Those Sneaky Dogs

Dogs will steal your food if they think it's dark enough for you not to notice.

Take 84 dogs. Put each one in a room with food on the floor and instruct the dog to leave it alone. Try it in a dark room and a nicely lit room. What will happen? According to a study in the journal Animal Cognition, “the dogs were four times as likely to steal the food — and steal it more quickly — when the room was dark,” National Geographic reported. The study leader, Juliane Kaminski of the University of Portsmouth in England, explained how this shows us that dogs know a thing or two. “It implies dogs understand the human can’t see them, meaning they might understand the human perspective,” she said in a news release.

Lola is Best Puppy

Lola shows her fine form on the grooming table before entering the ring.

Lola, Deep Acres Loco Por Lola, was named Best Puppy in Breed over the weekend at the International Kennel Club Show in Chicago.   In a regional breed specialty event sponsored by the Tibetan Terrier Club of America she was also named Best of Opposite Sex in the puppy sweepstakes competition.  Whatever Lola wants...

Uncle Rufus, Grand Champion Deep Acres Fields of Gold, was named Grand Champion Select.

Meet a Canine Crime Fighter

Recently, Jan helped find one of the biggest meth labs in the USA.

On a chilly December morning at the Dallas Police Department auto pound, a chocolate Labrador retriever named Jan demonstrates her crime-fighting nose. Three suitcases are lined up against a blue shipping container, and Jan is sniffing around them. After a few passes, Jan stops at the middle suitcase and starts scratching. She has found the drugs.

Jan is one of the dogs that have been donated by the organization Safer Dallas Better Dallas to DPD’s narcotics division, one of the few departments in the country that uses rescue dogs for its operation. The department’s trusted trainer is Sharon Perry from Southern Star Ranch in Florence, Texas. Jan has Perry to thank for her life.

Three years ago, Perry heard about Jan, who was sitting at a shelter in North Texas. Perry called the shelter the day Jan was scheduled to be euthanized and asked an attendant to throw a ball and observe Jan’s reaction. Jan went crazy for the ball, and Perry asked the shelter to hold off on the euthanasia.

Weez and Andy are the other two dogs in DPD's narcotics division. Both were rescued from shelters.

It costs $6,000 to send the dogs through the three-month training program with Perry. Though the dogs are taught many things, the most important is how to sniff out drugs. This training comes through the use of bright red chew toys called Kongs. The Kongs are loaded with cotton balls that have been infused with the odor of narcotics. The handlers play catch with the dogs until they’re trained on the scent. When the team is called out to do a drug search, the handler takes the dog to where the drugs are suspected. The handler pretends to throw the Kong, tricking the dog into thinking it’s somewhere in the area, and the search is on. When a dog alerts to an area where it suspects the Kong is, the handler rewards the dog with playtime.

Jan and her fellow dogs’ handlers, who can’t be identified because of their undercover work, are all big, barrel-chested men, the type you wouldn’t want to see at a Greyhound station if you were trying to smuggle crank. But when the men talk about their dogs, they sound just like any other dog lover. Weez’s handler raises his voice a few octaves when rewarding his dog for finding drugs. Jan’s handler puts his favorite college team’s logo on her vest. And Andy’s handler, who has had his dog for only nine months, is eager to talk about Andy’s quirks. With rescue dogs, he points out, there are a lot of unknowns.

The dogs go home with the handlers, but the men emphasize that the dogs aren’t pets; they’re tools.

Jan has proven to be a very useful tool in her time with the department. The first week on the job, she found two big pallets of marijuana. Once, she uncovered 500 pounds of marijuana encased in aloe vera lotion. Recently, she helped find one of the biggest meth labs in the southern United States.

Not bad for a dog who was hours away from euthanasia.

The Genius of Dogs

As a new book attests, your pooch’s IQ may be higher than you think.

The special bond between humans and dogs has existed for centuries. But while people undeniably love their four-legged housemates, they don’t always think of pups as intellectual powerhouses. The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter Than You Think (Dutton, $28), by Brian Hare and Va­nessa Woods, will help humans see past their loyal companions’ soulful eyes and damp noses to discern their cerebral canine nature, here termed “dognition.”

