The Poodle (and Dog) Blog

“My dog is a better actor than your dog”

Director Martin Scorsese is campaigning to have his movie dog Blackie included as a nominee at this year’s Golden Collar awards.

Blackie the Doberman plays an attack dog owned by a train station officer in Scorsese’s film Hugo.

Resenting the snub to Blackie, Scorsese wrote a letter to the LA Times, complaining that Blackie had not been recognized in the 'best dog in a theatrical film' category by Dog News Daily and urged readers to support his efforts.

“How could she not be nominated?” he asked. And then went on to denigrate the doggie competition. Uggie the Jack Russell has been nominated for The Artist and Water for Elephants.

"Jack Russell terriers are small and cute. Dobermans are enormous and - handsome," the director said. "More tellingly, Uggie plays a nice little mascot who does tricks and saves his master's life in one of the films, while Blackie gives an uncompromising performance as a ferocious guard dog who terrorizes children.

"I'm proud of Blackie, who laid it on the line and dared to risk the sympathy of her audience." Source

At one time Dobermans were bred and trained to be vicious factory guard dogs. It takes acting skills for the modern Dobie to pull off ferocity, according to Scorsese.

Dog News Daily agreed to add Blackie as a nominee if he received 500 votes on his Facebook page. Blackie quickly received the needed votes.

Also vying for Top Dog at the Golden Collars are Cosmo from the film Beginners, Denver from comedy drama 50/50 and Hummer from the film Young Adult.

Famous Hollywood directors it seems can be like the rest of us when it comes to recognition for our dogs.

More Super Bowl dog commercials

According to NBC, the average cost for a 30-second spot during Sunday's Super Bowl is $3.5 million, with some time slots costing as much as $4 million.

Some car makers this year are using dogs to attract the viewer with the cuteness factor.

One reader asked on my post about the VW/Star Wars ads how these commercials are supposed to sell cars. I think what a company hopes for is attract the viewers’ attention, entertain them, and hopefully associate the commercial they enjoyed with the product they should buy.

Super Bowl commercials get more attention than any other commercials. And then there is a lot of free publicity when a commercial gets selected as one of the top Super Bowl commercials with free air and on line time. Millions of people vote on line for their favorites.

Here are two more doggie car ads.

Subaru has a series of ads with dogs driving their car. This one features the dogs out for a day at the beach with the slogan “Dog Tested. Dog Approved.”

Suzuki will present a new TV commercial called “Sled.” It features a short drama with a musher and his sled dogs to highlight the all-wheel-drive Kizashi sports sedan.

 

Do you have a favorite Super Bowl commercial?

Is this another reason not to get a dog? Or why we should read beyond the headlines

 
Recently these headlines or some variations appeared in news sources:

Man's worst friend: Average dog causes 2,000
family arguments in its lifetime
Source

Dogs cause 156 family arguments every year
Source

Dogs cause three family arguments every week
Source

 

Wow…dogs must be the worst thing ever to happen to family life if we are to believe these headlines.

According to a study by a UK pet insurance company, arguments range from what to do with the dog while going away, who should walk the dog, whether the dog should be allowed on the furniture, what kind of discipline should be used, how much money is spent, who should clean up the messes, and destruction caused by the dog.

Sadly, 26 per cent of these dog owners have at some point considered getting rid of their dog,

But wait…

There’s more.

Buried in some (but not all) of the stories is this sentence:

The study also revealed while the majority of family arguments are more likely to be about the children than the family pet, 14 per cent of owners reckon they row about the dog more than their children.

So--- buried in a subordinate clause near the end of some of the stories, we find that the majority of family arguments are about children, not dogs after all. Apparently 86% of the people questioned didn't think the dog was that much of a problem.

Most of the stories just omitted this fact about the study.

Ah, the ethics of professional journalists.

The only real conclusion seems to be that there are simply a lot of family arguments. But that probably wouldn't be "newsworthy."

The Dogs of President Eisenhower

Before becoming the 34th president of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower was a five star general. During World War II he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe.

Eisenhower grew up in a poor family on a farm near Abilene, Texas. He was the third of seven brothers, all of whom were nicknamed “Ike.”

He is pictured between his parents and two younger brothers with his little childhood dog, Flip, looking on.

At one time, paraphrasing Mark Twain, he said,” What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog.” He may have had this dog in mind.

Because he didn’t have enough money for college, Eisenhower joined the military and graduated from West Point. After he retired from the army he served as president of Columbia University before being elected president of the United States in 1952.

While in the White House, Ike and his wife, Mamie, kept two pets, a parakeet and a Weimeraner named Heidi.

Weimeraners were quite rare in the United States during this time. The breed had been developed by the Court of Weimar in the early 1900’s as one of Germany’s top sporting dogs and companion animals.

The breeders were very selective about who owned one of their dogs. For many years any Weimeraner sold to an American was sterilized to prevent a breeder from changing the basic attributes of the breed, their hunting skills and  pleasant, loyal dispositions.

When World War II began, the breeders were concerned about the safety of the dogs. If a kennel were bombed, the breed could be wiped out forever. So before and after the war breeding pairs of Weimeraners were allowed to go the United States.

Heidi was a gift to the Eisenhowers from friends, Arthur Summerfield and his wife. Eisenhower sent this letter to them:

”Heidi is definitely an asset to life in the White House. She cavorts on the South Lawn at a great rate, with such important projects as chasing squirrels and investigating what might be under bushes.

