Dog Names - The Ultimate (Star) Guide

Francesca Beswick of pet365, an online retailer with a pet blog, asked if we would share some of their cool graphics on our blog. We can't help wondering if George Washington had all those dogs at the same time. I can imagine them running around Mount Vernon. Can't you? We heard that Ethel Kennedy had 18 or so dogs at one time. And horses that ran around in the front yard. And a seal! I'm not kidding. It's true. The Kennedy children remember it quite fondly. Anywho....I think I might like to be called Lady Rover. Who wouldn't?
Dog names graphic produced by Matt Beswick for Pet365. Click here to view the full post.

How Do You Play with Your Dog?

The Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab is run by Dr. Alexandra Horowitz, author of Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know. The Barnard University research group is based in New York City, and they study the behavior and cognition of companion dogs. Read more about them and their research at DogCognition.com.  



They are presently investigating play between dogs and people, and they need your help (well, you and your dog's help)!

Here is the info provided on their website, doghumanplay.com:

Show us how you play!

 We are exploring all the different ways people and dogs play together. Join the study in these easy steps:

1. Complete a short survey
2. Upload a video of you and your dog playing i.e. you are in the video playing with your dog (however you like to play together)
3. Share a picture of you and your dog on our Wall of Contributors (optional)

That's it!

Project: Play with Your Dog is open to anyone, in any country. If you live with a dog, we want to see you play. This is a rare opportunity for dog owners across the globe to get involved in scientific research into dog behavior. We hope to collect many videos, so please tell your dog friends. Thank you for playing!
 

Learning by Walking Around

In her new book, On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes, Alexandra Horowitz—author of the wildly popular Inside of a Dog—enlists the attention and insights of others to discover more about the neighborhood in which she lives. But when it comes to really getting the inside scoop, who better to turn to than dogs, those “creatures of the nose”?

Alexandra recently spoke with Bark Magazine.

Bark: What was the inspiration for your new work, On Looking?
Alexandra Horowitz: Dogs, naturally. The book relates a series of walks I took “around the block” in Manhattan with various people whose expertise allows them to see aspects of the ordinary landscape that I might have missed—a geologist, a naturalist, an artist, a sound engineer. I got the idea from taking so, so many walks with my dogs over the years and starting to see what it was that they saw (smelled). Their aesthetic, their way of experiencing the block, rubbed off on me, and eventually, I found a block without trees or fireplugs boring (even if I couldn’t smell their trunks or bases like the dogs did). I was interested in all the different things there are to see on an ordinary walk, so these walks helped me look at a familiar scene with new eyes.
B: In one of the chapters, you “look” as you see your dog does, more by smell than by vision. How were you able to get into a dog’s “nosescape”?
AH: We naturally view dogs’ behaviors as being about what they see: if a dog faces us, we assume that she is looking at us. But if you look closely at dogs’ noses, what they are mostly doing is smelling. Watch a dog sit face into the windwith a boring landscape but her nose is twitching wildly and you’ll see what I mean. All I did on the walk with my dog, Finnegan, was let him lead—and I followed where his nose took us.
B: What did that tell you about a dog’s experience of the walk?
AH: The dog’s perception of a “walk” is radically different than ours! For a dog, the street is not the same each time you step out of the house—it has “evidence” (odors) of all the people, dogs, other animals, passing cars and trash and rainstorms that have happened since you last left the house. And, of course, the elements of the scene that are interesting to a creature of the nose are going to be quite different than those we visual creatures like to look at.
B: Did you observe other differences in the ways a dog perceives the landscape/environment? For example, in the time it took to do the walk?
AH: We humans tend to walk straight from A to B, not loitering much. For a dog, I think, the ideal walk is non-linear—it is pursuing that scent underfoot into the breeze and around the corner. It’s not an even pace: dogs will walk with us, at our plodding rate, but most would rather rush ahead and then hang back. The interesting things don’t pop up at our pace.
B: Did your dog linger at landmarks, and if so, why do you think he did that?
AH: He did, but the landmarks for him were things like a stoop where (we discovered later) another local dog and his person live; the many, many balusters along a building at our corner, all of which held, presumably, odor-prints of past canid visitors; and an unusual commotion in one building entrance. He didn’t seem that interested in a local Fireman’s Memorial, which is sometimes visited by clutches of tourists, guidebooks in hand.

B: Do you think we can refine our sense of smell by watching our dogs? Perhaps using our sense of smell differently, or doing more sniffing?
AH: I love this question, as it assumes that we might want to smell more. I sense that most people don’t want to, given that, unlike to dogs, we tend to find so many smells unpleasant in various ways. But I have gotten more interested in smelling as information: I walked with a doctor who talked about how many diseases can be diagnosed by smell, though this practice is no longer common. But simply by bringing attention to smell—by bothering to inhale through your nose and think about it—when you’re walking, you can take advantage of the considerable olfactory ability that we already have. There is a surprising lot there. If you don’t want to do this, just watch your dog carefully, and enjoy knowing that she is seeing the world through her nose.

The Best Date Bar Recipe Ever

My dad loves date bars, but the last time he remembers having one was years ago from a little corner store near a cottage he was staying at on Mount Desert Island in Maine.   He would stop there nearly everyday.   You may be wondering why it took him so long to come up with this recipe.  He did and it is awesome

Lola's Date Bars
Ingredients

• 2-1/2 cups pitted dates, cut up
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1-1/2 cups water
• 1/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, optional
• 1-1/4 cups flour (we used white whole wheat flour)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1-1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon water 

Directions

• In a saucepan, combine dates, sugar and water. Cook, stirring frequently, until very thick. Stir in walnuts; cool.
• Sift the flour, salt and baking soda together in a large bowl; add oats and brown sugar. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle water over mixture; stir lightly. Pat half into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Spread with date mixture; cover with remaining oat mixture and pat lightly.
• Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars. Yield: 40 bars.

Bonne Annee et Bonne Sante

Rachel and Sugar

Sugar sent an email to wish me a Happy New Year, but she wrote it in French.

I'll translate:

Dear Grandma Suddie:
 Happy New Year!
Love,
Sugar

Short and sweet.  Just what one would expect from a girl named Sugar.

Pretty as a Picture

But, yes, Sugar does speak French and several other languages too.  We think her best friend Rachel is a very good influence.  Don't you?

Congratulations Rachel on your new private school in Chicago.  Write and tell us all about it.  Does Sugar walk to school with you in the morning?

And, whoa, Rachel your pictures show you are becoming a young lady (and Sugar too...she's a year-and-a-half now isn't she?).  It seems just yesterday you sent us this email in anticipation of Sugar's arrival.  Have you taught her to dance yet?

Gam-Gam Suddie Wants a Ribbon for Her Hair Too

Dear Suddie,
I'm giving away my birthday presents to a family in need. My mom called the red cross to try and find a family in need but we didn't get an answer yet. There have been several house fires in our  area, so I know there is a family in need. I was inspired by Max Rohr he gave away his birthday presents  to a local hospital.

 I'm very excited about the new puppy! I'm sure I'll enjoy having a very energetic dog around the house. I'm going to teach the dog many tricks. The tricks will be old and new. At first simple tricks like roll over and stay, next complicated tricks like dance or something like that.
Sincerely,
Rachel

Happy Holidays from Deep Acres Farm

Introducing Gibbs...The Most Cutest Reindeer of All

 

My Grandpuppy Gibbs, Roxie's boy, is the most cutest reindeer of all.   Don't you agree?  Just 5-months-old, his new owners say"we love him to pieces....and don't think we could have a better fit for us."