It's My Dog's World: I Just Live In It

Another Great Vick Dog Story--and A Dog Diet Tip

  Photo by Gary Kalpakoff

This is Handsome Dan, one of the Michael Vick dogs who is making his healing journey at Best Friends Sanctuary.  Unlike a lot of dogs, Handsome Dan didn't care for treats.  Venison? Chicken? Beef? Pi-tooey.  Until one day, the Best Friends trainers were passing around ice chips, and, to quote the article,

Handsome Dan was in a group all his own. The cold, flavorless ice chips might as well have been a family-sized gooey cheese pizza. Talk about enthusiasm! Maybe he just thought they were fun to chew? Either way, the caregivers intend to keep trying ice chips to see if they can use them as a training tool for him.

Plus--dig it: no calories.  If you have a dog who may have a little weight to lose, consider rewarding your toasty pet an ice chip to chew, or a cube to lick.  (I actually carry around a ziplock bag full of cubes for some of Faith's summer of walks--easier than schlepping a water bottle.)

And notice how elegantly Handsome Dan approaches that cube!  What a classy guy.

A Space Doggity: Astrodog Laika Finally Gets a Voice

This is Laika, the first dog astronaut. She was the first living creature to orbit the planet, in Sputnik 2, in 1957.

Like a lot of dogs, she didn't have any say in what happened to her.  And what happened to her...well, you can click on either of the links in this post if you don't know the story.

But now musician Jonathan Coulton, as a part of a contest, has written a song in Laika's voice, and given her a choice.  "Space Doggity" is a beautiful song that references David Bowie's "Space Oddity"  and you can listen for free here, and then you should vote for it ABOUT A MILLION TIMES. 

In Search of the Mysterious Pitbunny....

Loch Ness Monster.  Sasquatch.  Now...the Pitbunny...

And If You and Your Dog Are In DC Tomorrow (Saturday)

You can do "Doga" with Kimberly Wilson, AKA Hip Tranquil Chick.  That's yoga for you and your pooch. Kimberly has an absolutely snazzy website, and a groovy weekly podcast, available on iTunes, or on her blog. 

I have only known her only the web, but her podcasts are the bomb: yoga for your ears. Plus, she has a cute cute pug named Louis. It'll be in DC NW, Rose Park, at 23rd and P . Have fun doing a downward-facing dog with your downward-facing dog!  Registration info here--the donation goes to Washington Humane Society.

It's Too Darn Hot

So:

1. Hydrate--you and your dog.  Take a water bottle, portable water bowl, heavy duty plastic bag (you can roll it up and improvise a dog bowl out of it when you use the water fountain), or a ziplock bag full of ice cubes.   You drink some of that water too.  Don't assume your dog will tell you when she's thirsty.

2. Keep the walks short.  Your dog will not tell you when it's time to go in. That's why your her caretaker.

3. Flat-nosed dog owners--keep the walks ULTRASHORT.  Big nose = big doggy air conditioner.  Flat nose = paltry fan.

4. If possible, escape to a nice cool place with a big body of water.

5. If not possible, lurk as much as possible in dog-friendly, air-conditioned places.  And while we're at it, may I give a special shout-out to the fantastic staff of Georgetown Sephora, M.A.C., and Lush stores, all of whom welcomed my funky dog like the overheated diva she really is.

Magical Dog in Brooklyn

A few nights ago, as I was crossing through the lovely park of the Metrotech Center in Brooklyn to Etsy Lab to learn how to make cupcake-influenced crafts, I was stopped dead by this:

And I thought, 'Oh my god, someone's lost his service dog.'

So I got closer...slowly.  If you have ever tried to catch a stray dog, you know what I mean.

And as I got closer, I realized that the dog wasn't moving. At all.

The dog, I realized, was made of resin.

It was art. Crazy (and in my case) heart-stopping art.

The sculpture is by Tony Matelli, I learned from McBrooklyn, who has some wonderful pictures of "Lost Dog" in the snow, giving ride to a kid, and baffling a real dog. 

Glorious and strange.  What do you think Lost Dog would say if he could speak?

Mad Men's Sterling Cooper: The FIRST Dog-Friendly Office?

My official Mad Men countdown clock has begun.  Eleven days and some odd hours and minutes, and Don Draper will be back lying to me through his pomaded hair and beautiful teeth and poetically fake name again...

So...for those of  you who have not seen the show yet, stop now, and go rent it. Minor spoilers begin here.

I love this show.  I love this show. I love this show. So I was trolling around the AMC blog with one of my many burning questions--which  was:  did the Draper family keep that dog that Don bought them so mysteriously one night when Don just couldn't take the domestic suffocation anymore and ran out to god knows where?  I already know from the extensive yet secretive coverage that the show opens in 1962--if they kept the dog in the storyline, I wonder, will they get a different dog?

But wait...there's a USA Today article about the show, and one of the pictures features two ad men characters, Duck and Pete, in the elegant Sterling Cooper office...with a handsome shaggy (retriever? setter?) named CHAUNCEY.  Really.

So: is this the Draper dog?  Or is this the company dog?  Or is this part of a gigantic ad campaign for dog food that Sterling Cooper will be doing...which means LOTS of dogs...

Oh, I can't wait.

Dog Run of the Week: Church Square Park, Hoboken, NJ

The church in the background of this dog run was featured in the classic "On the Waterfront." But I don't think these dogs, who are playing in the puddles of the dog run across the street from the church where Marlon Brando once emoted , know that....

edit:  Thanks for the shoutout, Hoboken Now.

Am I being sarcastic by listing Church Square Park as Dog Run of the Week? Just a smidge. There are some great people and dogs in this dog run, but I do fear that the dog run, like some spots of Hoboken, suffers from drainage and...dare I say it? infrastructure issues that dog a lot of the city's projects.  What do you think, Hobokenites?

Great unknown dogs of history: Montana sheepherding dog, 1942

Shepherd with his horse and dog on Gravelly Range, Madison County, Montana (LOC), originally uploaded by The Library of Congress.

Doesn't he have the best expression on his face?

The picture is from the Library of Congress' fantastic collection of Depression and WWII era COLOR photographs, not an easy thing to do back then.

It's described as "Shepherd with his horse and dog on Gravelly Range, Madison County, Montana (LOC)." The photographer was Russell Lee, who was the most prolific of the Farm Security Administration photographers, who were sent across the country to document hard times.  More about him here--pretty remarkable man.   

Somewhere beyond these mountains, a war is raging. Our nation is finally struggling out of the Depression.

But right here, it's a man and a horse and a dog, and a beautiful summer day.

Great Moments in Dog-Sniffing History

When did scientists and scholars first begin to consider using dogs to do their smelling?  We'll never be entirely sure.  But this science blog's amusing summary suggests that the history of dogs trying to find metal--especially money--goes back at least 247 years.   It says, in addition:

Lindman (the antiquarian who suggested using dogs to find money) feels that the dog would need to concentrate on sniffing, and so should be made to wear a blindfold or a cap to avoid distractions.

Why do I feel as if an 18th century dog would like wearing a cap about as well as a 21st century one?