Husband-and-wife team Hare and Woods, respectively the founder of and a research scientist at the Duke Canine Cognition Center in Durham, N.C., recount how dogs have evolved from wolves to become man’s best friends. But the taming may not have been a one-way street.

“Dogs may have civilized us,” Hare and Woods note.

The science is fascinating, but it’s the personal anecdotes that provide spark. Hare owes his career to Oreo, the Labrador puppy he got when Hare was 7 and named after his favorite treat. As a college student, Hare became interested in human-brain development and began to play games with chimpanzees to measure their ability to pick up on cues. When Hare mentioned to a professor that Oreo could pass the test, the professor challenged him to videotape experiments with his dog. The results proved that canines share some cognitive abilities with human infants. Hare gives a heartfelt account of how, as an adult, he adopted 60-pound Milo, who resembled a polar bear, from a shelter and then discovered the dog was unusually anxious.

“I was a ‘dog expert’ unable to train my own dog to sit on command,” he relates. (Milo’s thick coat had concealed the fact that he had not been neutered, and once fixed, he calmed considerably.) Hare and Woods also describe how their current dog, Tassie, differentiated between his own toys and those belonging to their new baby.

Tassie has appeared on major television networks simply by virtue of being present (and freshly groomed) at the Duke Canine Cognition Center when reporters arrive. His star power has earned him a new nickname. “We call him the Kim Kardashian of dogs,” they write, “because like many socialites, he is famous for exactly nothing.” 

Happy Valentine's Day

Dad celebrated with a red velvet cupcake from Cupcake Delirium in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Earlier in the day he enjoyed a carrot cupcake from Southern Cake Queen.

Sherpa, The Night Before Westminster

Champion Deep Acres Autumn Splendor

Through The Snow to Westminster Sherpa Goes

Sherpa, Champion Deep Acres Autumn Splendor, is determined to get to Westminster.

Though yesterday's storm deposited 40" of snow in Connecticut where Sherpa lives,  he is determined to get to the show ring at the Westminster Kennel Club Show.   His ring time is 8:30 tomorrow morning.  

So...we thought we would dig out and share the poem Sherpa's brother Rufus wrote last year to capture his Westminster experience.

Twas the Night Before Westminster

By Rufus

Twas the night before Westminster, when all through the hotel

All the creatures were stirring, yes even a Xolo

But dad in his skivvies and I in my cap

Tried to settle our brains for a good Midtown nap

When out in the lobby there arose such a clatter

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter

Away to the door I flew like a flash

Dad opened it up and and to the lobby I ran to make a big splash

The flash bulbs from the paparazzi, you know

Gave the luster of mid-day to the critters below

When what to my wondering eyes should appear

But a Miniature Poodle and one of those new breeds, on the name I'm not clear

And then, in a twinkling, I heard from the front desk

The prancing and pawing of my great nemesis

As I drew in my head and was turning around

Through the revolving door arrived that Pekingese with a bound

He was wearing lots of fur, but no head and no foot

Looked like a mess and just wouldn't stay put

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had something to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work

And filled the seats at the Garden, yes it really does irk

And laying his paw aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the podium he rose.

Lee Radziwill Has a Dog

Sophia Coppola recently sat down with Jackie O's sister Lee Radziwill in her Paris apartment.  We find the interview fascinating and you can see Lee's dog Zinnia poking around the apartment.  How fun.

Downton Abbey's Mrs. Patmore Has a Tibetan Terrier

Now, we love Downton Abbey and we bet you do too.   We were happy to hear that Lesley Nicol, who plays the cook Mrs, Patmore, revealed that she has a Tibetan Terrier during her recent visit to Chicago.

Actress Lesley Nicol was in Chicago for a few days minus the white apron and cap she wears in the kitchen of PBS-TV’s Downton Abbey. She was here to bring the story of legendary English pianist Myra Hess to a sold-out crowd at the Chicago Cultural Center on Jan. 29.

