CSI: Takoma Park

Back Yard, 7:10AM

The home owner (that would be me) steps into the yard to check on the dogs, Pappy and Molly, during their morning play date. The scene is dark, and there is a cool nip in the fall morning air. The home owner shreiks in horror as he sees the three-foot shrub (the bottom branches seen to the right of the downspout in this photo) reduced to a stump surrounded by a pile of chewed branches. The home owner scolds the dogs who stare at him blankly, and then crumples in a shuddering heap as a sense of futility passes over him.

This is the evidence we have collected thusfar: a) two days ago a witness (me again) found the dogs quarreling over a branch from the same bush; b) Pappy has some early history of chewing branches off of the small maple tree, but has been pretty good by himself out back for some time; c) Molly likes to rest in the vicinity of this bush; d) Molly has a bit of a chewing issue, and has to be crated at home during the day because of it. The circumstantial evidence points to involvement by Molly, with possible complicity from Pappy.

Last year, before we got Pappy, we pumped a lot of moolah into landscaping the yard. Since the wonderous Pappy came into our lives, this investment has been in decline-- the hostas are pulp, there are well worn paths through the lariope and ivy, and bushes have lost many branches to fast moving dogs. To have this disappointment driven home by a wanton shrub mauling was pretty distressing this morning. I'm left pondering the wisdom of these manic morning play dates. Molly's owner was pretty sad about it too.

The worst thing is that Molly's favorite pink ball (seen here again) might have prevented all this-- once that is in her mouth, she rarely puts it down. Molly routinely attempts to smuggle the ball out of the yard when we are taking her home, and it occurs to me that it disappeared earlier this week when I took it from her and left it out front. Note to self... must replace ball.

Good Boys

I came across this Onion article... and it's Pappy that is a good boy. I'm glad we settled that.

Nation's Dog Owners Demand To Know Who's A Good Boy

WASHINGTON, DC-Bearing facial expressions ranging from goofy to adoring, dog owners from across the U.S. gathered in the nation's capital Monday, demanding to know who's a good boy.

Blogger's Block

I'm kind of out of ideas for today's entry. I was pondering a witty rendition of "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria" from The Sound of Music, but ran into an impasse when I realized "Pappy" only has two syllables. So, instead, here's Pappy's head on The Hulk's body (The Pulk? The Happy?). Pappy's more visual than lyrical anyway.

Re-sentimentalizing Pappy's Blog

In reading other dog blogs, I realize that Pappy's blog is missing much of the gooey warmth and dog-as-child references of other sites. This is due to local regulations in the DC metro area requiring clear delineation between pet and owner in all public statements. I can assure you that, behind closed doors, we have all of the shmoopy talk of other doggy households.

With this in mind, you may re-sentimentalize Pappy's blog for your personal use with the following procedure:

• Copy the full text of Pappy's blog into a text editor.
• Search all instances of "Pappy" and replace with "Sweetie Boy".
• Search all instances of "dog" and replace with "fur-son".

Daily Puppy Unfair!

Color me outraged. Each day the Daily Puppy posts an adorable poppet on their pages. Yes, they have a few rescues and mixes, so I can't knock them for being totally elitist. But what about those bazillions of older dogs! Why fuel the cult of puppyism dominating our land and undermining our shelters?

The main source of my fury is that we got Pappy at one year, and don't even have a picture of his puppyhood. So he can't earn his rightful place as "Most Unconventionally Good Looking Dog for Life" at the top of the Daily Puppy home page. Yes, they do have an adult dog page as a consolation prize for puppies past their prime, but the only visitors are people who got lost trying to find the puppy of the day.

So I doctored up a photo of Pappy (sitting in the mud pit that is our back yard) as a reconstruction of the adorable puppy Pappy in the lovely back yard we'd have if we never let him use it. I hope this persuades you that Daily Puppy can end their search for the dog beautiful. And y'all can bow down too.

Psyching Up for Winter Walks

For the dog owner in northern climes, the prospect of winter has you staring down the double barrels of freezing cold dog walks and extreme guilt over cutting them short. For me, the recipe for cooking up some enthusiasm for walks in the bitter weather is the following: get an audio player and listen to good audio books. I find myself anxious to get out there and listen to the next chapter, and it takes my mind off of the conditions.

I'm not sure many people are aware of this, but an increasing number of public library systems, including ours in Montgomery County, Maryland, have relationships with online audio book services like Netlibrary.com. All you need is a library card, and you can create a free account to "check out" audio books to download to a computer or audio player for several weeks. You aren't necessarily going to find all the bestsellers there, but I find plenty of interesting books. You can also borrow books on CD from the library, but ripping these to a digital audio player is some trouble and is of questionable legality.

You need a digital audio player supporting the appropriate Digital Rights Management (for copy protection) for the audio download service you are using-- for example, an iPod doesn't have the PlaysForSure DRM support needed for NetLibrary, while other players may not be able to play iTunes downloads. I use an inexpensive Creative Zen Nano player, and it works very well with content from Netlibrary.

Quiet Waters Dog Park: Fact or Fiction?

After taking Pappy to the regular dog park this morning, we headed out to Quiet Waters Dog Park in Annapolis with my auntie.

When Quiet Waters is mentioned among dog owners in our area, it is spoken of with such reverence. "There are separate areas for big and little dogs", "they have a dog beach", "there are miles of trails". A lot of people head out there with the notion that this is some pet Disney World, and some come back a little disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, I looove the park. It's about a mile from my aunt's house, so we go for a visit, bundle the dogs into the car, and head on out to the park. And, if you have a swimmer, it has one of the few beaches in striking distance of DC which allow dogs (and has nice pet showers nearby). In an over-regulated, over-populated region like ours, this is really hard to come by.

But the truth is that the beach is only a couple of hundred feet long, and can be crowded. The separate big/little dog areas are nice and big, but not categorically different from dog exercise areas nearer our house. Ditto the walking trails. It's a pretty terrific park, just don't be picturing a pet utopia like Dog Island (more on Dog Island at Snopes.com).

A Sixth Sense for Spew

If you are not yet a dog owner, you just might want to stop reading now. My wife is not quick to wake up, but she has an unfortunate sensitivity to the strains of Pappy's recent late night heaves. She's been instantly tuned in when Pappy has been "looking for O'Rourke" in the wee hours-- for some reason always on the carpeting on the second from the top step. There have been a couple of incidents this week.

He's quick to (really, turn back now if you want to maintain your rosy picture of Pappy) lap it up, so she doesn't get a good look at what's disagreeing with him. I'm a bit concerned that he's developing an allergy to his food, but this is happening five or ten hours after feeding. He's still energetic and in good spirits, so I don't think he's ill. Maybe it's just all the stuffing from his toys.

Celebrity Trendsetter

I'm not sure Pappy actually invented the tousle haired look, but he certainly sets the standard. He's got full-body bed head.

Grim Protector

As Pappy took me on a walk through the ominously dark park last night, we stumbled on someone in the gloom. A big guy in a hoodie, a goon really, was practicing Kung Fu moves on a sapling in the pitch black. I was a bit leery of him, but Pappy just went off on the guy. I halfheartedly told Pappy to quiet down, but was secretly kind of pleased. My wife often asks herself whether he would protect us in a dangerous situation, and it looks like Pappy's our 36-pound badass. You'd never know it to meet him-- normally he has trouble keeping his tail from wagging.

The Passing of the Ayatollah

It looks like some snafu has knocked the Ayatollah Mugsy's blog out of commission. I may have to convert from the Pug Life Ministries to The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I hope my credits transfer.

