The Poodle (and Dog) Blog

Top 10 dog related things never to do

I am going on hiatus, or more technically medical leave. I have some lower circulation problems and am going in to get replacement parts. I will be in the hospital for a week. And then I will lead the life of an invalid for a while. Please keep me in your Readers, Bookmarks, Bloglines, thoughts and prayers. I’ll be back.

In the meantime from past posts I have selected the top ten dog related things not to do:

1. Don’t include dog poop in the envelope when you are paying a parking ticket. Your name is on the ticket. And your address. The authorities will find you and they don’t think you’re funny. Post

2. Don’t leave an empty pizza box near a stove when you leave your dog at home. No matter what kind of fancy hybrid he is, a dog is a dog and they can’t resist pizza flavored cardboard. Post

3. Don’t take a wiz through a knothole in a fence if you don’t know what is behind it. It may be a playful puppy thinking he has found a squirt toy. Post

4. Dog poop is not free speech. Don’t send it to your congresswoman even if you disagree with her. Post

5. Don’t attack a woman in her home where a Pit Bull roams freely. Your DNA may end up on the dog and you will go to jail. If you are a total scumbag loser, you will never get out. Post

6. Don’t register your dog to vote no matter how easy it is or what message you want to send. And don’t send in the unmarked ballot signed with a paw print. These people have no sense of humor. Post

7. Do not expose yourself to a woman walking a German Shepherd dog who doesn’t like men anyway. Post

8. Do not grab a bag from anyone walking a dog. If you think a minute you will realize what is in it. Post

9. Don’t confuse a Chihuahua with a Pit Bull. Everyone else knows the difference and you will get caught doing whatever stupid thing you did and plan to do. Post

10. Don’t hide in a doghouse when the police are chasing you. It’s the first place a K-9 dog will look. Post

And one more: if a bounty hunter comes looking for you, don’t hide under a pile of clothes in your closet if you have a Chihuahua who loves to play hide and seek. Post

Smart dogs. Dumb humans. Which human takes the top idiot prize?

Dancing with the Stars...Poodle style

As a purely impartial judge of Poodle Dancing,

I give them a 10 for artistic impression and a 10 for technical merit.

(I love the way they pause to make sure the audience is watching.

So Poodle-y!!!)

Dog found playing with a loaded handgun

This could have been really ugly.

Residents in a neighborhood in Racine, Wisconsin thought their dog had found a toy to chew on, only to discover that it was a loaded semi-automatic handgun.

One of the residents picked up the gun and was carrying it into the house when it dropped to the floor firing a bullet which ricocheted off the floor into the ceiling. Police recovered the gun at the scene.

Sometime earlier the police had been chasing 22-year-old Sergio M. Pegues, who was wanted for a felony probation charge, through the neighborhood. They believe he threw the gun into the yard during the chase. Pegues eluded them but was later arrested at his home.

He was charged with possession of marijuana, disorderly conduct and obstructing an officer. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 4 1/2 years in prison and a $21,000 fine. Let's hope a few more charges will come out of his abysmal practice of gun safety.

The story

Greyfriars Bobby

Perched on top of a fountain in a quiet churchyard in Edinburgh, Scotland is a statue of a small dog.

Bobby, a little Skye Terrier in nineteenth century Scotland, has been immortalized for his loyalty to his master with a statue not far from where he was buried.

Bobby belonged to John Gray, a night watchman for the Edinburgh City Police. For two years the two were inseparable. Then Gray died of tuberculosis in 1858. He was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard.

For the next fourteen years until his death, Bobby sat on the grave of his master, leaving the Kirkyard only to take meals at a restaurant beside the graveyard and to spend colder winter nights in nearby houses.

(He was loyal, not stupid.)

The groundskeeper at Greyfriars tried to keep Bobby out of the Kirkyard, but finally gave up and made a shelter for him beside John Gray’s grave. At the back of the church yard an old building had been turned into an orphanage. Bobby soon became an important part of the children’s lives as he played with them every day.

Bobby became famous in Edinburgh. Every day crowds would gather at the entrance to the Kirkyard waiting for the one o’clock gun that signaled the appearance of Bobby leaving the grave for his midday meal at a nearby restaurant.

The people in Edinburgh took care of Bobby, but in 1867 a law was passed that required all dogs to be licensed or they would be destroyed. The Lord Provost of Edinburgh stepped in to buy a license for Bobby and to present him with a collar inscribed "Greyfriars Bobby from the Lord Provost 1867 licensed.” The collar can be seen today at the Museum of Edinburgh.

When Bobby died in 1872 at the age of 16, because he was a dog he could not be buried in the consecrated ground next to his master, but he was buried not far away inside the gate of Greyfriars Kirkyard.

After his death the President of the Ladies Committee of the RSPCA asked the City Council for permission to erect a fountain with a statue of Bobby on top.

More on Bobby

Border Collie runs away—on a bus

Sometimes dogs get bored and run away for a little excitement. But when the dog is a Border Collie, he might just decide that the bus is an easier way to go than by paw.

In the UK, four-year-old Hike enjoyed playing in an alley near his home. Everyone around there knew him and he always came back when his owner, Emma Ward, whistled for him.

