Bad News for Bandit

Bandit came back to me last night. It seems he doesn't like men very much - a man had come to visit on Saturday and Bandit had barked a lot at him and seemed quite unfriendly to the point of making the man feel uncomfortable and worried, and Bandit's adopter didn't quite know what to make of it because everything else had been going so well - he was playing non-stop with her other shepherd husky mix and everyone seemed happy.

But last night they went out for a pee and poop walk and 2 men walked by them and without barking or any notice at all Bandit lunged out at one of the men and seemed to almost bite one of them. The man recoiled back and went "ouch!" and Bandit's adopter said - "did he get you?" and the man said - "well, almost!" - and that freaked her out enough that she called and said she couldn't keep Bandit.

So here he is this morning back at my feet, laying down as soft and quiet as pudding pie. I don't know why that dogs act differently in other people's houses than they do in mine, it's a complete mystery to me - what it is that I do differently, or what it is that I'm willing to put up with that other people aren't, or what it is about my lifestyle that doesn't expose them to what other people's normal lifestyles do that makes dogs behave badly. But regardless, Bandit is back here, and here he will be until we get this "man" thing worked out with a behavioural trainer and we feel comfortable that he's ready to go again.

I'm going to change his name from Bandit though - and I'm not going to keep Griffin. Since Buttercup and Daisy's names are both flowers I was thinking of a flower name - any ideas? I was thinking Rosie - but then I thought of Rosie O'Donnell and that quickly nixed that idea. So I need another flower.

Some Cute Pictures of Buttercup

I took these photos tonight at my father's condo after supper. Buttercup has seemed to have an upset tummy for the last couple days and hasn't been feeling very well, but her behaviour hasn't been affected too much - so I'm not getting too worried yet.
If she starts acting like she's sick - not wanting to move around, and won't get out of bed - then I'll start to worry - and I'll take her to the vet then.
But right now she's still acting like Buttercup - so I'll still treat her like Buttercup, and hope that she'll eat something at her next meal!

Who Made More Money - the Seal Hunters or the Seal-Hunter Hunters?

So people on both sides of the seal hunting debate will tell you that this has been a completely awful year from the viewpoint of the seals - in some parts of the ocean there was a 100% mortality rate for the seal puppies because of lack of ice - seal puppies need ice in order to survive their birth and first several weeks of life and this year there just wasn't any ice for the seal puppies to live on in the southern parts of Newfoundland and PEI - so no seal puppies mean that there wasn't any older puppies to kill later on - hence no fishery.


But still - PETA, IFAW, and Rebecca Aldworth from HSUS were sending out emails asking for money so that they could end the seal hunt! But they were being really sly about it - they were saying "pups are dying because there's no ice - and STILL the fishermen are killing them - so give us money to end the seal hunt!" They were getting it both ways - and the seal hunters were getting nothing.

So it seems like the only sustainable thing here is the Seal-hunter hunters - the people soliciting donations to end the seal hunt - the people hunting the seals aren't making any money. Did any of the people who sent in money to PETA or HSUS hear about the fact that more than 100 boats got caught north of Newfoundland because of pack ice? I don't imagine that any money was made by hunters because of that. They were stuck there in dangerous conditions for a couple of weeks. I'd like to see Rebecca Aldworth stuck in those conditions for a couple weeks.

But anyway - I'm getting really bored with saying over and over about how the seal fishery is just like killing cows and pigs - it's no different - it's just that it's out in the open and available for photography - and therefore available for public consumption in it's unwholesomeness - but death is ugly - what you eat on your plate at night didn't get there because of sunshine and lollipops. And PETA and HSUS are taking advantage of that. There's really no difference between a gun, a hekapik and a stun gun that they use on cows - and don't even talk about what they do to chickens and pigs - and the living conditions that they have throughout their lives. And PETA and HSUS know all about that too. So it's really quite pathetic that they'd go after such an easy cash cow. Very pathetic if you really think about it. It must really make a lot of money for them is all I can come up with.

At this point I'd like to also say that God once again must REALLY hate seals - because this is the 2nd year in a row that he's killed 100's of thousands of them because of global warming - what have those poor animals done wrong to have deserved such a decimation of their numbers because of the lack of ice? They must really be an evil animal for God to be doing this to them is all I can say. Thank God I'm not a seal.

Not too many of you have one of these!

Yesterday my Dad and me went and picked out a headstone for my Mom's gravesite - the plot includes a spot for me, him, and one other family member should they want to be buried there - so we also had our names engraved on the headstone.

Not too many people can visit their own headstone and burial plot when they're 40 years old, can they? When it's installed and we go visit my Mom there, I'm going to take a picture of myself in front of my name. Ghoulishly appropriate for someone who is slightly suicidal from time to time, don't you think? Takes all the guesswork out of where I'm going to spend eternity - at my Dad's feet - which is where I couldn't imagine spending anywhere else. Although he's still trying to figure out he can talk me out of mixing my ashes with the animals - his latest thing is having an urn with compartments - one for the animals, and one for me - he's very worried about how I'm going to come out at the other end - part me, part dog/cat/fish I think!

Has Oprah Dumped Cesar Millan?

I watched yesterday's episode of the Oprah show where she dedicated the entire episode to dogs - I had assumed, like I'm sure millions of other people had - that Cesar Millan was going to be on again, and I was wondering what kind of stuff he was going to say.

I'm not his biggest fan because I think his main technique that he uses is a technique called "flooding" - where you put a dog in a situation where he's terrified and uncomfortable and force him to get over his fear or die of fright right on the spot - and it's not a training method I agree with. I also think that his techniques can be miscontrued as bullying dogs - and that it gives people the authority to be mean and not give ANY love to their dogs or treat them humanely simply because he says that dogs don't need love in order to survive, and we here in the West give way too much love to our dogs and that's the main reason why we have such screwed up animals.