By the way, for those of you curious about the FSM's Pastafarian movement but have a limited attention span, there's a nice little Flash thingy here.

How Does Pappy Chase Balls at Night?

Pappy is always standing at the sliding door to the back yard, pining to go outside and chase a ball after dinner. Now, in the heart of the Fall, this takes place in total darkness. When we first tried this I was sure that he'd lose the ball immediately, followed by him searching frantically with his tail whisking in circles and the occasional whine. Then, I envisioned, we'd be done until we found the ball the next morning.

But this isn't what happened. He was retreiving balls in the pitch black. He was snatching a ball out of mid-air, when I couldn't even find it after he dropped it at my feet. So I asked myself how he did that. A dog's bionic hearing is great, but it isn't radar. Hearing a ball's bounce is helpful, but won't tell you its trajectory and he was catching them on the fly. Smell is great for finding stationary balls, but there's some latency in scent that isn't going be as helpful in chasing them in motion.

So it had to be something to do with sight. But how can a dog who can't see the treat on the floor in front of him see a ball at night? Once, on a walk, he nearly desocketed my arm chasing after a pipe sticking out of the ground that stood a little too much like a squirrel. I looked up a couple of articles on dog sight here and here. Though dogs don't just see in black and white, their vision is only dichromatic (blue/yellow) and they don't distinguish many colors well. Apparently their visual acuity also isn't great-- if a human's vision is 20/20, a typical dog may only see from 20 feet what the person sees from 75 feet. But dogs have great night vision. First off, they have a much higher ratio of rods to cones than humans-- these are the high-definition, motion sensitive, black and white receptors in the retina. Humans have greater concentrations of rods in the peripheral vision, sometimes making it easier to see things at night by not looking directly at them. Dogs also have a "tapitum lucidum," a reflective layer behind the photoreceptors. This is what gives them the creepy glowing eyes at night. With the extra reflective layer, somehow the wavelength of dim light is enhanced providing better contrast.

Bottom line... looks like I am going out after dinner to toss balls all winter long.

Lucky Number 45

Having failed miserably in gaining Pappy the exposure he deserves via this blog, I have been shamelessly peddling his likeness to other web sites. The latest place is SluttyPuppy.com! Check lucky number 45 to see his soft core antics. The photo is from early in his career, and he did it just to put kibble on the table.

Am My Terrier Dum?

As a follow on to my bit on the dog IQ testing, I'd like to examine the question of whether Pappy, and terriers in general, are blithering ee-jits. The opening example Stanley Coren uses in "Intelligence of Dogs" is the case of the Dandy Dinmont Terrier. He describes them as dogs bred to go with reckless abandon into dens after foxes and otters as large or larger than themselves. One might admire their courage, but "a more intelligent dog would simply say... 'this is too dangerous'". He then goes on to infer that they are untrainable morons. Ooooh, them's fightin' words.

I'm not sure Pappy is exactly the kind of terrier that Coren had in mind. I mean he's a bit leggy to be headed down the fox hole. In keeping with his terrier kin, he is reckless and obsessive in chasing things, and has a prey-drive that won't quit. But he also has a pretty good instinct for self-preservation-- when he goes flying around after balls he never collides with anything, and he never rough-houses with a dog that might take it the wrong way. He's very distractable, but where there are treats involved he has total focus. He's not well trained, but he's certainly not untrainable.

As Temperatures Drop Dogs Go Crazy, Eat Each Other

Okay, the eating each other part is probably an overstatement. But neighbor dog, Molly, did chew off Pappy's leash on the way to the dog park. As I opened the car door to let the dogs out, I had a moment of baffled amazement as Pappy ran towards the gate with only three inches of leash attached to his collar.

Prior to the dog park, Pappy was absolutely nutzo all morning and others had similar stories about how manic their dogs had been. The moon isn't full, so the only reasonable explanation is the sudden cold snap in the Metro DC area. Even Ollie the Collie was wrestling rather than just doing color commentary (barking), so you know something singular was going on. Tonight we are supposed to have the first freeze, so I dread the Pappy antics tomorrow morning.

Since her first visit to the blog elicited the comment "I only saw text", this picture is in honor of Ollie's owner-- here's the old posting too. As usual, Pappy and Jack are at it; I think it's because they accessorize so well.

Rules of the Dog

Here are some classic dog rules. I'm proud to say, after eight months, we are still at number 6-- though Pappy sometimes likes to ease his front legs onto the sofa.

Selling Out

That's right, Pappy's Dog Blog has sold out. We've signed up with several dog blog registries in hopes of expanding the audience of the site beyond my wife and me. There's no denying it... we are a d-o-g b-l-o-g.

By the way, welcome to all of you folks arriving via DogsWithBlogs.com.au or WikiFido.com! Delighted to have you! Make yourself at home! Just ignore that selling out comment, 'kay?

To all of my long-time visitors, I can promise the same bitter cynicism mixed into the unabashed, mooshy, dog-love articles. We won't pander to dog owners, because we want to retain our very tiny crossover demographic of normal humans. This is in keeping with our mission of sucking all of you into adopting your own dog so that you too have something to blog about. By the way, have you visited Petfinder.com lately?

How Smart Is Your Dog?

In Stanley Coren's "Intelligence of Dogs" he proposes a series of tests to measure your dog's intelligence. There are some folks out there that get a little steamed about the real-world applicability of these tests, but you have to suspect that their dogs didn't do so well. To me, it looks like they'd be fun for most dogs and owners.

This is a quick summary of the tests listed in the book:

• Act like you are taking the dog for a walk (get the leash, keys, coat) without walking towards the door. Does the dog race to you or the door in clear anticipation of the walk?
• Let the dog see you put a treat under an empty can. Does the dog knock over the can to get to the treat?
• Rearrange five pieces of furniture in a room when the dog is out of the house. Does the dog notice the difference and start investigating?
• Put a towel over the dog's head. Does the dog free himself within fifteen seconds?
• Stare intently at your dog for a few seconds, then smile broadly. Does the dog come to you or start wagging his tail?
• Let the dog see you put a hand towel over a treat. Does he retrieve the treat within fifteen seconds?
• Let the dog see you put a treat in the corner of a room, then lead him out of the room for a couple of seconds. When you let him back in does he go straight to the treat?
• The same as the previous test, only take the dog from the room for five minutes.
• Set up or use a table too low for the dog to get his head under, and place a treat underneath. Can he figure out how to use his paws to get to the treat?
• Call to the dog with a nonsense word twice, then call to him with his name. Does he wait until his name is called to come?

There are a couple of more tests that are hard to summarize in brief. The links here and here describe subsets of Coren's tests in more detail, including scoring.

In hopes of getting a leg up on the actual IQ tests, we tried an experiment with Pappy (I don't see anything wrong with getting a little advance practice, after all they have SAT prep classes). With him watching carefully, we dropped a small hand towel over a beloved tennis ball. He then started looking around everywhere in amazement as if he had witnessed an extraordinary disappearing act, completely oblivious to the big lump under the towel. I then recalled that, after a bath, he'll just stand there with the towel draped over his head and his tail wagging-- doesn't look like he'd do too well on that test either. I'm thinking he may not be one of the "high-flyers" on this doggy IQ test, but he's popular at the dog park and he sure is good looking.

Do We Have A Winner?

Following up on my earlier posting, I am pretty taken with this entry someone put in the Puplife Halloween competition. The down side is that I don't think it's homemade, so we may see a few more lobsters before all is said and done.