The U.S. premiere of the theatrical production “Admission: One Shilling” with pianist Inna Faliks is being held in the hall where the free lunchtime Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts are presented by Chicago’s International Music Foundation. Written by Hess’ great-nephew and composer Nigel Hess, Admission celebrates Myra’s determination to lift the spirits of Londoners during World War II with noontime performances of classical music.

When Admission premiered in England, Patricia Routledge (BBC’s “Keeping Up Appearances”) played Myra. Nicol has her own personal connection to the performance: “I went to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama which is of course where Myra went,” Nicol told us, of the London institution. “So that's kind of nice.”

The Chicago rehearsals and performance are a break from a 3-month stint living on the West Coast with her husband and two dogs (a Tibetan Terrier and rescue miniature poodle) where the Downton Abbey actress was surprised at the number of people who recognized her (even at Costco). While there, the actress added her voice to those of Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson for an animated film (Turkeys) and headed to Vancouver to film a bit for ABC’s “Once Upon a Time.”

And while Nicol doesn’t consider herself a cook, she does appreciate the Downton pros around her who keep the whisk and kettle action true. How else would the culinary disaster of a broken hollandaise be saved by a yolk in Season 3?

She’ll be heading back to her West London home soon for the February filming of Season 4 of Downton Abbey. But we caught up with Nicol for a chat on goings-on in the kitchens of Downton Abbey. The following is an edited transcript.

Q: So Alastair Bruce, the historical adviser to the show, does he find stuff wrong in the kitchen? (See Bruce tour the kitchen on YouTube)

A: He’s very strict. It’s as simple as this: In (this) season, we’ve got more people in the kitchen because there are more kids around now that the war’s over. And there was a thing where the director said, “So, I think Mrs. Patmore comes in with Daisy, and she’s got a tray...” and Alastair goes, “No!” And we go, “No? No tray?” And he says no, because now we have plenty of staff back, and Mrs. Patmore does not carry the tray. She doesn’t need to carry the tray because there are plenty of people to do that. And you won’t find her doing the menial tasks in the kitchen because she doesn’t have to. Her job is Gordon Ramsay. She’s seasoning, she’s checking, she’s making sure everything is up to speed like a proper chef. ... It’s not carrying a tray. It’s the servant’s role. He’s always looking for detail like that.

Q: Alastair covers people’s behavior, who does what, that sort of thing. What about the food?

A: We also have some very good props guys who are the ones who prepare the dishes, give you the equipment if you’re whisking something or whatever. Luckily one of the prop guys is a chef. So he’s fabulous. But he is a proper chef so fortunately. And I try to avoid doing anything technical so nobody will be able to say well that doesn’t look right. But we were doing something with a sauce, and I just said to him: “What stage are we? What have we done? And where are we at, and what do we have to achieve?” and he would just be able to tell you that.

We also have a home economist who creates those big dishes when there’s a dinner party and amazing elaborate dishes. She brings those in. So if we need to, we can ask her technical questions.

What’s also helpful, they have a couple of working rings on the stove. So that if things are being cooked you will see steam always. ... And if a cup of tea is poured, it will be coming out boiling because they do care about that detail.

Q: What are some of the challenges you’ve had in that kitchen?

A: Usually there’s a scene going on that is not about the cooking. Cooking is happening on the side of it. Every time we’re in the kitchen, in order to get the right activity happening and the energy level and the speed of it, we always say, “What part of the day are we in? Have we made lunch? Is this lunch? Where are we?” That dictates who’s doing what and at what speed. As far as the speed goes, Alastair said at the very beginning, which has been really helpful for us, “This is a really, really busy part of the house.

Sometimes not as busy, but usually when there is action, you are going at it like a rocket.” ... He says this house was providing food for the family, maybe guests and the servants. They were eating three times a day on top of which there would be other things as well. It was like an engine that had to go. There was a real urgency to do it efficiently and fast. So you will never see a kitchen scene slow. It just doesn’t feel right. ... It’s kind of organized chaos.

Q: On set, your meals are served aboard a double-decker bus, but are there any good cooks on the set?

