Still Buffaloed

Happily, I'm still satisfied with how Elka does on the Blue Buffalo food. All of the flavors, in fact; she's tried the Salmon, the Duck, and the Chicken. I ran out of my initial bag, bought after the initial recall panic, and the Mr. Chewy bag that I got, and so headed off to the Feed and Seed to get some more (seriously, this dog just keeps eating! Granted, they were the smaller bags.)

I was also happy to walk into the store, go to the Blue Buffalo section, and see this sign:

Elka wasn't unhappy, precisely. She was far more interested in eating the food than wearing the bandana.

Rain Rain, Go Away

So, I don't know about you guys, but our weather has been miserable. Rain just about every day, for a week.

I know we need rain for crops, yadda yadda (though the way the weather has been up and down, I hear tell that New York State has lost something ridiculous like 70% of this year's apple crop!), but it really puts a damper (hah) on many activities, such as long sunny walks in the park, and having headache free time.

I figured I'd just post a couple of old walk pictures, and hope that sunny days are coming soon.

Elka in the little creek at the park:

Dictionary Doberman

Because I'm a nerd, I sometimes look at the dictionary for fun.

Because I'm a tremendous nerd, I sometimes look up Doberman in the dictionary.

This time around, I was so struck by the picture that I didn't even read the definition. I'm sure it said something like "breed that originated in Germany, developed by Karl Friedrich Louis Doberman."

The picture, though. No wonder Elka was accused of being a greyhound mix. The Doberman in the picture is rather...stout. It's hard to tell in the picture (sorry), but her tuckup is not all that pronounced. Her tail is a bit too short for my tastes, and she doesn't seem square.

I frequently wonder, in dictionaries and encyclopedias and dog breed books and dog training books, who are these dogs? That I've seen, there is rarely credit given. Wouldn't it be fantastic for dogs with Championships, working dog titles, or both, to be the Dobermans used in books of that sort? 

Camp NaNoWriMo June 2012: Going Rogue

So, a few times now, I've mentioned writing a dog training eBook (which I'll probably release as a hard copy print on demand book as well, because once you're already on Amazon, why not?). As such a thing has not yet materialized, you might have guessed that I've only been making gestures at it. It's the truth; sorry. (Actually, checking back, it was only February that I first mentioned it. Of this year. Whew.)

But, that's changing! See, It's CampNaNoWriMo time again, and the space science fiction novel that I started hasn't exactly...hatched. So, I'm going rogue. I haven't failed many NaNo's, or cheated, or gone rogue, but after November '10, where I spent two weeks hammering at a novel that wasn't ready yet, and switched in the middle to a delightful novel that all but wrote itself, but then ran out of time....yeah. One week is enough to know it's time to switch. Now.

So, tentatively titled "A Dog's Guide to Owner Training" on my Camp NaNoWriMo profile (I'm GingerGunlock, if there are any fellow Wrimos here), I'm only at 2191 words, but I did that yesterday. Evening. So I'm confident that I can have a cogent body of work done by the 31. That's the great thing about Camp NaNoWriMo...you get an extra day!

Product Review: The Unbreakoball

What's that you say? A ball guaranteed against destruction by your dog's tender mercies?  Yes, my friends, that is the Unbreakoball!

Considering all of the tennis balls we've gone through, I was more than willing to try something that was also a portmanteau.  That it's made in the USA is another definite bonus.

Wordless Wednesday June 6 2012

 Let's play a game!  Where's Gumby?

Want to Help Veterans Get Service Dogs? This Way is Easy!

The title says it all!

Dog Bless You, for every 1000 likes on their Facebook page, will donate a service dog to a veteran, through July 4.

Another organization, Paws and Stripes, makes this a double header by getting the service dogs to be trained from shelters. There's more than one way to save a life!

K9sforwarriors.org also helps veterans by providing them with service dogs! It's great to know that there are so  many organizations helping out so many people.

(image from Pawsandstripes.org)