A Pappy of Your Own...

...or rather a Papette.

Every once in a while I like to trawl Petfinder.com to recall the excitment of searching for our perfect dog-- a woman at the dog park said she gets the kind of thrill from adoption sites that others get from internet porn. Today I came across this adoptable girl, Daisy. She looks like she has a lot of the old Pappy charm, and probably can see a bit better without so much grizzled brow.

The Taunt

Well it's the Columbus Day holiday, so we had puppy Molly over for an extended play date this morning. There's something really primal about their favorite game, keep-away; as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Competing Blogs

Many dog blogs are written by wacky owners in the persona of their pup-- "my people are sooo cwazy and I love tweats." It sometimes works, like here and here, but it can get stale pretty quickly. I came across a more interesting, if not too frequently updated, blog about Thai street dogs here. Their gritty-but-happy stories, sort of a low-rent "Archy and Mehitabel", make Pappy's posh suburban lifestyle seem *yawn*. We're going to have to get Pappy some better adventures, or at least make some up.

By the way, if you want to see what a blog entry from a dog would actually look like, here it is:

l

(This was the product of ten minutes' work trying to get Pappy to walk across the keyboard or drop a ball on it. It's great that he is so disinclined to messing with our stuff, but it's not looking good for him typing the works of Shakespeare.)

Boo!

With Halloween fast approaching, BuyCostumes.com is flogging outfits for pets. Now, I'm not a big one for dressing up fido. In fact, I have strong reservations about sites whose raison d'être is to host embarassing photos of dogs in togs. But Pappy would look sharp in some cowboy duds.

Sadly, the pickings in western wear for your pets are pretty thin. The only cowboy I see is this Woody outfit, and it's really dorky-- might as well just put on a bandana and call it a day. This Wonder Woman outfit is fabulous, but Pappy would never be able to show his face at the dog park again.



Not that I'm gonna do it, but if you dressed up your dog you could enter him in the contest here.

Be a Part of It All!

After brief despair following the temporary failure of Google searches on Pappy's Blog, we are now back and hungrier than ever. If you want to be part of the phenomenon that is Pappy and you have a web site, this is your chance. You can now link to Pappy's Dog Blog on your site, and have this attractive icon appearing on your page.

All you need to do is embed the following HTML code somewhere on your web page, and you can consider yourself a full-fledged member of the Pappy Fan Club... for life.
<a href="http://pappys-blog.blogspot.com" target="_top"><img src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/5749/3500/1600/PappysBlogTag.0.gif" width="176" height="62" alt="Pappy's Dog Blog!" border="0" align="BOTTOM" /></a>

Angry Nitwits Sue Dog Talent Agency

I feel these owners' pain. It's entirely unfair when your unconventionally good looking dog doesn't make it to the big time.

Link.

Pappies of the Internet

I spent some time reviewing a Google image search of "Pappy", and did a thorough analysis of each entry's relevance to our own Pappy. In descending order, we have the following:

10. Pappy the Clown. Clowns are just plain creepy.	9. This is some feature of the Antarctic's Boyd Glacier called Pappy-- not the Pappy Shelf or something, just Pappy. Who knows what those scientists are thinking?	8. Poopdeck Pappy, Popeye's dad. Sorry, he hasn't got enough hair for a Pappy.
7. Pappy Yokum, of Li'l Abner fame. He got the beard, but he h'aint got the ha'r. See 8.	6. Yes, this is a dog picture called "Pappy", but this is no Pappy. I don't even think it is a boy. This is a Russian site, and I think the meaning of the name may have been lost in translation.	5. Pappy and Willy. This is definitely a classic Pappy, but I don't much like the way he's looking at Willy.
4. Saul, a.k.a. Pappy. Though I am pretty convinced all bulldogs should be named Churchill, this one could pass for a different kind of Pappy.	3. These are Pappy food bowls, from Milan. They really should consider a sponsorship deal with our dog-- he's very reasonable.	2. Pappy Boyington of the Black Sheep Squadron. He doesn't look much like Pappy. But he had a TV show about himself ("Baa Baa Black Sheep"), so he and Pappy have similar goals.

Then, of course, there's our boy at number 1:

Outdoors

With it getting darker earlier in the evening, we are beginning to have to race home from work to get in Pappy's walk along Sligo Creek. Soon I'm going to have to find an alternate route, because the path isn't lit for ambles in the pitch black.

When we let Pappy out in the back yard after dinner, he's staying out a lot longer. Used to be we'd give him ten minutes, and he'd be waiting by the back door to get back in. Now he's happy to be alone out there for thirty or forty minutes, poking around and gnawing on tennis balls in the dark. When I call to see if he wants to come in he just looks at me blankly, as if to say "if you aren't going to come out and throw the ball, I'm not sure what good you are to me". Teenagers...

Pappy's 15 Minutes Are Past...

"In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes" -- Andy Warhol

I mentioned in a past posting that Pappy's blog was Googlable. For a short time in the past couple of weeks you could even search on the terms Pappy's Dog Blog, unquoted, and we were number one in Google.

Suddenly, just in the last couple of days, pfffft-- we're gone. One or two searches work, but many of the old search terms that used to bring up Pappy's Blog are gone. Purged like yesterday's cache. This is probably how Kato Kaelin felt.

Edit: Weird...now the old searches work again on Google. There's something rinky-dink about that company. I don't know if they are going to make it.

Neoteny

One of the interesting ideas in my dog books is the concept of neoteny, or the retention of juvenile characteristics, as a common feature of almost all breeds of domesticated dogs (see this article). When you look at dogs in light of this, you really do see the "puppy-like" traits and behaviors.

One of the references used in a couple of the books concerns a 40-year experiment in domesticating Siberian Foxes to simplify their care in (originally) Soviet fur farms. After a just a few generations of selecting for tameness, the foxes underwent a number of seemingly unrelated physical and behavioral changes. They developed shorter snouts and floppy ears-- common to many canid puppies-- and multicolored fur, which undermined their value in the fur trade. They also took to barking, wagging their tails, and whining for joy at seeing a friendly face, which are behaviors unknown in wild foxes. They were just trying to make a less freaky fox, and they reinvented the dog in a person's lifetime.

There's a bit more about the study here.

Truman

In my old posting on the dog park crew, I missed out on one of the regulars-- Truman, the German Shorthaired Pointer. Pappy and Truman don't play together that much, but I like his style. There's something about the look and athleticism of these dogs that I admire. Not that I am knocking Pappy, mind you.

The downside to these dogs is that they need a lot of exercise. They shed more than you'd expect, like beagles, but Truman's owner says she just takes him outside with one of those grooming gloves and strips him down once in a while. She's now falling hard for a seven month old buddy for Truman at the Mid-Atlantic GSP Rescue site.

Ball Crisis

The Big Bad Woof is out of the little bouncy rubber balls that Pappy loves-- they are kind of like racquet balls. He's probably lost or demolished fifteen of these things. While going cold turkey he's making due with the methadone of ball chasing, vanilla-scented tennis balls.

Misery

Yesterday must have been a painful one for the Papster. The morning routine is that Molly, the Labradoodle from up the street, comes by for a mad frolic with Pappy before work. Since Pappy's and Molly's mutual dog walker recently injured her foot, she's been letting them race around our back yard at midday too. They get on pretty well.

