Tennis Balls: Contestant Number Eleven (well, sort of)

I mentioned in Tennis Balls: Contestant Number Ten that I would be doing something a little different for this next installment.

You see, I didn't find a tennis ball for this next one (though there is one on deck).  I found a tennis bone.

Elka's New Game

So, Elka and I have a pretty decent routine now, for our walks.

We get up, I do my best to get her to go potty at the house, and then we walk to the park.  I do what I can to keep her attention, and keep the leash loose (and discovered today that she really loves my homemade turkey meatballs), and she does what she can to understand what I want, and we get to the park.

At the park, the long line goes on, and as I discussed in The Rules, we're much more relaxed with the long line.  It's how I practice recall (again, turkey meatballs are apparently The Way), and mostly I just want her to not pull and to keep up.

Breed prejudices: they always surprise me

I was at the Dollar Tree the other day.  I frequently go there for rope toys for Elka; they have a variety of lengths and knots and what have you, and as I've mentioned, she loves playing Tug.  She'll also chew up a rope, if I just let her have it and am not vigilant, so it's best if they're cheap, really.  Many of the Dollar Tree ones appear to be undyed cotton, which is a bonus.

As I was leaving Dollar Tree, I glanced at the quarter machines that they have at the front.  Typically ,it's one machine full of varying fake tattoos and then the rest are plastic junk.  I've always had a love for these machines, and as a grownup, I don't need to beg quarters off of anybody should I want to indulge.  There are worse things, really.

But, this time, the fake tattoo ones included an interesting selection: Dawgz  4 Life (picture from the distributer's site, http://www.ssmvending.com/index.html, not owned by me in any way)

Where do puppies come from?

I was in a mall today, and that mall had a pet store. Not just a pet supply store, but one that had that row of cages, separated by windows, with puppies in them.  You know the type.

There was a Puggle, and a Morkie, and a Chihuahua, and a Pomeranian (though the people standing next to me thought it wasn't a purebred Pom; I thought it was, but held my tongue).  There was a Bernese Mountain Dog, and an English Bulldog.  The smaller breeds were all $700, but Berner was $1999, and the English Bulldog had a sign that said "Serious inquiries only."

So, where did these puppies come from?

Collared!

So, last Friday I posted about collarless dogs; today, I'm going to talk about collars. As I mentioned in the previous post, Elka has worn a collar since she came home to us.  Well, I've noticed lately that her collar, though leather and probably meant to last quite a good while longer, has seemed stiff and worn.  There isn't any cracking, though we did have to re-glue the liner (which is what precipitated the naked dog pictures).

Book Review: Bones Would Rain From the Sky, by Suzanne Clothier

I read a lot of dog books.

I read enough dog books that when people ask me to recommend a good book that came out lately, I really have to search my mind for something I've read in the past month that wasn't a dog book.  Not a whole lot of people talk to me about books anyway, so I've let it go.

Why do I read this many dog books?  Clearly there's a point at which they become repetitive.  Also, if they're training books, I may not agree with methods, or it maybe be skills that Elka already has.  While these things are frequently the case, and sometimes I don't make it through them, other times I find one that I love. And reading a really good dog book makes me more mindful, both of myself, and my dog.  Bones Would Rain From the Sky, by Suzanne Clothier, is one of these.

Tennis Balls: Contestant Number Ten!

Wow, ten different tennis ball brands. Or as different as dog tennis balls get. I'm beginning to think that there's some Uberfactory that makes all of these tennis balls that have doggie paws on them, and then the different companies distribute them, with their own labels. I actually had to go back through the blog to make sure I hadn't doubled up.

This next victim is from Walgreens, made of the now-familiar, extremely smelly rubber that doesn't bounce.  Oh yeah, and the bag was dirty.