Wordless Wednesday February 11 2015

A new Elka-ism

Every once in awhile, the quirks of this dog just amuse me to no end. To some degree, I'm sure I'm "that" dog owner, you know, the one who thinks her dog is the only one ever to do such a thing. But, this is why I blog, so there (or dlog [portmanteau of dog + blog], as my fiancé would have me say). I have a new one to share.

Wordless Wednesday July 23 2014

Product Review: Nerf Dog

Now that Elka is okay with squeaky toys, I'm always on the lookout for something that will both occupy her and last longer than five minutes. When I saw that Nerf had dog toys, I was optimistic. Perhaps too optimistic?

I tried a fetching orange and blue one first, the Nerf Dog Crunchable Ball, Blue. After that, we did the Nerf Dog Squeaker Football, Red/Black.

Can you guess which one lasted longer?

photo from Amazon.com

vs. 

Wordless Wednesday March 5 2014

Wordless Wednesday February 12 2014

Fun in the Snow

So, you may have heard about the snow we got. It was quite a lot, in fact. Not five feet, nothing of Canadian scope, but a good 10 or so inches.

An interesting thing about Elka is she doesn't like being cold, but she loves playing in snow.

It's that time of year again (....almost)

So, seeing as how it's almost the end of October (finally!), I've been thinking about National Novel Writing Month.

As happens to me very often, I had an idea at the beginning of the month  (an urban fantasy novel about an occult biker gang, to put it in a nutshell). I started planning it out a bit, did some reading, started watching Sons of Anarchy again (I'm only partway through season 2, no spoilers please!), that kind of thing. So I was ready, right? Then I looked up and it was only October 16. So.

Now I'm thinking of writing something that takes place at the Jersey Shore, where I'm from (surprise, right? Writing about a place I know). But of course there are ten days left before November. So. I still don't really know. And I may or may not have already started the other novel (also urban fantasy), which may or may not be cheating if I use it (it is).

So I need to lay in some toys/treats for Elka to occupy herself with so I can shoehorn some writing time in evenings after work. Remembering to freeze Kongs will help. Getting a couple new squeaky toys will help, as they only last so long. It's funny, Elka didn't used to like squeaky toys, but she sure does now! I can just watch her play with one, and they are an enforced "No, you play with that yourself" toy.

Any of you novelling this year? How does your dog occupy him or her self when you write?

Dogs make their own fun

There's no telling what toys Elka will like and play with, and what toys she'll hate.

The Unbreakoball is a great example. It certainly hasn't broken, because she hates it. Hilariously.

She likes squeaky toys now, though. When she was little, she seemed to think she was hurting them, perhaps because of the way we taught her bite inhibition (the yelp 'n' stop playing approach).

Wordless Wednesday July 10 2013

Wordless Wednesday June 19 2013

Playing Games

Elka and I have little games we play throughout the day. She doesn't really do "solo play", as she seems to think she needs to be in contact with one of us at all (or most) times. She also frequently doesn't play with only one toy at once, though that occasionally happens. With squeaky toys, we tend to tell her "I don't want that, it's yours" and then she'll go and play. Maybe Elka's just a really good sharer?

What is this "Frisbee" of which you speak?

So lately, I've been working to teach Elka how to play Frisbee.

Oh, she'll run and retrieve something very well. But run, catch something in the air, and bring it back? Well, that needed some work. See, her typical M.O. is to wait until something hits the ground, then pounce on it, then pick it up and shake it, and then bring it back. Then maybe she wants to tug it for a little while (which I discourage with tennis balls, as you may imagine. I've had to discourage it with frisbees as well).

But, I think we're actually making some progress!

I might as well share it too: Doberman Playing with Baby

Obviously, I feel the Doberman needs all the good press it can get. Well, within reason. I don't want a breed popularity explosion like the Dalmatian or the Chihuahua did after certain movies came out.

But, this has (or is perhaps in the process of?) gone viral and it's worth discussing.

Snow, and 500th post!

Wow, post 500! How time flies, right?

We've gotten a lot of snow here, last week and this week. It held off for a good long time, really; most of the time, in Central New York, we have snow long before December. Sometimes even on Halloween, which as a child I certainly would have hated (though many of my Halloweens were rainy).

Elka likes the snow quite a lot. She bounds around in it, and runs as fast as she can. She tells us that she needs to go out, even though we know she's "empty", as it were, so that she can play in the snow. I admit, as a grumpy grown up (I liked the snow until I had to do things like drive in it), I don't always want to suit up and go outside and get cold and wet. But there are times that I do, because her joy is totally worth it.

I am, however, always ready to go back inside sooner than she is.

Zippypaws Review!

I was approached by a representative of Zippypaws to do a review and offer a coupon code (Expires December 31!) to my readers.

Of course Elka is always happy to try out new toys, and I'm interested in seeing what's out there. According to the information that they sent me, Zippypaws designs and manufactures their toys in-house, so that the products are less expensive for dog owners. Well that's nice of them, isn't it? So frequently, I see toys that seem to cost an awful lot of money for what I know for a fact will be destroyed in short order, once it's delivered to Elka's waiting maw. They also have free shipping in the U.S. for orders over $10

Which begs the question, as Zippypaws sent me three stuffed toys with squeakers in them, how do they hold up?

Letting Elka just be a dog

There are times I think about all of the expectations that we have for Elka, and the expectations that dogs carry while trying to live in our society, and it's kind of overwhelming, really. I know that for me, sometimes  it's hard enough to remember all the social rules; dogs are really very smart, to do as well as they do.

There are times, though, I just have to let her be a dog. At the park especially, as I talked about in my recent sniffing post. Sniffing is important to dogs; their olfactory sense is just so strong as to be incomprehensible to me. You know what else is kind of a dog thing? Getting dirty.

Dog Treats From the Grocery Store

There are times Elka is picky about the treats handed to her.

Oh, she'll always take them, but whether she eats them is something else. The last time we were in Tractor Supply, she very nicely took the Milkbone from the cashier, and then set it down on the plastic bag loader (not even on the floor!) and looked at the lady, as if to say "All right, what else do you have?"

So, as a followup to my recent post about having found decent food in my grocery store, I also found decent treats. Just a few ingredients. They are, however, little crunchy bone shaped biscuits.

Elka, now and for the future (400th post!)

So, here we are. 400 posts! It sounds like a lot, doesn't it? I think it sounds like a lot.

I certainly didn't (and still don't) have a finite "arc" for this blog in mind, so I guess it was inevitable I'd make 400 and beyond. I just wanted to mark the milestone!

So, what to talk about? Woefully unprepared, I asked on Twitter what the topic ought to be, and maggie68d helped me out. Elka, obviously. Her achievements and what we've been working on. I thought it a splendid plan!

Elka and her puddle, round 2 (now with more splashing!)

A slightly longer video this time, and one that's certainly more representative of how Elka typically plays in her puddle!

She runs towards me at the end there because there's a pavilion right next to the puddle, with public restrooms, and a jogger had just emerged from one of them.