So I thought it was REALLY interesting that Oprah introduced the world yesterday to a new guru - a woman named Tamara who's written a book called "The Loved Dog" - and it's all about treating your dog like a family member - and Oprah said that she loved Tamara's ideals because she "thinks of her dogs as being like family members" - which is in stark contrast to Cesar's ideals - and it was almost like she was slapping him in the face. I was rather blown away, actually. The woman did everything but talk in baby talk to Oprah's dogs to be in contrast to Cesar. It was really awe inspiring.

I don't think that this Tamara person will become the celebrity like Cesar did because there's so many people who teach what she does a lot better than what she demonstrated yesterday - Ian Dunbar, Jean Donaldson, Pat Miller, Patricia McConnell, Suzanne Clothier - they all talk about the same things that Tamara talked about - but they actually talk about it so that you can understand it and apply it with your dogs. Yesterday, Tamara didn't seem to really have a full grasp of what positive training REALLY was about - I was actually horrified when in one segment she used a water bottle to squirt a puppy in the face when he was barking too much. I mean - how old school is that? Yuck. SO unnecessary. If you love your dog - you do NOT need to squirt him in the face with water to teach him something - unless you want to teach him that his owner has a very mean streak from time to time for no good reason at all.

So long story short - I'm very glad that Oprah has gotten off the Cesar band wagon - now if she'd only get ON the bsl band wagon, and puppy mill fight - we really MIGHT be able to do something about those things!

Bandit went to his new home today!

Bandit went to his new home today - and the dogs are all very happy about it - Bandit included. His name is now Griffin in his new home. We celebrated by going to a different spot than we usually go to at Long Lake - and boy was it pretty there.
The dogs absolutely loved it and had a blast.
They had a great time just being by themselves and spending time with just the 3 of them - they are a very tight little crew and really just want to be by themselves, unfortunately.
They were happier than pigs in shit running around with their heads cut off in the virtual shang-ri-la of Long Lake today. It was awesome.
I had a report tonight from "Griffin's" new home - and he's loving it there - he's got a sister who's also a rescued shepherd/husky mix, and they've been playing like crazy ever since they got together. It sounds like it's a match made in heaven - and my guys' trials and tribulations of the last week and a half was totally worth it - I hope they have a fabulous life together!

We got to call 9-1-1 yesterday!

It was a beautiful sunny day here in Halifax yesterday - I even got to put shorts on - but when I went to take the dogs out for their run in the morning in the woods behind my house the neighbourhood hoodlums had been up there setting fires - and some other neighbourhood kids were up there trying to put the fire out by stamping around the edges of it with their sneakers! If only their mothers could see them.

I'm not the biggest fan of children anyway, but I didn't think that was such a good idea - so before I moved on, I called 9-1-1 and reported the brush fire. I've never gotten to call 9-1-1 before. How exciting! As I was leaving the woods at the end of our walk - I took the above picture of the firemen leaving the woods too - they had just finished putting out the brush fire. In today's Chronicle Herald there was a little article about how there were several brush fires in HRM yesterday - so I guess my call was one of them. I'm a regular Smoky the Bear!
This is Charlie, Buttercup and Bandit saying - it's just a fire Mom - we dont' NEED to be leashed up - we won't run DIRECTLY into the fire! Note the black stuff on Buttercup's forehead - that is ASH from another burned out fire previously set by the bastard neighbourhood kids.
Daisy and Bandit looking happy

Bill Bruce from Calgary Gave a Talk tonight about ANimal Control for HRM Residents!

Many of the city's biggest dog luminaries attended tonight's lecture hosted by John Charles from City Planning to listen to Bill Bruce from Calgary Alberta talk about how his city has tackled dog control bylaws and off-leash dog parks - and everybody sat pretty much spell-bound for his hour long presentation! I certainly was enthralled by everything he said - and I'm pretty sure he knew who he was talking to - because several times through his presentation he made the comment that he "was pretty sure he was preaching to the choir" - and I'm pretty sure he was right.
Some interesting things he talked about were things like - what does control of your dog actually mean in the context of an offleash dog park? Like if an enforcement officer were going to come up to you and give you a little test to see if you had control of your dog in regards to compliance at an off-leash dog park - what would he/she do - and what would they expect you to do to be in compliance when you're in an off-leash dog park - and he said that there are 2 main components: #1 is visual contact - you have to have visual contact with your dog at all times so that you can see if your dog is pooping, is being a nuisance, is doing whatever - and #2 - you have 2 chances to call your dog to you - and if your dog won't come - you're in contravention and you can be fined by a bylaw enforcement officer because you obviously don't have control of your dog - so if you don't have a good recall on your dog - you'd better work on it if you want to use an off-leash dog park!
One neat thing he talked about for all you people who have had enforcement officers come to your door because a neighbour has complained about your dog barking - inside your own house - and you know who I'm talking about! - Bill Bruce said that almost all nuisance and barking aomplaints are dealt with through mediation - and not through bylaw enforcement citations - which I personally think is a MUCH healthier way to go about neighbour relations.
He also said that the City and the local Humane Society breaks up their various duties by thinking about their duties thusly: The Humane Society protects the animals from the people and the City protects the people from the animals - so for instance - one of the attendees asked whether the City offered "puppy socialization classes" because that would be very helpful in lowering euthanization rates and impound rates at the City Pound - Bill Bruce agreed - but something like that is really more of benefit to animals - so that is something that the Humane Society offers - and so they DO - and it is very successful.
I'd say there was a very good turn-out tonight and everybody was listening - I hope when Mr. Bruce meets with the City Council tomorrow morning that they will be listening as intently. Calgary has a 95% compliance rate with their licencing and bring in 4 million dollars a year because of that - which completely funds their Animal Control program - and that program only costs 3.7 million - the balance of that 4 million goes to the Humane Society so that the homeless and abandoned animals also get taken care of - can you believe that? What a world the companion animals have up there - and it's all because the licencing and bylaw system has a value for the money - if your dog gets lost - it actually finds it's way back home, and if your animal gets caught without a licence - there are consequences. Neither of which we have here right now.