But the heartbreaking part of our story is when we take Molly home on our way to work. Yesterday, we ran into a neighbor who wanted to discuss parking problems in the 'hood, and so I was standing out front with Molly in plain sight of our dining room window. Our neighbor didn't tune in to Pappy yipping and yowling like his world was ending. It was all I could do to slip away and end Pappy's torment.

We dreaded what destruction we might find when we got home, but our dog was a good boy-- as usual.

What Is It About Elizabeth Marshall whozits?

As I've mentioned, I've been listening to Temple Grandin's "Animals in Translation", and in it she paraphrases my least favorite dog-book hack, Elizabeth Marshall whozits (EMw) of "Hidden Life of Dogs" notoriety.

Given that I can accept when Temple Grandin, Stanley Coren, and most other animal authors tell their share of unbelievable whoppers over the course of their books, why do I dislike EMw so? I'm capable of taking in the information, weighing how well-founded it seems, and accepting the solid research while overlooking the idle speculation. Why can't I give EMw the benefit of this balanced assessment?

Probably because she starts off poorly in the introduction of "Hidden Life" with an explanation that she is no scientist, followed by a lame-brained rationalization of anthropomorphism of dog behavior as a vital element in her "research" method. To translate, she describes a tiny scrap of dog behavior and proceeds to weave it into a tapestry of thorough nonsense. She brags of logging thousands and thousands of hours observing her pets, yet she is blithely unaware when they dig an extensive den feet away from her back door. One of the scenes that drives me nuts is when she is trying to comfort her pregnant dog by telling her that she'll be fine, but the dog won't believe her. I sure don't believe her.

Amazon is always an interesting forum for rants about authors, though it's impossible to come away with a common opinion. Here are some links to people weighing in on EMw, Temple Grandin, and Stanley Coren. In looking over the reviews for EMw, I see that I posted one many moons ago-- can you guess which one?

Leash Rant

Before we adopted Pappy, I had a little attitude about dogs and owners. The unfamiliar dogs that most non-owners notice are the ones off-leash, and they make a strong impression. As the unrestrained dog approaches you there's the moment of alarm concerning his or her intent, and then there is the too-late, grating call from the owner: "don't worry he's friendly". Like nails on the chalkboard. Equally irritating is when they bellow at their dogs for not following every order, or the owner walks ahead pointedly ignoring the dog in some expectation that this will intimidate him into keeping up. This is the total surrender of responsibility as a pet owner.

An interesting thing at the dog park is that most of the owners, who love their dogs to run free and play, are probably more rabid about leash laws than non-owners. Many of them have been in bad situations with unleashed dogs. The simple fact is that, if your dog is on a leash and another dog isn't, there is almost nothing either owner can do to control the interaction or break up a fight. At the dog park you come to trust the owners who are willing to make the commitment to use an organized off-leash area, and you accept the risk. But every dog has its unpredictable moments.

Pappy And The Big Ball

Don't bother turning up your speakers for this one, because it's not a talkie. See Pappy's magnificent, if somewhat truncated, debut in an animated feature.

Animals in Translation

While doing chores this weekend I've been listening to an audiobook of Temple Grandin's "Animals in Translation". She is autistic, and the central premise of the book draws parallels between the thinking and perceiving of animals and autistic people.

She says that humans process out an extraordinary amount of sensory information that animals and autistic people can't-- we can't see the same things, so we have trouble understanding their reactions. She is a consultant in the humane handling of livestock. As a result, many of her examples concern why cattle balk at entering a chute (strong transition from bright to dark lighting), and why pigs wouldn't go down an alley (bicolor vision made a yellow ladder frighteningly bright).

It's more readable than my examples indicate, and I am just now getting into the more doggy portion of the book. For scientific tastes it probably oversimplifies the subject, but for the rest of us it is a good blend of research and storytelling.

"Marinating" The Ball

As noted before, Pappy is nuts for balls. But not just any balls. Though he finds his little bouncy rubber balls thrilling, somehow tennis balls keep calling him back.

This is because tennis balls have that absorbent fuzzy covering. At the dog park if I take a clean tennis ball and toss it, Pappy is likely to chase it feebly for a second and then let it go. But if he or any other dog has slobbered on the ball and rolled it in the mud, he cannot resist its siren call. We call this a "seasoned" ball. When he's taking a break, he takes the ball back to the water bowl, drops it in while he takes a drink, then looks at me to pick it out of the water and toss it again. This is a "marinated" ball.

The big problem with marinating at home is when he's managed to chew a hole in the ball. When he's finished drinking, he picks the ball out of the bowl and then traipses around the kitchen trailing a stream of water. My wife isn't crazy about this.

What Is He Thinking?

In his day-to-day affairs, Pappy often gives proof to the truism that "dogs are weird". Sometimes it's easy to interpret his actions in human terms-- "he's teasing that other dog with the toy". At other times it's possible to guess at the doggy motives for something-- "he's doing this or that because he's engaging in dominance behavior". The rest of the time, I suspect his activities would even mystify another dog. For example, give him a chicken chew or pizzle, and he'll carry the untouched treat in circles around the house crying and crying like his heart was going to break. It's really quite pathetic, but... huh?

At every opportunity, he chases balls in the back yard with lunatic abandon and twitch reflexes of a terrier. He seems to like it when I unpredictably toss it in different directions, often ricocheting it off the big tree in back. For some reason, he always snags the ricochet, heads for the tree to give it a thorough examination, and trots back to have me throw the ball again. Does he think the tree threw the ball? Is he hoping he can work out the trick so that he can get it to throw the ball when I'm not around? We may never know.

The Perch

When we first got Pappy we'd come home and find him on the living room sofa, his muzzle haloed by a puddle of drool. We quickly found out that, if we left open the bedroom door, he'd spend the day on his dog bed and stay off the furniture.

But for months his absolute favorite spot is his perch on the second floor landing. This is the perfect angle for someone two feet tall to see down the stairs, through the window on the front door, down the front stoop and stairs, all the way down to the street. As we approach the house in the evening we never fail to see, silhouetted against the upstairs window, his tail start wagging.

Nature: Dogs

We rented a DVD of old episodes of the PBS series "Nature" on dogs. It had a lot of sweet footage, and some unremarkable voiceovers-- it was certainly pleasant to watch, but not very memorable. The low point was having to listen to the quackery of Elizabeth Marshall whozits, to whom I have taken an unnatural dislike since reading the insipid "Hidden Life of Dogs". On the up side, there was a fantastic shot of a shepherd describing his dog commands to the camera, and three Border Collies in the distant background darting back and forth in response.

Poo

It seems a bit sophomoric to be talking about poo in a blog, but when you own a dog you deal with it constantly (or worse, don't deal with it). New parents get similarly intimate with poo, except 1) they stop having to deal with it after a few years, and 2) they generally have a nice padded nappie separating them from the stuff. There's only a thin layer of plastic separating typical dog owners from their pet's steaming output.

Pappy's an odd one when it comes to pooing. When he gets in the "posture", he is so pretzel'ed over that he is balancing on his front legs with his back legs almost off the ground in front of him. He constantly creeps forward while in the act to keep from hitting his front paws, so his nuggets are scattered in a semicircle over several feet. This makes it hard to find all the bits during daylight hours, and, with summer ending, our morning walks are already in the dark. You wouldn't think you'd need much equipment for this duty, but I'm going to have to start carrying a flashlight.

Cute, but Terrifying...

I am not sure this pup could crack me up much more.



They have two more movies of him here and here which continue the psychotic antics. He reminds me of this caterpillar.

Woohoo! We're Googlable!