"She is beautiful and well-behaved (occasionally she tends toward stubbornness but is then immediately apologetic about it). And she is extremely affectionate and seemingly happy. I am constantly indebted to you both for giving her to me . . .” Source

All the Presidents' Dogs

Washington   Jefferson  Lincoln   Harding  T. Roosevelt  Coolidge   Hoover  FDR   Truman  Nixon   Kennedy    L. Johnson   Ford   Carter  Reagan  Clinton

Humans and dogs—best friends for 33,000 years?

Two recent discoveries of dog skulls, one in  Belgium and one in Siberia suggest that the domestication of the dog may go back much further than we had thought.

The discoveries further suggest that humans domesticated dogs at different geographical locations rather than at a single place as was previously believed.

The skull found in Belgium (left) is thought to belong to a large canine that lived 31,700 years ago and ate horse, musk, ox and reindeer.

The Siberian skull (right) dates back 33,000 years and the dog is believed to have resembled the Siberian Husky (what else?) but was somewhat larger.

The discoveries push back the date for the earliest dog by 17,700 years.

 

Rescued Afghanistan puppy joins wounded soldier

Smoke the puppy became an instant sensation when this photo of him in the backpack of Donny Eslinger appeared on the cover of Army Life magazine.

Eslinger had rescued the friendly puppy last August and stashed him in his backpack for a hike back to a checkpoint in Afghanistan where he was stationed.

According to Eslinger’s father, a sheriff in Florida, “[Smoke] didn’t whimper or whine. He was going into MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) heaven."

A little more than a month later Eslinger was hit by mortar fire suffering life threatening wounds, a head and chest injury, a broken leg and ribs, and a lost spleen. He underwent surgery and was kept in a medically induced coma before being transferred to Walter Reed army hospital in Maryland.There he received a Purple Heart from President Obama.

After spending several weeks at a veterans’ hospital in Florida, Donny Eslinger was returned last week to Walter Reed for more surgery. His father left Florida to join his son at Walter Reed, taking with him a companion, Smoke.

The 7-month-old puppy arrived at Orlando International Airport last Wednesday, five months to the day after Eslinger's fellow soldiers in Afghanistan set in motion plans to send the dog to him.

Smoke will be boarded with a nearby veterinarian so that he can make frequent visits to Eslinger who is expected to make a full recovery. Source

Animal rights terrorists strike California cattle ranch

Not satisfied with throwing fake blood on women and releasing defenseless animals into the wild to suffer horrible deaths, animal rights terrorists continue their senseless attacks against people and property.

Earlier this month the ALF (Animal Liberation Front) set up containers of kerosene with digital timers to set off a fire at Harris Ranch, one of the country’s largest family owned farming operations, located in California's Central Valley. The fire which started just before dawn destroyed fourteen trucks and damaged several pieces of farm equipment.

The ALF has been around since the ‘70’s. With their partner in crime the ELF (Environmental Liberation Front) and with financial support from PETA, they have destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars in personal property and terrorized families all over the world.

Like all terrorists groups, these are worse than just common criminals. They are using terror to undermine our sense of security and to change the world to conform to their own warped vision. With their extremist views they have no regard for the lives of people or animals and no regard for property rights.

Through a website that supposedly only “reports” on their activities they explained how they got the idea for the act of arson from the movie Home Alone 2 and bragged, " …we were extremely pleased to see that all 14 trucks were a total loss with some being completely melted to the ground."

The message ended with the words, “…until next time.”

I had hoped to be able to report that they had been caught quickly, but domestic terrorists are small loose-knit groups of sociopaths. They don’t carry membership cards, have conventions, or hold bake sales.

It seems that now their project is to attack the producers of the world food source.

John Harris, a kind and generous man whose family owns the farm, said it well:

We must live in a society that is safe for all and no one can tolerate violence such as this. ALF and similar terrorist groups pose a real threat, and I am confident that the many law enforcement agencies working on this case will bring them to justice soon. Source

Rocky the Boxer swallows – You won’t believe it.

I did say I wasn’t going to write any more posts about dogs swallowing stuff. But this one is just too bizarre.

It comes from a UK newspaper. I am assuming the writer wasn't hitting the lager heavily when she wrote the story.

Besides, this is Monday Mischief and whatever mischief your dogs get into probably can’t surpass Rocky’s achievement.

Pauline Dunthorne, a teaching assistant from Norwich, put down a Teflon baking sheet which was on top of a tray for Rocky, a 12-year-old Boxer, to lick up the steak juices. The next thing she knew he had swallowed the 15 by 10 inch sheet whole.

“I picked up the tray and realised the baking sheet had gone. I looked at Rocky and he just swallowed it down. I couldn’t believe it.

“I rang the vets and they said to keep an eye on him for two or three days but there was no way I could have done anything to help him.”

The veterinarian gave him two injections and the baking tray came back up.

“Out it shot,” said Mrs Dunthorne. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It would’ve killed him if I hadn’t taken him to the vets.”

Mrs Dunthorne said Rocky has been “fine” since the incident.

Crap.

San Francisco 49ers - 17

New York Giants- 20

in OT

 

Volkswagen and Star Wars—two brilliant Super Bowl commercials

The Bark Side

My dogs loved this commercial from start to finish.
This is Volkswagen’s teaser ad
for the Super Bowl.

 

The Force

I didn’t think they could outdo last year’s Super Bowl commercial,
but I think they might.