Monday Mischief December 12

Is it Monday again already?

Well, I'm being a little mischievous in posting this.

Looks like it would be an interesting book to read, yes? Well. It was written in 1986, by a Veterinarian, though not a Veterinary Behaviorist. So, when I got to the part where Ms. Milani was discussing how dogs don't think and dogs don't have feelings, I was done. That was pretty early. My own feelings aside, if dogs (and other animals) don't think, then how is it we measure and rely upon their problem solving skills in certain instances (SAR and military work, among others). If dogs don't think and have feelings, then how is it that they develop Post Traumatic Stress?

Well. An anonymous dog shared my opinion, evidently. Though also showed great restraint.

Above is the only damaged page that I could see in the book. Not the cover, none of the pages with words on them. Just that first blank inner page, as though to instill the warning "Here be Monsters".

Elka has never ever chewed a book, and for that I'm proud, happy, and grateful. But some books....

Dog Body Language: Photo example

I was taking pictures of Elka in her harness, when I got this picture. I'd asked her to sit, and she got up in between completing the cue and my getting the picture, so I asked for another sit.

See the lovely calming signals Elka is presenting? She turned her head, so she isn't looking right at me. Her tongue is doing that because I caught her at the beginning of a yawn. And she licked her chops after. 

Sorry, puppy, but "sit" does mean "sit".

Product Review: EZYDog Chest Plate Harness, Part One

Back in October (wow, that was two months ago. How did that happen?), Brady from EZYDog contacted a number of BlogPaws bloggers to see if they would like to review one of their products. This was a bit of kismet, as I was looking for a harness for Elka, that would function in the car with a seatbelt, and the EZYDog Chest Plate Harness is the one that I had sort of settled on (that, or getting a mucho expensive leather tracking/Schutzhund one, on the rationale that it would outlive us both).

So, delighted, I emailed Brady back, heck yes I would like to review! Could I get it in red? Of course!

Spreading the Good Word

I work at the library, and often, though perhaps not as frequently as you might thing, I have opportunity to talk with other dog owners. Today I had a particularly fulfilling conversation.

A woman came to the desk, looking slightly lost. She said "I've tried to look this up in the catalog, but maybe I'm spelling his name wrong? It's a dog trainer. Cesar something..."

As you might imagine, from reading my blog, I flinched a bit. But, I looked him up, and explained that the name wasn't spelled like "Julius Caesar". I gave her a piece of paper with the call number, took a breath, and said "That's where you'll find his books, but may I make a few suggestions? I find his methods to be more coercive than strictly necessary, especially depending on the breed you're interested in. I have a Doberman, and they're just so smart, that kind of thing isn't necessary, and might backfire."

Monday Mischief December 5

It was a beautiful day yesterday, and in December, in Central New York, I certainly take what I can get.

I've had a lingering cold-flu thing for about two weeks, so you can imagine, my walks with Elka have suffered.  Well, certain other things have apparently suffered as a result. As in, the Doberman needs regular exercise in order to be able to access her brain!

Online Store Review: Mr. Chewy

Just before Thanksgiving, I got an email from a representative of Mr. Chewy.

He flattered me, which is always a great thing, saying "your blog speaks directly to our target demographic and you've clearly created an influential presence". This has been my goal to a degree, besides having an outlet for talking about Elka, and dogs, when nobody else I knew in person wanted to much hear about dogs anymore. I try to cover important topics, and things that are important to me. Brant at Mr. Chewy extended a coupon offer to me, so that I would check them out and review them here.


First step was, of course, to find out whether Mr. Chewy was in fact a real web site that is a store that sells people things, and not a scam. It is, in fact! 

Free Kibble!

There is a web site that I visit daily. Okay, well there are a number of them, but I want to tell you about this one specifically.  It is FreeKibble.com. The default is for dogs, but there is a cat portion as well.

The way it works is thus: if you go daily, and answer the trivia questions, they donate 10 free pieces of Halo pet food to shelter dogs and cats; here's the analysis of it on Dog Food Advisor. It isn't on Dog Food Analysis, that I could tell, but their search function can be wonky. It doesn't matter if you get the question right or wrong, you just have to go. 10 pieces of kibble isn't a lot, but if you count it out and look at it, it's better than nothing. Since Free Kibble started, many shelter meals have been provided through these donations.

In addition to that, they've just released their first book, Mimi and Maty to the Rescue! You can buy it on Amazon.com (linked below) and every purchase of the book donates FIVE BOWLS of food! Not pieces of kibble, bowls!  Also, for the first 100 copies sold, the Freekibble Foundation will donate 100 books to schools to "inspire young readers to help animals!"(link to the promo page on the Free Kibble site here). It looks like a cute book, and is certainly a great message and a good cause!