I finally came up with a search term on Google that comes up with Pappy's blog as the #1 entry-- we're on our way. Not that this really helps much, since there's a pretty small market for Pappy news outside of my wife and I.

All Rain and No Play Makes Pappy a Crazy Boy...

A few weeks ago I was complaining about drought, but, fickle me, now I am complaining about rain. Or, at least, its effect on Pappy. The recent rain and the shorter days are making him STIR CRAZY because he isn't out running around as much. He's a bit frantic to get outside, whereupon he immediately demolishes any rubber ball in his possession-- then attempting to smuggle any mud-smeared fragments into the house so that he can rub them into the carpet and try to get us to toss them.

I hope he doesn't go bonkers and eat us over the long, dark winter, because it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Puggable

This is one of my favorite Youtube movies that doesn't include Pappy. Perhaps it is a bit long, but you can't leave footage like this on the cutting room floor.

Doorbell Woes

We have one of those wireless doorbells, where the button sends a radio signal setting off the chimes plugged into an electrical outlet. It works well enough, except each time there is any power surge the chimes go off-- but it only rings once, so we know it isn't someone at the door. Trouble is that Pappy doesn't know. Blender turns on... bing-bong, WOOF! Vacuum cleaner turns on... bing-bong, WOOF!

Last night we went to bed with the dryer running. When the end-of-cycle alarm went off, it was... bzzzt, bing-bong, WOOF! Five minutes later, bzzzt, bing-bong, WOOF! Repeat.

The Sunday Morning Crew at the Dog Park

We took Molly, our neighbor's puppy, with Pappy to the Wheaton Regional dog park for her first time this morning. Along with Pappy, these are the "Sunday Morning Crew" (minus Truman and some other key players) that she got to meet:

Jojo, aka "The Boss"	Jack, aka "The Muscle"
Sweet Pea, aka "Cutie"	Ollie, aka "The Enforcer"

And this is the classic scene at the dog park, with Pappy partaking in the "sniffing" of all new arrivals:

Owww-eee

After Riggs' Thursday night escapades hurdling fences to meet up with Pappy, I later heard that he ended up getting a couple of staples to close up some cuts on his inner leg. Ouch-- I guess he isn't quite clearing that chain link.

Wegman Video

I'd be lying if I didn't confess that William Wegman's photographs of his long-suffering Weimaraners didn't have an influence on my attempts at Pappy movies-- hey, if you can find a occupation that has you spending time with your dog, why not? I came across this Today show interview with Wegman on the internet. If you can suffer through the initial commercial, it's fun if not revelational.

Riggs, Redux

Last night, I let Pappy out for a late evening pee. It was dark out, but I saw Pappy streaking around the yard chasing something like... what... a big animal? It quickly dawned on me: Riggs! The canine Houdini had once again come bounding across fences into our yard. I took him back home before he got the idea of alighting from our yard again, and his owner said he'd been gone for an hour and a half.

Really, they should just tell us to stick Pappy in the back yard when Riggs is on the loose. Pappy is like a bug light for stray dogs.

Hallelujah! Let It Rain!

We've been sorely hurting for rain in our area, and it finally came with over four inches since the beginning of September. At the same time, Pappy's early morning play dates with puppy Molly have recommenced with great enthusiasm following a long vacation hiatus. Unfortunately the two happy events have collided with the unfortunate result of us having to wrangle two mud smeared dogs at 7:20AM on the way to work. I was walking around work all day yesterday with a giant muddy paw print on my dress shirt sleeve--- Molly!

Pappy in Rome

Since Pappy had to miss out on our vacation in Rome, we inserted him into a typical Roman street scene so that he could impress his friends at the dog park.

Gimme a Ticket for an Air-o-plane...

Yesterday we found ourselves again racing to get home to our pup following a trip.

At 4:30AM we woke up in Rome, and walked to Trastevere station to catch the train to the airport. At the airport we thought it odd that none of the escalators or moving walkways were working, only to find out that they were having a brownout. As we stood in the long line to check in, BZZzzuuuwww... blackout. The power came back on (we got to see all of the display screens booting Windows 95) and we finally checked in, but none of the bag conveyers were working. We stood around while they determined what to do with the checked luggage. We then did the OJ dash through the airport to get on our plane for Heathrow. In Heathrow we thought we had plenty of time to recheck for the next flight, but there was a long line for check-in. We used the computerized check-in, but then the line to drop off bags was gridlocked. With one and a half hours to go until flight, they pulled us out of line and said we had to race to the gate or we'd miss our flight. With one and a half hours? Then we saw the security line, which was fully one quarter mile back and forth and down the corridor. They pulled us out of that line before we even found the end of it, and raced us to a special line for a pre-screening... before we got into another serpentine line. I was getting frisked (they confiscated my lip balm) with five minutes to go until they were to close the gate. Another mad dash, in socks, to get to the very last gate at the far end of the terminal. Needless to say, we didn't get a lot of airport shopping done.

But when we finally got home, Pappy couldn't have been much happier to see us. And we were pretty happy to be home.

Drought, Drought, Drought

We had one substantial rainstorm this summer in the DC metro area, and that was at the beginning of July. Since then, almost nada.

The last few summers have been dry, but we managed to keep a few strands of grass alive. With the addition of the Papster storming around in back after balls (see "Confessions...", particularly the last scene with the plumes of dust), that's it for most of the grass. And the hostas have been creamed too... whenever he catches the ball, he runs back into that bed and stomps around for a while as a final flourish, like a wide receiver in the end zone.

Intelligence of Dogs

I got a copy of "Intelligence of Dogs" by Stanley Coren. While many dog authors, especially boneheads like Elizabeth Marshall whozits of "Hidden Life of Dogs" note, seem to attract mixed reviews, Coren seems to be widely respected. Other authors regularly quote or reference his books as source material. I've got a copy of another of his books, "How to Speak Dog" on the shelf, but I'm taking this one on the plane today and plan to make some headway.

Blog Redesign

Google has assimilated blogspot.com, and, in the spirit of all things Google, entered into a perpetual "beta" with new features. To enable these, I switched to a new site template-- and, presto, the all-new Pappy's blog!

It's pretty plain, but I like the extra space it provides for oversize youtube video links, and the archives are better organized. And, of course, who couldn't love that face... with its unconventional good looks.

Leash Not-So-Niceness

We're still struggling with Pappy and leash aggression (earlier post). I came across this article, which is a pitch-perfect description of our situation-- pulling and lunging towards the other dog... barking and growling... my excuses that Pappy is friendly. The worst part is that I have been losing my patience and feeling a lot less kindly towards our pup during these incidents.

Yesterday we got a Gentle Leader, having heard it can help with training. As long as we've had Pappy, we've used an Easy Walk harness from the same manufacturer, but it was never markedly effective at preventing his pulling or lunging-- generally he's good on the leash away from other dogs, so switching hadn't been a big priority.

He fussed and bridled a bit after we first tried the Gentle Leader, but from there it's been very encouraging. Already good on the leash, he doesn't pull at all with the new collar. We ran into Taz, barky miniature Schnauzer, on the trail. Pappy wasn't barking-- but mostly because he started struggling with the collar rather than fixating on the dog, so it was kind of a mixed victory. I wouldn't call him "trained" or "desensitized" yet, but it gave me hope that I can draw his focus away from the other dog and start that process.

Confessions of a Ball-Chasing Addict

The latest Pappy movie is a drama. If "Leaving Las Vegas" can net Nicholas Cage an Oscar, surely Pappy can rocket to stardom with his vice.