If we could also get a little bit of their 141 off-leash dog parks - we'd be really laughing!

If you're feeling really keen - he gave out a powerpoint presentation of the event - if you know me - I can give you a cd of the presentation if you'd like one - just email me and I'll burn you one!

Bandit is a dream off leash

This is a super heavy photo post today because Bandit had such a good time on our walk this morning - I took the plunge and let him off-leash for the first time.
It is always so nerve wracking the first time you let a new dog go off-leash - especially a big dog who you know you can't outrun. But Bandit was perfect. 100% recall, and he was continually looking around to see where I was, and everytime I said "Bandit, let's go this way" - he immediately changed direction and followed me.I'm pretty sure it was because he is so terrified of being left behind - which is probably a good thing as far as walks in the woods go.He had SUCH a good time and ran around like a crazy dog, and even he and Daisy were playing and having good chases.
The whole time we're up in the woods behind my house Charlie is always looking for feral cats to chase - so now Charlie has someone to chase cats with - Bandit was right with him looking for the cats, it was pretty interesting to watch them together! haha!

Introducing Bandit!

Here is Bandit my new foster dog - he's a beautiful shepherd husky mix who was dumped because of a baby coming into the house. As far as he was concerned everyting in his life was absolutely perfect - so he spent the first couple of days at my house literally crying at the top of his lungs and barking whenever a car pulled up outside because he thought someone was coming to take him home. I think he's figured out now that no one is coming to get him, so he's starting to calm down and accept his fate.

He's a gorgeous dog - only probably about 60 or so pounds, fit as a fiddle - he hates cats though - so if you've got a cat - love your cat and foget about Bandit.

Bandit is an excellent lover - he hasn't left my side since he got here - he loves human companionship - and as you can tell from the video I've put with this post - he loves other dogs - which is super! He'd be an excellent Seaview Park type dog - and I have discovered - he also loves balls - so he'd be an excellent chuck-it type dog too! I haven't tried to take him off-leash yet - so I can't say anything about long walks in the woods - although we have gone for long walks in the woods with the other dogs - just not offleash for him. He loves to go for walks.

Which is another thing about his previous family - they never walked him - so adventures will be a new experience for him - so he will love his new family even more for all the fun you are going to have together.

He also loves to sleep in the bed, and be next to you on the couch. He is all around really quite a perfect dog. Except for the cat part. He's 3 1/2 years old - so you've got at least a decade of good love. His Petfinder ad is at http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=8190802 or you can email me at dogkisser@gmail.com He is SUCH a good boy!

Here is his video:

Daisy had a slight problem today

I have talked here before about how Daisy hides stuff in the back yard and how she will hoard food and hide it inside the house.
Today she was having a dilly of a pickle though - because I gave her a whole piece of pita bread - and it's such a huge thing - how was she going to deal with it?
I have to admit that I kind of did it on purpose - I wanted to see how she was going to deal with it!
Right now she's still just guarding it - I didn't put any topping on it, so she's not interested in eating it - so we'll have to see what ultimatelly becomes of it - I suspect it's going to end up being buried in the back yard at her first opportunity. This is what happens when a dog's been left to starve to death at some point in it's previous life unfortunately. She never knows when she might be starving again!

Overboard - Wait for it!

This was in the newspaper a couple weeks ago, but I had a conversation with someone in the last couple days that made me think about it again - it's all about the idea that there are 15 bites in your sandwich - and each bite is a new opportunity for your dog to have the rest of that sandwich. Dogs are the eternal optimists! haha! Sometimes the funniest things are the things that are the most true!

Beautiful day at Crystal Crescent

We went to Crystal Crescent beach this afternoon and it was absolutely beautiful there - there was even a fishing boat checking their traps out in the water - and I tried - not to successfully to get the dogs in a shot with the boat - I don't know why they won't participate with me when I want to set shots up! You'd think by now they'd understand English a little better!Here's Charlie in front of the boat - he's the best one for doing what I ask him to do - "here - stand here and look like you're modelling while I take this picture of you in front of the boat"
Daisy looking beautiful in front of the red bushes. She's so photogenic next to red stuff.
Here's Buttercup on the rocks looking for something stinky to roll in - I think she knows she' pretty much due for a bath anyway!
Whisky the cat hasn't been feeling too well - he's currently got a cold - what they call "feline herpes". He's been going around sneezing up a storm. He's pretty resilient though, so I'm sure he'll start perking up in a couple of days. At least he's not using up all the tissues like a human man would! haha

My Fish Tank and My Pleco Today

I wrote about my experience at a fish store a couple days ago - and I've written about my pleco before - so I thought I'd post a couple pictures of my fish tank and my pleco that I took today. My pleco completely freaks me out because I think he looks like he's from another planet - so I think it's lucky that I hardly ever see him/her. The only reason why I saw him yesterday was because I had almost completely stripped down my tank to nothing because of the problems I've been having - so he's had no where to hide. But as you can tell from the first picture here - as of today, everything is back to normal - the rocks are all back in and all the plants are back on the bottom of the tank - so I won't be seeing Mr pleco again for awhile.
Isn't he just the freakiest thing? He's getting really big too - he's probably at least 3 inches long now, and he's going to just continue to grow - he's eventually going to outgrow my tank - they can be 12 inches long, anyway - I would die if I saw him grow that big in my tank! I'm getting the heebeejeebies just thinking about it! He almost always stays along the back glass area out of site. My tank is only 20 gallons and now is back to be absolutely beautiful - but for some reason had gone completely cloudy in the last few weeks for no reason at all, except for the fact that I'd changed the rocks in it - so I don't know if it had decided to re-cycle because I'd taken out too much good bacteria, or what - but I've changed all the media and put in some medication to take out the silt, and it worked. ALthough I HATE using chemicals except for Melafix - and I hardly ever use even that. I think that's why I've been so successful at keeping fish alive and healthy and had so many babies.