But apparently one day he wanted to have a little seaside adventure, and there was the Number 11 bus coming by and he’d been on it before with Ms. Ward. I mean, how hard could it be to take a bus? Humans do it all the time.

So while Ms. Ward and her family were frantically printing up posters and contacting the police, shelters, rescues, and vets, Hike was riding the Number 11 bus to coastal resort of Rhyl.

Finally 40 stops and 23 miles later, Hike was discovered under a seat.

Ms. Ward reported, "I was so relieved to see him. But when I got there to pick him up, he was playing ball with the driver - he didn't have a care in the world."

Complete story at BBC News

Stray dog report

This morning a woman called Animal Control in our town to report a stray dog running in front of her house.

Ten minutes later she called back to cancel the report. It seems that it was her own dog who had somehow gotten out of the house.

If you’ve been reading this blog, you already know what breed and color the dog was.

Does having a dog help make a healthier baby?

Quite a few studies have suggested that perhaps modern homes have possibly become too clean for the health of a baby. That is, babies’ immune systems are not exposed to enough germs to develop as they should.

Controlled studies and anecdotal evidence suggest that children from rural backgrounds remain healthier during the first years of school than children from urban areas. Exposure to animals is thought to be a reason for this difference.

A new study completed at the National Research Centre for Environmental Health in Munich, Germany supports the theory that children run less risk of being sensitive to allergens if there is a dog in the house in the early years of their lives.

If the dog and baby are together early enough in the baby’s life, apparently the dog has the right kind of germs and dirt to provide health benefits. The conclusions are based on a six-year study of 9,000 children. The children were followed from birth to age six.

“Our results show clearly that the presence of a dog in the home during subjects’ infancy is associated with a significantly low level of sensitisation to pollens and inhaled allergens,” said spokesperson Joachim Heinrich. Source

Heinrich stops short of advising parents to get a dog for the sake of the health of their babies.

But the idea that a dog is harmful to a babies’ health is one that doesn’t seem to have much merit.

Study shows students enjoy the company of dogs as much as family and friends

Expect some righteous indignation on this from people who don’t like dogs—or dog owners—or college students.

A study of 900 Canadian college students living with dogs shows that they want their dogs’ company as much as that of some human family members and friends.

The study conducted by Larry Kurdek, a psychology professor at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, is published in the April issue of the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

Using standard relationship measures, the students indicated they are as attached to their dogs as they are to their mothers, brothers, sisters, best friends, and significant others. They are even closer to the dogs than to their fathers.

Kurdek’s research also discredited the idea that people form close relationships with pets because they have a hard time relating to people.

"People simply like being around their dogs," he concluded.

More here

Parti Poodles—growing in popularity

The term “Parti” refers to a Poodle whose coat is part one color and part another. In a true Parti-Poodle, the skin is two separate and completely different colors with break lines between the colors.

(When you see an ad selling a “Party Poodle,” you should probably avoid pursuing it. If sellers don’t understand their product enough to spell it right, you probably shouldn’t deal with them.)

In the beginning of Poodle breeding, both solid and parti-colored Poodles were bred. Then for some reason lost in history, the Parti Poodles lost favor. They were culled from the litter and not bred. But, of course, they still show up in solid color litters from time to time. And there are breeders who specialize in producing Parti Poodles.

There are no specific genetic problems associated with today’s Parti Poodle that would not be associated with a solid color Poodle.

If they are purebred, Parti Poodles can be registered through AKC, CKC and UKC, However, they are not accepted in the AKC conformation ring. For that reason in past years they were usually sold at lower prices than solid color puppies.

Since most buyers have no intention of showing their dog in the ring, there is a renewed interest today in the Parti Poodle. There may be a reverse snobbery involved as some people enjoy having a dog that has been snubbed by the AKC and by Poodle breeders for hundreds of years.

Another reason they are sought out is that they are so striking they get noticed wherever they go. A well turned out Parti Poodle can stop traffic.

Of course the law of supply and demand comes into play. Because they are rare, as they become more popular, they may be priced higher than purebred solid color Poodles just as some of the designer Poodle hybrids are priced higher than purebred dogs.

More information

Snuppy, the first cloned dog, will become a father and the controversy continues

(Photo of Snuppy as a puppy, his clone father and surrogate mother)

The sperm of Snuppy an Afghan hound has successfully impregnated two cloned Afghan Hound bitches through artificial insemination, researchers at Seoul National University announced.

If the births take place, it will mark the first time that cloned dogs have reproduced successfully, according to lead researcher Lee Byung-Chun.

“The second generation of cloned animals used to be malformed but we have not found any abnormal aspects about the fetuses so far," Lee said, indicating that ultrasonic tests show the fetuses are healthy.

The published stories have caused an angry reaction from authorities at the Seoul National University which has a strict policy against releasing research results to the press before publication in academic papers. This policy came about after another cloning expert, Wang Woo-Suk, was caught faking results of stem cell research.

"This is a breach of school regulations against releasing experiment results to the press before completing relevant academic papers," Kook Yang, the research department head, told journalists.

“The university will discipline Lee,” he said. source

Kind of makes us wonder about researchers playing God when they seem to be publicity whores who can’t follow the rules of human ethics.