Dog Park Ink

Well, the Wheaton Regional dog park got some ink in this week's Gazette. The weekend before last, the Saturday early morning crew (including Ollie the Collie, Truman the German Short-Haired Pointer, Lucy and Joy the Boxers, Jack, Jojo, and Pappy among others) were all running around when a stranger, sans dog, entered the gate. Joy immediately bounded up and greeted him paws first.

He said he was writing an article on dog parks, and collected some thoughtful and pithy quotes from us. Last weekend folks at the dog park were all wondering what happened to the article, but my wife popped open today's paper and there it was. The crew will be so pleased.

Someone Else's Doggy Movie

We rented the DVD of "Shelter Dogs" this weekend. It's a documentary concerning a dog shelter in New York state. It's an engaging movie, but not incredibly polished. I agree with the key point-- that a no-kill policy for shelters isn't always the kindest solution-- but I am not sure that the events of the movie absolutely nailed the argument.

But it does show the difficulties of running a shelter, the devotion and dilemmas of the dog owners and staff, and some very sweet doggies. It definitely made us a little verklempt when we thought of Pappy in shelters, and his rescue by volunteers like these. He is still listed on the Last Chance page (as 'Fritz'). 8/27 Update: Last Chance finally updated the site and Pappy's pre-adoption pic is gone.

Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon...

...or not. Pappy's eight-month-old puppy pal, Molly, was spayed this week. As a result she has been noticeably absent for her traditional morning play dates with the Papster.

Pappy was neutered long before we got him. There is a "why-it's-good-for-your-pet" party line that is a little too zealous, but they are trying to battle some popular misconceptions regarding fixing your pet. The sad fact that was most convincing to me was the number of dogs up for adoption. When we were looking to adopt a dog, the selection of pets at the no-kill shelters was astoundingly large and turned over much too slowly (Pappy met Sierra and Milo at the beginning of June, and they are still listed at All-Breed Rescue). And, in the kill shelters, the selection of pets turns over much too quickly.

8/29 Update: Looks like Milo was adopted from All-Breed Rescue!

Pappy's "Gone With The Wind"

We finally have Pappy's masterwork-- the movie that generations will view and remember. "The Teletubbies Meet Pappy" has the sort of nuanced portrayals you don't expect from a 2 1/2 minute movie. It's sort of like "Kramer vs. Kramer" meets "Alien vs. Predator". Maybe with some "Itchy vs. Scratchy" thrown in.

This may be a little intense for teeny tinies.

Hordes from Texas

We had some visitors to our suburban Washington enclave, and Pappy was in on the action. My wife's junior high friend, her husband, and six kids DROVE up from Dallas to DC for a vacation. We had them by for breakfast Saturday morning.

I broke out the bouncy ball for a demo of Pappy's exceptional ball-obsessed reflexes and willingness to chase 'til he drops. Given that we have no good toys, tossing the ball kept the little ones occupied. Apart from how nice these kids are, one thing that impressed me is that all of them could throw. Tiny Elizabeth had the kind of arm you don't see on many little girls.

Dog Days

It's stinking hot, and it's amazing how this changes a dog's behavior. Pappy's morning play dates with Molly have devolved into a few seconds' faint-hearted wrasslin' followed by both dogs at the back door begging to come sit by the air-conditioning vent. You'd almost think the two of them were mellowing out.

Of course, Pappy will run himself to heat-exhaustion if there is a ball to be chased.

Water Dog

It could be the heat, it could be newfound love, but we couldn't drag Pappy out of the kiddie pool at the dog park this morning-- except to chase a tennis ball.

Last weekend we spent the afternoon by a pool with the Papster, and he was pretty nervous around the water. His ball would fall in, and he'd paw at it trying to get it out. Finally he started wading in on the steps to retreive his beloved toy. If you held the ball underwater, he'd even go dunking for it. Sadly, Pappy's unconventional good looks don't really hold up when he's sodden.

Uncle Fred

In many ways, the inspiration for adopting Pappy came from his Uncle Fred, a poodly mutt belonging to my mother-in-law. When visiting Texas, old Fred becomes our devoted sidekick. He may look like a lamby poufta, but he's got the heart to go after muscle-bound dogs thrice his size. Ah, good times!

Though the physical resemblance to Pappy might not be obvious, they are both lanky, medium-sized dogs with long snouts. Shave them, dye them the same color, and they could be twins.

Ga-ga for Other Dogs

For a good dog, Pappy does drive me crazy with one thing. It could be that he is young, it could be that he's a terrier, it could be that I am too nervous, but Pappy has a lunatic drive to engage every dog that he sees on a walk. From fifty feet the ears go up and he starts pulling towards the dog. At twenty feet I can no longer get his attention. At five feet, if he gets a chance to sniff with a calm dog, all is well. Otherwise, he's jumping, he's lunging, and-- no longer content to whine in frustration -- he's recently taken to barking and growling at strange dogs. I see so many dogs who can pass calmly, and I want me some of that.

He's good with other dogs at the off-leash dog park, so he's pretty well-socialized. The difference on-leash is that he's being restrained, and I am probably stressing him out. There are some interesting articles on clickersolutions.com about desensitizing dogs to other dogs, but I am still trying to do too many things at the same time. This morning Pappy had some success at staying calm while Taz, a sweet-but-barky mini schnauzer, passed by. But then Taz's owner stopped to chat and eventually the whole thing disintegrated into the typical conflagaration.

But it is always important to remember, as weird as your dog gets things could be so much worse.

What? A Pappy-less movie?

This is movie of our trip to the Scottish West Highland Way, which dragged us away from our beloved Papster in late June. Eight minutes of pure delight for people who want to go the 95 miles without all the walking and blood-sucking midges. (There are a couple of shots of a working Border Collie to justify me placing it in a dog blog.)

More Quotes

Following our quote from the Washington Post journalist, I have a new quote from the professional ranks on our dog's-eye view. On viewing Pappy's Blog, a Ph.D. psychologist and published expert on schizophrenia had this to say-- "We're upgrading you to 'code red' on our watch list."

You better have us on your watch list, because we are the ones to watch. All the way to the moon, baby.

Running Again

I stopped taking Pappy for runs a while back because of a nerve-wracking incident, but this weekend we went out and he seemed to enjoy it.

The incident took place the morning of the day we were flying to the UK on vacation. I decided to take Pappy on a run to keep him from getting too out of shape during our absence. Pappy always starts a run tugging at the lead, dawdles a bit up to the halfway point, and then he gets into the "zone" and races through the home stretch. At the halfway point that morning, he was really dragging. I then saw he had a pronounced limp. Suddenly I had visions of Pappy having a burst tendon with five hours until I had to leave for an international plane flight... and a newbie dog-sitter who we couldn't reach before we left... and a million things to do. I picked Pappy up and started carrying him with my mind racing to think how I was going to fit in a vet visit, and who I could talk to about follow up.

Pappy isn't big at 37 pounds, but he gets to be a load after a quarter mile-- but I forged along. He seemed to be having a good time licking the sweat off my face, and looked suspiciously comfortable. Finally I needed to take a breather, so I put him down and he was walking without much trouble. Within two hours, he was chasing balls around the back yard. The little stinker!

Our Hero

Turns out that while we were away on vacation, Pappy showed the heroic fortitude of Rin Tin Tin (minus the training and obedience).