I love my fishes.

Hilarious photo from another blog

I was searching websites that talked about yoga and dogs - and came up with a blog about the London subway system - and this fabulous photo - the blog posting is at http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2004/04/dogs-must-be-carried.html and the blog is at http://london-underground.blogspot.com/ - but it's a hilarious example of someone showing us that all dogs really can't be pocket dogs I guess! haha! Even though I DO call Charlie my 110 pound pocket dog - I think I'd have a hard time if someone asked me to carry him up an escalator. It'd make a great photo though, that's for sure!

Aqua Creations on Quinpool Road

I'm a letter writer. When I'm unhappy about something, I write a letter. When I'm happy about something, I write a letter. Today I was unhappy, I was also happy - so I wrote 2 letters. But I was very unhappy about Aqua Creations - so that's the letter I'm going to put here. And boy, was I unhappy. So unhappy that I'm not even going to shop there anymore. I can do that because Petcetera in Dartmouth has given us an option now - so I CAN refuse to shop there now. Yea! haha! Last month I wouldn't have had an option - but now I do - so I can say - "fuck you Aqua Creations." Which is what I've done - and I've posted it to my blog here because I can, because nothing goes undocumented in the world of Dogkisser. That little man didn't know who he was pissing off today - you should be nice to everyone because you never know who has a blog these days.

Monday April 9, 2007

Halifax, NS
B3P 1M9

Aqua Creations
Quinpool Road
Halifax, NS

To the Manager –

I am sorry to say that I had one of the worst retail experiences today that I’ve ever experienced, and it was in your store, and it’s compelled me to write this letter to you so that maybe you can share it with your staff and they can maybe learn something from it and organize their selling priorities a little bit better in the future.

I have been a long time customer of your store because I believe very strongly in not buying anything from a pet store that sells cats and dogs, and so therefore I’ve always spent all my fishkeeping money at your store – which has been a not insignificant amount of money – I have spent several hundred dollars at your store in the last couple of years, and have generally received perfunctory, satisfactory service.

But today was another case entirely. I arrived at the store at about 1pm and waited for a few minutes while one of the employee’s finished up with another customer which was completely fine – there were 2 employees working today – the second employee was casually talking with another female the whole time I was in the store. I couldn’t tell if he was selling her anything or if they were just talking – but the whole time I was in the store he talked to her non-stop – so he made himself unavailable the whole time I was in the store from beginning to finish.

When the sales person finished with that customer I said to him that I needed help with my fish tank and started describing what was wrong with it – the phone started to ring, and since we were the ones nearest to it – he answered it – and spent about 30 seconds answering a question for the person about a sick fish – which was fine – I just stood there and waited for him to finish, and when he did, we continued our conversation and I started asking what kinds of products I should buy.

Then the phone rang again – and he answered it – this time it was a person from Saint John New Brunswick with a sick fish tank. And for some reason the sales person thought it was appropriate to talk on the phone with this person for more than 10 minutes while I just stood there and waited – a person who was going to be paying your business actual cash money – a person who comes to the store regularly and gives your business money – a person who is going to be talking to other people locally about your business – either good or bad – and he left me standing there waiting. For more than 10 minutes – while he discussed the merits of different types of anti-biotics with this person in Saint John New Brunswick.

It might have been fine had the other sales person working noticed the gaffe being made and left his friend and taken over the sale – but he just continued talking – and I continued standing there and getting more frustrated – so what I did was just get the products that I figured I needed and put them on the counter so that the sales person could ring them in – while he continued to talk on the phone to the person from Saint John New Brunswick!

Surely you can understand what a ludicrously bad sales thing is going on here! So while I am piling all my items on the counter I guess he had finished answering the questions to the fellow in New Brunswick and he hangs up the phone. And during this time another gentleman had come into the store – and while the sales person is ringing up my sale – of items that I had picked out by myself (not really knowing whether or not they were the best items to buy) – with no help from the sales person because he’d been on the phone the whole time – this guy starts asking questions about “loaches” – and he’s asking it in fact to the other sales guy who’d been talking to the girl – but the guy who’d I’d been dealing with starts answering the question – so that was it – NOW I was pissed off.

I say to the sales guy – “what do I have to do to get some attention?” Even now you’re talking to someone else?” And then that pisses off the other customer – like as if I’m the person being rude.

Well I can tell you – I was not the one being rude – it was your sales person who had been talking on the phone for the last 10 minutes completely ignoring the customer in the store (me) who was going to be giving your store money to keep your business open. Money that this customer is not going to be giving you anymore. Today I spent $56 something in your store – and I say $56 something because your sales guy didn’t even give me my receipt!

I have to say that I am SO happy that Petcetera has opened up in Dartmouth – because fish owning people now have an alternative in this city where we didn’t before – before we had no where to go but to your store if we wanted to be politically correct – but now we can go to that store – and I can tell you with great certainty that I will be buying all my fish supplies at Petcetera in Dartmouth from now on because of the way that your staff made me feel today.

