog, as THE tool to keep the FG from strangling himself – or pulling my human into the ditch.  And while my human was a bit skeptical as to whether the good behavior and the novelty would wear off – it has been so far so good.   AND it had the ultimate test the other night.

You know the little girl down the road?  The one who went with the FG to his performance puppy classes?  Where he did NOT learn to play the piano?  Anyway, she had not seen the FG since his classes ended a few weeks ago.  And her mother called the other night to see if she could come over and visit him.  My human was just about ready to take him for a walk – so they agreed to meet  and they would go for the walk together.

Well.  Elroy’s brain exploded when he first saw her. He was SO excited.  My human had to hold him so that he wouldn’t knock her over.  Thankfully she is not the LEAST bit worried around him and his craziness didn’t bother her one bit.  Even as he tried to pull the gloves she was wearing off her hands.  So as they walked along, my human decided to take a chance – and let her walk the FG.  He was wearing the Freedom Harness.  I’m here to tell you, he walked like a perfectly trained dog.  Which we know he is not.  Not yet anyway.  He walked with her and although my human was ever-ready to grab the leash if he got a bad case of the zoomies, he never did.  They walked for probably 45 minutes – and no one ended up in the ditch or being dragged on their knees.

I think the FG could do commercials for this thing.  Mind you, you can be sure that as soon as the film crew arrives, the novelty would wear off!   But I have to say – so far so good!

So as I’ve mentioned before, Elroy has a number of Paxisms.   But the one that really impacts me is his chewing.  And chewing.  I’m not just talking about things like shoes and table legs.  I’m talking about edible things.

Paxton was notorious for slow chewing.  Which made training him a bit of a challenge. He would be given a treat reward, the size of a pea, and he would chew it for 30 seconds.  Unlike us PONs, who basically inhale treats and are quickly ready for the next exercise, so we can inhale another treat.  Paxton would also chew things like blueberries.  I guess he was savoring the flavor.

Anyway, yesterday we ran out of bananas.  We each get some banana after we have our breakfast.  And the distribution is always the same:  Frodo, Viktor, Elroy.  It’s the whole seniority thing.  Elroy has finally figured out how to eat bananas FAIRLY quickly – but he still doesn’t have the inhale method down just yet.  And then yesterday, because we were out of bananas, my human gave us pieces of apple.  Now THAT was entertaining. While Frodo and I DO chew apples a bit, we ARE quick.  But not the FG.  He has to take his small piece of apple and take it under the dining room table.  Where he studies it and then chews it.  And chews it.  And chews it.  All the while Frodo and I are getting more pieces of apple.  It got to the point that my human had to stop and wait for him – she felt badly because we were getting more than he was.  It was fine with me…but I guess it REALLY wasn’t fair.  So we waited.  While he finished each piece.  It was painful.

For a guy who is so busy and rarely sits still, he hasn’t coordinated that with his chewing. 
I really do have to work on training him…

OK – so I didn’t run for DOTUS.  Just as well – too much drama for me.  BUT I found another way to get into the White House.  I can become a Secret Service Dog.  There are dogs who sniff out explosives and there are dogs who are called personal screening canines (PSC)- who discretely sniff out visitors to the White House.  But I think I want to be on the ERT -Emergency Response Team.  These dogs go after bad humans – and let’s just say, they don’t tap the person on the shoulder and say “excuse me – you don’t belong here.”  These dogs are fast as lightning and will take down an intruder.  The only problem for me – they are all Belgian Malinois.  Which seems to be a bit of discrimination if you ask me. Mind you, those dogs may take a beating by intruders.  Maybe I would be better as a PSC – they look friendly, but are ever vigilant.  

There’s a new book that just came out about Secret Service Dogs.  I think I’ll put it on my Christmas list.

Last night there was a huge full moon – supposedly the largest and brightest in the sky since 1948.  I don’t know about that since I wasn’t around in 1948, but I also found out the full moon in November has another name – the Beaver Moon. The Aboriginal people named it that because it was the time of the month to set beaver traps, before the swamps froze.  And speaking of the beaver, he sure is active down on the lake.  Now I understand that term “Busy Beaver”.  There are all kinds of branches floating along the shoreline.  We haven’t actually seen him and my human is just as happy about that.  She went down to see his work last night and shot this photo – just as the sun was going down.  None of us were with her.  That’s why she could take the shot.  

We were all rather naughty last night.  Well – just a bit more naughty than usual.  And it was great – we had THE perfect excuse.  That unusual full moon.  I don’t know what our excuse will be tonight – but I’m sure we’ll think of something!

Have a good one!