While the housesitter had him out in the back yard, Pappy was barking incessantly at something. He's not a barker under normal circumstances, so a neighbor took a look outside... finding a suspicious stranger in my next-door neighbor's yard. When confronted, the stranger made some excuse about mistaking this house as having a basement apartment for rent, and then skulked off. My next-door neighbor later found his basement window had been broken, but no one seemed to have entered. A short time later a burglar was apprehended after being identified breaking into another house in the neighborhood.

My next-door neighbor is no dog-lover (and of course Pappy heads straight in for a crotch-sniff every time he comes by for a chat), but I think he is warming to the Papster following his extraordinary heroism. I was considering a parade in Pappy's honor, but that kind of thing is so overdone in July.

We're baaack...

After a three-week vacation hiatus, we're back and ready to begin posting. Sadly Pappy was not with us during the break, because he would have certainly enjoyed chasing the sheep on the West Highland Way. Instead he stayed home with his housesitter, eating peeled grapes (metaphorically) and pining for our return.

The New Movie

We've been getting Pappy parts in a few "smaller" films to help build his rep. This one's a minute and a half.

The Morning Play Date

We've started a new tradition at the Pappy household of the morning play-date. Molly, our puppy pal from up the street, is dropped off in the back yard early morning on weekdays to race around with the Papster for forty minutes until we drop her off at home on the way to work. Pappy is normally distracted with a treat when we leave, but we've seen a slightly higher yelp factor when he notices us departing with "the competition."

Friday's play-date was enlivened by the arrival of a tall dark stranger. Riggs, the German short-haired pointer from around the corner, came bounding across our neighbors' back yards, hurdling fences, oblivious to capitalist notions of property. As in the past, his objective was frolicking with the Papster. We were first introduced to Riggs a month ago when, from an upstairs window, we spotted Pappy racing around the back yard chasing something... a strange dog? Friday, I again flagged down Riggs' exasperated owner, who related his tales of despair trying to contain his Houdini dog. Just as we were getting comfortable that Riggs was satisfied to stay in the yard with Pappy and Molly, he loped off again across the neighbors' yards. The owner trundled off after him-- but then Riggs came back to our yard a minute later and we were able to corral him, concluding the morning's entertainment.

Quote from the Press

I recently contacted a reporter from the Washington Post about the important news covered in Pappy's Blog, and I got back this response: "A dog blog- who'd a thunk it."

That's right, we've got the conventional press on the ropes when it comes to the dissemination of topical news. Power to the internet, baby, power to the internet.

Pappy: The Movie Trailer

Be the first to see the amazing Pappy Movie Trailer!

Pappy and Molly

Molly, the indefagitable pup, came by and hung out with Pappy in the back yard yesterday.

Butterfly

I went out in the back yard a couple of days ago, only to be greeted by the site of a lovely monarch butterfly clinging to the french door. After we let Pappy out, all that we came across were the remnants of a wing and possibly a bit of antenna-- my wife said he snatched the bug in mid-flight.

Looking on the bright side, we saved it a long trip back to Michoacan, Mexico.

Greatest Training Successes

As we've noted before, Pappy was one of the champeen students in his doggy class. He's reached some level of mastery with come, sit, and down when he's inclined to obey. But there are some things we seem to have inadvertently taught him with absolute success:

A) We have accidentally taught him to stand at the back door as if he wants to come in, then, as soon as we open the door, race out in the back yard to coax us to come out and play.

B) He used to flop down in the grass to gnaw on his squeaky ball in relative peace. In the past two weekends we have somehow trained him to come up to you sitting at the patio table, walk under your legs, drop the ball, and then start scrambling around for it so that it feels like you are sitting on a washing machine-- until you finally pick it up and throw it.

C) We learned him very early on to take his squeaky or tennis balls into the TV room, place them right next to the bookshelf, and then "accidentally" poke it under the bookshelf with his paw or nose. Then he scrabbles around with his paw under the bookshelf, occasionally whining in complaint until you pull it out. (Thankfully he never starts barking, so you have the option to ignore him until he settles down.)

It takes constant repetition and reinforcement to train one's dog to do these tricks, but you can do it too!

His Onliest Quirk

I am going on the record that Pappy is the most naturally agreeable mutt on earth. Take food out of his mouth and he wags his tail. Put him outside, and he will wait quietly until you let him in. A dog can be barking like a berserker at him, and he is just sorting out how to play. The vet implanted a chip in him without a whimper. He's the very definition of imperturbable (perhaps oblivious?).

This affability led me to suspect that his first year of life prior to adoption was spent in some doggy utopia, and our household was inevitably disappointing by comparison. But recently we had our first glimpse of the dark side of that Eden (cue ominous music).

We had a giant black fly in the house following one of Pappy's entries and exits outside. I started waving around the Weekend supplement from the newspaper to knock it down. Pappy went all schizo, and started cowering in the next room with his ears and tail down. My wife accidentally re-enacted the event that evening when she thought Papster was in another room. It breaks our hearts.

It would seem that he's no fan of rolled-up newspapers from past experience. We're going to have to get a fly-swatter and hope for the best.

Dog of Action

He sure loves that squeaky ball, but it's beginning to drive us bonkers.

The Dump

Pappy's treat yesterday was riding in the front seat to the dump, since the back of the station wagon was full of cr*p from the shed. The weather was gloomy, but we went on to the Black Hill Dog Exercise Area afterwards. This is one of only three county dog parks in all of Montgomery county, and I was surprised to pass the Ridge Road park on the way within a couple of miles.

Black Hill Dog Exercise Area is far back amongst the picnic areas in the park-- there are small signs marking the way. It's about the same size as the Wheaton Regional dog park, with trees for shade and fine gravel surface to prevent mud.

I always thought that Pappy was pretty speedy, but some grey-snouted greyhounds quickly put those illusions to bed as they lapped him around the enclosure. It was pretty quiet initially, until a truck full of the web-published celebs from All Breed Rescue and Referral showed up and got the party started. Sierra was madly taken with Pappy, and ended up rolling around with him. Milo was a tireless ball-chaser (and I am a pretty tireless ball-thrower), despite stitches from a recent tangle with a pit bull. Blue and Bernie were cute and very playful and energetic despite their heavy coats.

The rescue volunteer was hinting that she might have the perfect pal for Pappy, but we're a bit too new at the dog owner game to be upping the ante.

Dogster

If you think Pappy's blog is ill, check out Dogster. Pappy is our Lord and Master and all, but these folks got it bad. They've got a blog to boot.

Wander on the C&O

For Memorial Day, we took the Papster off to the C&O Canal at Riley's Lock. We were a little undecided about whether to go up the Seneca Greenway following Seneca Creek, or upstream on the C&O Towpath. The weather was steamy, and the towpath looked shady, wide, and level, and so we took the path of least resistance.

Pappy about lost his fudge over two horses that were ambling along ahead at the start of the walk, but then he settled into a zombie-like heel for the eight mile circuit. Good boy, good walk. Never seen him in operation in hot weather-- despite his sveldt figure and thin coat, he definitely seems to prefer cooler spring weather.

"Dog Island"

I can't figure out what the heck is up with this site, but it seems way too utopian and creepy even if I hadn't seen the movies "The Island" and "Soylent Green".

Free Forever: Dog Island

At least they didn't call it The Farm... that would have been a dead giveaway.