Now that there IS an alternative in our fair city – I think you should be giving some inservices to your staff on how to treat the customers – that when people call asking for advice on the phone – that those people come SECOND – that you take those calls only when there’s no one in the store. Period. You don’t make customers standing in the store WAIT. Period. And then if the customer standing in the store has the audacity to complain about it – you DON’T make them feel like they are the rudest person on the face of the earth.

Your sales person said to me that “he thought that in previous times that I’d been to the store that he’d been very friendly to me, so my rudeness to him seemed very uncalled for – well what I would say to that is – every other time I’ve been to the store – I’ve ALSO been very friendly to him – and THAT should say something too. I am a very friendly person – so me being rude to him today should ALSO say something. I was very affected by his very poor attitude.

If you have too many customers have the same experience that I had today, and who have been shopping at your store simply because they shopped at your store because they didn’t want to buy at a store that sold live animals – and now can shop at Petcetera – you’d better start counting your pennies.

Sincerely,

Joan Sinden

Tonight though we got to blow it all off in a very nice walk in the woods - doesn't Buttercup look beautiful?
And doesn't Daisy look beautiful? I JUST caught her in the lens before she zoomed off beyond me. She moves fast!

Relaxing Rover

This was in today's Chronicle Herald, and it is so dog friendly it hurts. I think I may learn yoga just so I can start teaching these kinds of classes. It sounds just like shang-ri-la. I think I already have at least one, if not 2 books on yoga for dogs - so I should really get hopping.



Relaxing Rover
At doggie yoga, humans and pets team up for sessions of downward facing dogs
By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP The Associated Press

BELLEVUE, Wash. — By the end of a recent yoga class, many participants were passed out on their mats, in a position their instructor calls the "upward facing belly pose."

That’s largely because about half the group was about to walk out on four legs: The Seattle/King County Humane Society now offers 40 minute classes of "doggie yoga."

Brenda Bryan, who teaches human yoga as well as the new class for both dogs and humans, says the dogs react to the gentle energy in the room.


"As we get into it, the dogs all kind of calm down," said Bryan, who developed the poses for the class by working with her own two dogs — Gus, a mixed breed, and Honey, a Shar Pei-Boxer mix — and talking to instructors in such cities as New York, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh where yoga for dogs and their owners is now beginning to catch on.

The question she and the Humane Society get the most from prospective human students is how do the people and dogs interact?

In Bryan’s class, the humans do traditional yoga poses — yes, including "downward facing dog" — while staying in contact physically with their pets.

Part of the class includes gentle stretching and dog massage, another specialty of Bryan’s, but most of the time the humans gently use the dogs like yoga props.

In downward facing dog, for example, the humans rest their heads on their companions, who are relaxing — napping? — on the mat.

The yoga poses are modified both for the humans of different sizes and abilities and for the dogs. During class, Bryan reminds people not to push their canine partners to perform.

"Don’t be too ambitious," she said. "Honour where your dog is and remember that dogs respond to our energy."

Leilani, a toy poodle, is the star of the class, perhaps because the tiny 11-year-old is too timid to venture off the mat to play with the big dogs.

Her owner, Suanne Nagata, said afterward that Leilani just loves being touched.

"I could just feel her relax," she said.

The class was designed to offer a new way for humans to spend time with their pets.

"This is 80 per cent fun," said Eve Holt, director of community relations for the Seattle Humane Society.

Bryan calls it "partner yoga," because the class encourages both the human and the dog to increase their awareness of each other.

"Magnet and I were just in this little bubble," said Emily Keegans, referring to her black lab.

She said her dog really loves getting the one-on-one attention he receives in yoga class and she likes having another opportunity to both exercise and spend time with her dog.

"I love doing yoga and I’m just really busy. Just to spend time with him and be with him is great," added Keegans.

She said she was doing dog massage at a Humane Society fundraiser — a dog fashion show — when the agency director mentioned that she is also a yoga instructor. And the idea for doggie yoga was born.

"It was really just a marriage of all the things I love," Bryan said.

She said she hopes the class will open up yoga to a variety of people — and dogs — who have never done this kind of exercise before.

"We’ve been having a lot of fun with this," said Bryan, adding that her own dogs rush to the mat as soon as she unrolls it at home, whether or not she was planning to involve them.

Both the humans and the canines seemed to enjoy themselves before, during and after a recent doggie class at the Humane Society.

Shadow, a spaniel mix, visited every mat during the class and made a complete circuit of shoe sniffing toward the end.

Beans, a majestic two-year-old Vizsla, seemed a lot more interested in making new friends than relaxing, as his owner predicted before the class.

"He likes to nap. He is a cuddle bug, but playing is so much more important," said Chantale Anderson.

Nearly every dog in the group took at least one break to sniff a canine or human or both, but Bryan seemed pleased with how the class was going and was neither outwardly amused nor flustered when Honey and Shadow crowded onto the mat with her and Gus.

Although her voice was yoga calm, her words showed she shared the other humans’ amusement.

"Everyone is being so good — and the dogs too."

‘As we get into it, the dogs all kind of calm down.’

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Living/613694.html

OT: New Watch

I have been wanting a new watch for awhile, so I finally decided to just go out and get one. I made the mistake of going to Walmart to get it - and I say that for 2 reasons - the first one was because it wasn't "turned on" when I bought it, and when I got it home and did some stuff to it - it turned out it was because the fan-damned battery was dead, and when I asked the store clerk why the watch wasn't turned on - she said she had no idea - but she hadn't read the "users manual" for the watch I was buying - so once I read the manual I'd probably be able to figure out how to turn the watch on. So Wednesday night I had to take a 2nd trip in to Walmart to get them to replace the battery. The 2nd problem I had with the watch was that when the kind lady replaced the battery - she put the back of the watch back on upside down - probably with most watches that wouldn't make a difference, but with this fantabulous watch I'm going to describe to you - that made the sound portion of my timepiece entire non functional - of which it took me 24 hours to figure out - but at least I eventuall did! haha!