A: The wardrobe department, there’s a girl who bakes beautiful cupcakes and things. Sophie (McShera) can bake, the little girl who plays Daisy. She doesn’t much, but she can bake. I know she can. She does bring stuff in.

Q: There are lots of great TV cooks in England, do you have a favorite?

A: Delia Smith — everybody swears by her, don’t they. When I have a dinner somewhere and people go: “Delia.” And then everyone goes, “Oh, Delia! You can’t go wrong with Delia.” If I was a cook and did a lot of cooking, I would head for Delia probably.

Q: I know you don’t cook, but I bet you boil an egg occasionally?

A: Oh, yes, yes. It’s not my joy to do it, but of course I can up to a point. But I do have disasters and then that throws me. ... I have a few things I can do like mince and potatoes — that’s ground beef. Roast chicken. Shepherds pie. I can do eggs and bacon. And I tried to find something healthy and I found a recipe for prawn risotto. And you had to put the rice and spices and get that all going and that would have been lovely except that I put brown rice because I thought it would be healthier rather than white and. ... we never did cook it because it became known as prawn grit because it was absolutely inedible.

Q: But your husband cooks, right?

A: He does a very good curry. ... The first meal he ever made me was chicken curry. It was the most delicious thing I’d ever tasted in my life.

Q: What about all the spoofs, as seen in these two videos BBC's and “Downton Arby” among them. Do cast members get offended?

A: I don’t think anyone’s ever been offended. It’s the highest form of flattery for a start and mostly they’re very funny.

Q: And Maggie Smith off camera?

A: I love her. I haven’t worked with her at all, haven’t done any scenes with her, but I get to sit with her when there are big groups scenes when everybody’s there. ... She’s very witty lady. She’s a funny lady.

Q: There was life before Downton of course and a wide variety of roles — Auntie Annie in West is West and East is East, Tetley Tea ads, parts in Miss Marple, Blackadder — any role you’ve particularly enjoyed?

A: I played Rosie in Mamma Mia in the West End ... I stayed for two years because it was such a fun job. I mean, three women in their middle years running around in Lycra with great roles and at the end, singing “Waterloo” to an audience all on their feet because they all want to dance was a bit like playing a rock concert which obviously I’d never done.

We Know These Folks

Lois Cohen-Goldstein and husband Herman Goldstein with their dogs Keaton and Wil.

New York is going to the dogs.

The 137th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show returns to town in two weeks, unleashing pampered pups from the West Side piers to Madison Square Garden, hoping to fetch Best in Show.

But not every handler has their heart set on a blue ribbon. One Long Island couple is just begging to see their beloved dog again.

Lois Cohen-Goldstein didn’t just lose her Freeport, L.I., home when superstorm Sandy ravaged the region last fall. She had to send her prized pooches to safety upstate while she and her husband live in a Garden City hotel.

“It’s horrible,” says Cohen-Goldstein, 62, lingering over Facebook photos of her precious pups: five-year-old Keaton, a Tibetan Terrier, and six-year-old Wil, a Lhasa Apso.

Three feet of rushing water flooded the first floor of their house. The oil tank and hot water heater were swamped, making their residence cold, dark and dangerous.

But even worse was sending their pups to live with handlers in Cornwallville, N.Y. “They’re our four-legged, furry children. They’re family,” says Cohen-Goldstein. “It’s been very difficult.”

But when the world-famous Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show comes to Madison Square Garden Feb. 11, the displaced dog-lovers will have their day. Keaton is among the 2,712 purebreds competing for Best in Show.

Seeing their mop-topped pup, who’s entering the elite contest for the fourth time after winning Best Opposite Sex in his breed last year, will be better than winning a blue ribbon.

“I can’t wait,” says Cohen-Goldstein, who hasn’t seen her pets in three months.

She fears visiting her refugee dogs before she can bring them home with her will only confuse them. “Going back, just to get them all worked up, and then leaving them behind again would have upset them too much,” she says.

The Goldsteins didn’t set out to adopt a show dog. “We had always gone to Westminster as observers, so there was a fascination with showing a dog,” she says, “but we had no clue what that entailed.”