Killer Day at the Dog Park

Poor Pappy had a pretty exhausting day Saturday. It all started at the Wheaton Dog Park, where he was already looking a little worn out because of playing with two puppies at length on Friday. Then we went off to Annapolis to visit his Aunt, and we went off to Quiet Waters Park with his doggy-cousin Polly, a long-haired dachshund. At the dog beach there, he made his first ventures in retreiving tennis balls from the waters of the Chesapeake. Towards the end of the day, we were dog-sitting Molly, a labradoodle puppy from up the street, and Pappy seemed to be fighting a constant rearguard action against the advances of the enthusiastic pup. Pappy and Molly went over to picnic with his dog-cousin Ruby, and more racing around ensued.

Now on Sunday we are puppysitting with Molly (above) once again, and Pappy is learning how to adopt the mantle of the mellow older dog. Hard work that, but rewarding.

Wheaton Dog Park

Urgh. After that posting of the world's ugliest dog I need to brighten things up with a little of Pappy's unconventional good looks. Here is his furriness at the Dog Park this morning with Sasha, an auburn-haired, blue-eyed vixen.

Maggie

Pappy's puppy pal Maggie came over last night. It wasn't a banner night for either dog, but Maggie sadly started out the evening by having a rectal explosion in the car on the way over-- apparently she went on a mulberry binge in the Congressional Cemetery earlier in the day, and the resulting mound was festooned with teeny seeds.

It definitely seems apropos to change the name of her site from Maggie's Moo to Maggie's Poo.

Metro DC Dog Parks

We are long time devotees of the Wheaton Regional Dog Park for taking Pappy off-leash (look for us early Saturday or Sunday mornings), but recently I heard about another. In DC on Oregon Avenue, just south of the intersection with Military Road and across from St. John's School, there is supposed to be a popular spot for doggy meet-and-greets. Judging from the lack of online references, I am thinking it is non-official.

This is very convenient to where Pappy's grandpa lives, so I am thinking we'll take a look this weekend.

Ugly Dog Contest

The voting is underway in the World's Ugliest Dog Contest, culminating in the award at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on June 23. Sam, three-time undefeated winner (above), died last year, so they'll be crowning a new champ. There was a bit of a scandal about online vote stealing, but I guess the actual contest winner is determined by judges.

Eeeeyuulgh, these dogs give me the willies. This is one contest that Pappy would lose with flying colors--because of his unconventional good looks.

The Dog Whisperer

Here's another blog mentioning the recent release of The Dog Whisperer on DVD. Even Cesar Millan himself seems to have a blog on the National Geographic website.

As a novice dog-owner, I was drawn in by the show because of the promise of quick returns in behavior modification. Since then I have read articles knocking the quality of Cesar's methods and behavioral research, and the show's follow-up after the initial filming. I think it's unfair to make him a lightening rod for criticism because he produces simplistic made-for-TV training nuggets, but I also think people worshipping at the altar of Cesar are a bit dim.

Bottom line, the show's entertaining and presents one of many approaches to training. Don't take it as gospel.

Into The Fray

Okay, Pappy has officially been entered in the Old Navy Mascot Search competition-- see his entry here. Judging by the competition, this should be a cakewalk for the Papster. What other owners fail to realize is that 1) being a precious puppy for eight months does not give your dog long-term star power, 2) googly bug-eyed dogs are a dime a dozen, and 3) putting sunglasses and clothes on your dog is pathological. Prediction-- Pappy's unconventional good looks™ will make him top dog. I just worry that his facial fur is too uniformly dark for the small screen; maybe a dye job is in order.

On second thought, maybe we just want him to win second place... we'd miss him too much if he became a jet-setter.

Pappy Bagpipes

When sprawled on the floor napping, Pappy has a talent for groaning like an octogenarian. This is a source of endless entertainment to us. Last night, while he was laying next to me, I noticed that I could get him to moan on cue if I leaned just right. I definitely need to make a tape of that!

Daisy

Daisy is the elder-stateswoman terrier in the neighborhood. very sweet yet very alpha, Daisy don't take no guff from the Papster when she comes by to play. It's interesting to see how Pappy adjusts his play for older dogs, peers, and puppies. With Daisy, she lies on her belly, and Pappy runs in a circle barking at her. Eventually, he gets behind her and starts pulling her tail until she jumps up to chase and snarl at him. Repeat.

There's not a lot of wrasslin', which is his preferred activity with the doggy-teenage set. With puppies, once he establishes he can't mount them, he gets down to their level and lets them sink fangs into his throat. How sweet!

Beginners Training

I saw a posting on Craigslist the other day about training for a new dog in the DC area. The author talked about considering the Capital Dog Training Club, but was looking for recommendations.

Let's face it, I know bupkis about training. And I am as "fight the power" as the next guy about megaconglomerates. But, you know what? I believe in Petsmart classes... they're convenient, they're regularly scheduled, the classes fill rather than cancel, and they are pretty cheap. I don't know whether there are huge differences in the quality of trainers and materials, but 90% of the battle is the owner getting started and keeping at it. Once you get the knack, then it seems like you can read a couple of books and forge off on your own.

The Dream Life of Dogs

Early this morning Pappy let out a hearty "Arooooo-ook-ook-ook-ook" in his sleep. It's definitely odd to be awakened by the strains of unearthly howl-clucking. If you watch him sleeping, he does all of the classic foot wiggling and eye twitching (and with those eyebrows, it's hard to miss) attributed to dogs chasing rabbits in their dreams. I wonder if it is rabbits, or maybe the great doggy revolution where THEY'RE in charge.

The Head of the Class!!

Today, Pappy graduated from beginner training school; he's got brains and beauty. During final exams, he had a record-setting run of 15 sits in a 30 second period, shattering the previous record of 13 sits from another class. He followed this with a class-best eight downs in 30 seconds. We would have tied or beat the record of nine, but for a minor treat miscue between Papster and his mom. Our secret? Under normal circumstances he is no more inclined to follow commands than the next mutt, but where there are some treats to be had he is super-focused dog. Also we took him to the dog park prior to class, where he worked all the distractability out of his system with his pals Jack and Sweet Pea.

Paltry Competition

In the spirit of competition, Pappy's puppy playmate, Maggie, has set up another "most adorable dog" site. Putting Maggie up against Pappy in the cutes department is funny in a pathetic sort of way, kind of like when the little kid is swinging away madly at the big kid holding him at arm's length. Ahhh, pity the beast, cause this is as cute as she's gonna get.

Though impossibly cute, Pappy did show his mean streak this weekend. While having a sleepover at his dog-cousin Ruby's house, he had a conflagration with his estranged cat-cousin Turtle at the bottom of the stairs. After they stitched Turtle's head back on she was fine. Pappy and Ruby are pretty inseparable, but Pappy and Turtle haven't yet established a lasting bond. Maybe next time.

Adopting a grown dog

The sad part about adopting a grown shelter dog is (often) never having any idea what he looked like as a puppy. I do often wonder what Pappy looked like during those first months.

Delusional family and neighbors say that they are sure that Pappy is still growing, but I have my doubts-- could be he is closer to a puppy than I know.

MEDICAL EMERGENCY! (not really)

Thursday night, Pappy's eyes were a bit red and gooey, and Friday morning he woke up with one glued shut. We got it opened up with a warm wet cloth. Being new owners, we panicked and made frantic calls to the vet. Pappy was mighty pathetic on leaving him at the vet. On returning for him, his mom thought she was hearing a bird chirping from the back-- but this was the non-stop whimpering of our otherwise stoic boy on hearing her voice in front. He went home with a armload of pills and potions, and the vet has a nice contribution to her retirement. Pappy immediately seemed 100% improved, but once you start those antibiotics you need to finish them up-- preferably with peanut butter.