But anyway - this watch is definitely post worthy - for those of you who are of the geekier persuasion. It's a "Timex Ironman Datalink System" watch - and I am absolutely gob smacked with it. It links up with your computer and you can program it to do an amazing bunch of stuff - you can even enter everyone's address and phone numbers into the thing - and I mean you can put a ton a phone numbers and addresses in there.

You can also put in a lot of different alarms - so for people who are anal retentive, they can program in alarms for different times of day to remind themselves to do stuff - like to take their drugs at say 2, 4, and 7pm - or to watch their shows at 6pm - or whatever. You can also program it so that it stops chiming at 9pm every night so that it doesn't ding the hours through the night. Isn't that neat?

Oh yeah - and you know how you can set an alarm so that it wakes you up in the morning? It can set different alarm times for weekdays and weekends. This watch is just the neatest thing.

You can also program in people's birthdays and anniversaries and stuff and then on the day or the day before - it'll pop up on the main screen - to remind you of the fact. Now THAT is neat.

What technology can do for you these days. Just don't go buy it at Walmart if you want the thing to be idiot free. I was JUST smart enough to be able to overcome the obstacles set up for me by the sales clerk there - if I was having a couple bad days in a row, I don't know if I'd have been able to figure it out - I still may not have a chiming and alarming watch right now, and that would've made for a very unhappy consumer right now.

But luckily - everything worked out, and I've got the bestest watch in the whole entire world, and every hour on the hour all the dogs are going - WHAT in the hell was THAT? haha!

Buttercup was on the news Monday Night

I forgot to post that Buttercup was on the ATV news Monday night after the Pet Food Seminar at the Metro Dog Wash - I captured it on my digital camera - so it's pretty grainy - but here it is, such as it is - I think she still looked pretty cute:

Why I Dislike The DLCC

Sit back, this is going to be a long one, so let me apologize right at the beginning for the length. I'd also like to say that this is probably the last post I'm going to make for awhile about dog politics and anything to do with pit bulls, dog parks, dog friendliness, seal hunting, or anything controversial. I've got a couple other things that are looming large and I've decided to just be a regular dog owner who enjoys her dogs and doesn't realize that there are different layers to the dog world, and that there is no such thing as a "pit bull" and that dogs who look like what we consider a "pit bull" really are just like every other dog on the planet when they are treated like every other dog on the planet.

But before I step back I want to write out why it is that I have a problem with the Dog Legislation Council of Canada, and with the Executive of that organization. It's not something that I've just pulled out of my hat and decided to feel. It's something that happened over a very long time from experiences that have happened to me over and over, and I now feel compelled to write about it in a public forum because I think it needs to be told, and because I can't be the only person on this earth who's had bad relations with the DLCC.

It didn't start out that way. I was one of the first members of the organization. I was one of the founding members of the Nova Scotia chapter of the DLCC - and actually wrote the minutes for the inaugural meeting for the chapter that was held at Janet Chernin's house here in Halifax. I have been an active and fervent fighter for breed discrimination since I first heard that the practice and idea existed. I still am. I still believe in the initial tenets that the DLCC stood for - the breed specific legislation is wrong, and that the way to go is by enacting dangerous dog legislation - put the onus on the dog's owner - not on the dog.

But right from the beginning of the organization - the unelected, and still serving - Executive of the DLCC - had very strict, and very narrow ideas of how the DLCC should appear to the public and what the DLCC should be doing.

My first run-in with the Executive was with a doggy-day that was being held at a local off-leash park that was popular with many pit bull type dog owners - and a couple of members of the NS branch wanted to host a booth at this doggy-day. The DLCC Executive would NOT let us host a booth because they were too afraid that pit bull dogs would have fights at this event because it was an off-leash park and pit bulls should not be off leash.

As anyone who reads my blog knows - I am an off-leash advocate - and I am also an advocate of having pit bulls offleash - because I have the belief that pit bulls properly socialized are like any other dogs - so I fought long and hard to have a booth at this event because I believed there weren't going to be any problems - but the DLCC Executive said NO - they didn't want to be associated with anything that had the potential for problems. I couldn't believe the hypocricy that they were exhibiting by assuming that pit bulls were going to fight simply because they were around other dogs, and it made me sick to my stomach.

So that was the FIRST time I left the DLCC in a huff.

But my best friend Janet Chernin - stayed with the DLCC - she is the vice president of the Atlantic provinces and she believes really strongly in the DLCC - so because we are such good friends - when Bill 132 was enacted - and vigils were being planned all across Canada and the US the day before the bill was enacted - somehow my stance against the DLCC had softened and I had become a member again, I can't now remember how I got back in - but she and I organized the vigil here in Halifax - and it was a big success. And it was dog friendly, and there were tons of pit bulls there - and it was fabulous. And the DLCC took all the credit for it, which was okay for me - I am an organizer and I never want credit for anything - I am happy with that.

At the same time - there was a pit bull type dog up in Guysborough who's case I had become involved in - his name was Zeus, and I had made a website about Guysborough and their reprehensible breed ban - and when they targeted Zeus in particular I dedicated the site to Zeus. Originally the site hadn't been about Zeus - it had just been about the breed ban - it was called "Skip Guysborough" - don't spend any of your tourist dollars in Guysborough when the rest of Nova Scotia doesn't have any breed bans - that's what I was telling the dog lovers of the world - and it was a super idea - and everybody loved it. It was a great little site. And then when I dedicated to Zeus and included him as well - it got even better.

But then at some point the DLCC found out that somehow the prosecution were going to try and use the site to prove that Zeus was a pit bull because I had called him a "pit bull" on the site - and the abusive emails flew! As far as the Executive were concerned I had already killed Zeus with my own 2 hands! But I countered back - on their Zeus page on the DLCC site - they called him a pit bull themselves! So how could I be doing something wrong if they were doing it themselves! That shut them up for a moment as they went and changed the text on their site....

And their site then called Zeus a "pit bull type" dog - which is what I had also called Zeus - but still that wasn't good enough for them. The prosecution was still going to be using my website to prove Zeus was a pit bull. Right up until the day of the trial the Cameron's lawyer was wanting to "throttle" me because of the prosecution's use of me as a "breed expert" - when no one - not the prosecution or the defence ever even called me at all. It was only the DLCC trying to intimidate and manipulate me as near as I can tell. In the end when I read the court transcripts the "experts" testimony they said almost exactly word for word what I had said on my website about Zeus and Sandy - that there was no way you could say for sure they were pit bulls - that Zeus's head was way too big and his chest was too big and his back end was too small and Sandy was for sure more of a rhodesian ridge back than a pit bull - and that there wasn't even such a thing as a pit bull anyway - that pit bulls are a compendium of 3 breeds - and that pit bull is just a type of dog - so to call a dog a pit bull is a misnomer. And in the end Zeus and Sandy won - and all the grief they gave me was for nothing.

The website I made has since been taken down because it's not needed anymore - there's no more BSL in the district of the municipality of Guysborough - so you no longer need to skip Guysborough - it's safe to go back there again. Zeus and Sandy are safe to live out their lives there. But if they would've lost - the DLCC would've blamed it all on me.

So at this point I'm in the good graces of the DLCC - I even get to go to their AGM, and eat lobster, take notes, meet all the nice people of the Executive, go to people's houses - isn't that fabulous? Life is grand. For all of you naysayers out there who say I don't believe in the DLCC and the legal challenge - I do - and I did support the DLCC financially - with membership dues, and when the legal challenge was in jeapardy because of lack of funds and Cathy Prothro put emergency calls for money - I did donate $100 so that thousands of dollars could be paid to Clayton Ruby when he needed it. I am not a slacker - I was with the cause 100%. I was indeed a proud member of the DLCC - if you look back on this blog there's tons of places where I say "I'm a proud member of the DLCC". But it's just when the Executive keeps slapping you in the face with their awful right wing rhetoric - after awhile you've got to start believing what they're telling you.

So now it's on to the next thing - the DLCC's fight with Dogs's Deserve Better and the Humane Society of the United States - and general any organization that they term to be "AR" - which I assume to be "Animal Rights" - and for myself I don't consider Dogs Deserve Better and the HSUS to be "AR" - I consider Dogs Deserve Better to be a grassroots organization out to help dogs one dog at a time - that's because I'm so heavily involved in the organization though. But I digress.

And here is where things are going to start to get interesting....

For some reason - the Executive of the DLCC seems to think there is some conspiracy out there amongst different Animal organizations whereby those organizations are working behind the scenes to in fact HARM dogs and take away the rights of dog owners instead of HELP dogs, and empower dog owners. And they believe that Dogs Deserve Better and the HSUS are 2 of those organizations.

The DLCC has moved away from simply fighting to strike down bill 132 in Ontario and moved on to quash and destroy any organization that it deems to be an Animal Rights organization and an enemy of the DLCC.

Here is a quote from LeeAnn O'Reilly:

"...our council has a vested interest in keeping abreast of the invasive movement of animals rights organizations."

— LeeAnn O'Reilly, President, Dog Legislation Council of Canada

That includes sending out information to it's members about websites such as Ms Jade - who talks about the Best Friends Animal Society being a cult, and involved with all kinds of bad stuff - and how anti-tethering legislation is just another form of breed specific legislation. Huh? You ask?

You can ask kennel owners and breeders and the CKC about that one - those are the people who oppose anti-tethering legislation - that's because they are the ones who oppose anti-chaining legislation - and the DLCC is in the back pocket of those organizations. Breeders want to be able to chain and tether and kennel their "products" and produce - because when you've got 40 of something you can't keep them in the house with you, and you can't let them run loose. So anti-tethering legislation would make you lose your liveliehood. So that's wh the DLCC has branched out and is attacking Dogs Deserve Better in it's attempt to pass anti-tethering legislation.

Strong words. But I believe them to be true. For some reason the DLCC Executive believes that they have the only, and most correct way of the viewing the world - and everyone else's way is inherently evil and must be exterminated and demolished.

The DLCC Executive's attempts to discredit Dogs Deserve Better was the last nail in the coffin for any respect I had for the organization. They are not trying to save any dogs' lives as far as I can tell - they are only trying to get glory for themselves in some kind of mind games of international recognition. If anyone deserves the title of an "AR" designation - I think it's the DLCC - not Dogs Deserve Better or the Best Friends Animal Society - because at least those 2 organizations actually help dogs on a day to day basis in the real world. What does LeeAnn O'Reilly do but send out and receive 100's of emails daily? I put her in the same camp as Walt Hutchins anyday. Maybe she puts herself there too, though! haha!

And don't even mention the term "sled dogs" to her - I think she'd run the Iditarod and chain all the sled dogs out herself if she could she loves sled dogs so much.

It seems like the level of paranoia within the Executive of the DLCC is on the level of the old file ranks of the KGB. Everyone is the enemy, and everyone but them is wrong and misinformed and must be defeated when it comes to answers on how to better the world of dogs. I've never seen anything like it and I don't imagine I ever will again. They are absolutely unbelieveable, and it's not until you've actually met them and dealt with them individually do you actually start to understand.

So this is why I don't like the DLCC. After reading all of this, maybe you can understand why too.

So that's it, I'm done now. I'm not going to talk anymore about the DLCC.

Addendum added May 3, 2007 - I read a post on the right wing Dog Politic blog today and was blown away by a comment left by the unelected president of the DLCC, LeeAnn O'Reailly - who has come out on several Yahoo groups that I belong to saying that she is against anti-tethering legislation - saying that it's just another form of BSL - she's against all legislation that is not enacted by the DLCC personally - and anti-tethering legislation is being pushed by Dogs Deserve Better - so of course she'd be fighting any anti-tethering legislation that comes up. So I of course was shocked to read the following comment:

PETA is killing our rights by killing our dogs.Over the past two decades they have milked millions from the ignorant and fed the ignorant with their warm and fuzzy portrayals of their interests.It is only now that they come forward because now,they have the political clout only money can buy.They have also bought and sold their prepackaged agendas in anti tethering,anti breeding anti animal ownership to other equally ignorant groups like .........JUST FILL IN THE BLANKS HERE FOLKS.

Posted by: LeeAnn O'Reilly | May 01, 2007 at 01:50 PM

Further proof that Ms. O'Reilly likes to have her cake and eat it too, depending on who she's talking to and what politics she's trying to lambast. I don't know why I can't wipe the sneer off my face, but for some reason, I can't. Yuck.

Tonight we went to listen to a talk about pet food!

Tonight me and Buttercup went to the Metro Dog Wash to listen to different speakers talk about pet food and different speakers thoughts about their philosophies since the pet food recalls have been going on in the last week - Terri Henson and Kathleen Duffy invited the representative from Royal Canin, Dr. Jennifer Bishop who is a holistic veterinarian, and Maureen Tate, who is a distributor for Urban Carnivore - a type of processed raw food.
I thought it was really interesting and I actually learned quite a few things! The #1 thing I learned was that the whole line of Royal Canin products are all made with ingredients that are fit for human consumption - which is something that I did not know. So their products have gone up in my estimation a huge amount and I'd think about buying their stuff now - and I will even investigate buying their stuff the next time I go buy kibble - right now I've got Natural Balance in their kibble bucket.
Other things I learned were from Jennifer Bishop when she confirmed about how raw vegetables are processed very poorly by dogs - and she said it's because they aren't as efficient an omnivore as humans are - I liked how she described it - it's because they "aren't as efficient an omnivore as humans are" - so what you should do is steam vegetables or cut vegetables up into as small pieces as possible so that you give the dogs digestive tract as much area and space as possible to digest the food - I liked that description.
Maureen Tate did a really good job of describing how her company sets itself apart in providing a balanced diet when you want to feed your dog a raw diet in that their patties are from the "whole" animal - they use the meat and the bone of the animals - the whole carcass - and the plant is in Canada and so are the animals - and so are all the farms that the animals come from.

A lot of people worry with a raw diet that you're not feeding a "balanced" diet - that's why a product like Urban Carnivore is sometimes the best way to go - because you have less to worry about because a lot of the guess work has been taken out of it - it's as easy as feeding a kibble diet - except that instead of taking the kibble out of a container you're taking a patty out of the freezer - but it's pretty much the same thing - only SO much healthier! haha! That's what Maureen says - and it makes a lot of sense.

I thought Terri and Kathleen did a great job and I'd like to thank them for putting on the evening!

Back Entrance to Long Lake

Today we went for a nice lengthy on-leash walk to look for a back entrance to Long Lake that I figured was somewhere on Old Sambro Road around the intersection of Dentith Road - and ended up being quite a bit beyond the intersection, but nonetheless still existing - because I am currently looking for new neighbourhood places to walk the dogs for the next little while. Last night while walking the dogs in the woods behind my house Daisy discovered a huge amount of stuff that people expel from their body when they've had too much to drink and their heads start spinning and they feel sick to their stomach. In the dark I couldn't find Daisy for about 5 minutes and I was calling her and calling her and she was rolling and rolling and she was only about 10 feet from me all the time - it took a long time to clean her up when we got home, and it's right on the main drag of our walk - and it's going to need a couple of good downpours before I will want to go back to that area. So we need a new place to go walking.
So we found a new place at Long Lake - I love Spryfield! I'll bet there's no other entrance to Long Lake that has a warning - "Use trail at own risk - NSNR" - the trail is in really bad shape - but it's in perfect shape for us.
It's perfect for chasing and racing and running and jumping and gallavanting - all stuff that we like to do.
So the dogs were pretty happy.
The dogs got a few good chases and wrestles in, and I got some peace of mind in knowing that we weren't going to encounter any of what we encountered last night!

Point Pleasant Park Today

Today me and Buttercup went down to Point Pleasant Park for a walk.
It was the first time we'd been there since Teddy died - we used to go there every weekend for small dog walks - we'd go without Charlie and Daisy so that Teddy and Buttercup could pretend like they lived by themselves as small dogs and ruled the world and could act like proper small dogs and run around and act crazy and everybody just thought they were the cutest things in the world - instead of everyone only seeing the huge black and tan dogs running around thinking they were going to kill their dogs.
When we took a rest at the Purcell's Cove ferry landing Buttercup took her job of protecting me very seriously and made sure no dogs got anywhere near the bench we were sitting on. She scoped out everybody going by and made sure everyone passed muster.
Buttercup looking through the rungs of the bench so she can see who's coming to see whether or not she should attack them so she can protect me and the groceries she think is in my pocket! haha!