Tag Archives: dog-eared reads

To Bella from To Dog With Love

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Apparently Bella and I are on a hot streak.  First, she won a collar from Doggie Stylish.  Then, I won a really cool book called  For the Love of Dogs: an A-to-Z Primer for Dog Lovers of All Ages thanks to the wonderful Cosmo Havanese from To Dog With Love.  (Go ahead and check out that awesome blog… I’ll wait.)  Anyway, To Dog With Love gave away a copy of the book, and I won!  (We should enter the lottery, right?  Third time’s a charm, they say.)

The book, written by Allison Weiss Entrekin, is full of whimsical illustrations by Mark Anderson.  It uses all 26 letters of the alphabet (even X) to present fun facts and wonderful info about our beloved pups.  To give you a little taste, I selected a few letters at random. (As you’ll see, it wasn’t really that random.)

B is for Beagles
E is for English Foxhounds
L is for Labradors
L is still for Labradors
A is for Adoption

C is for Cavaliers
O is for Obedience
S is for Shih Tzus
M is for Mascots
O is still for Obedience

Here are some photos of Bella enjoying her new reading material.

Thanks again to Diane and Cosmo from To Dog With Love!

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Chamber of Treats

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If you’re like me, you’ve been counting down the days until you can see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  It’s just around the corner now – November 19.  With that in mind, today’s No Frown Friday is dedicated to my favorite wizards:

  1. As always, we begin with punny pet names: Hairy Plotthound, Grrr-mione Granger, and Ron Fleasley. (Of course, they study at Dogwarts with headmaster Albus Puppledore and were placed into Gryffindor by the Sorting Cat.)
  2. If you’d prefer a non-punny name, you can find inspiration in the books. (Even more available here.)
  3. There are some gorgeous Harry Potter cakes on display at Cake Wrecks – enjoy the eye candy.  (Eye confections?)
  4. Thinking of throwing a Harry Potter-themed party?  Check out these cool party ideas – for that extra something, you could also ask your dog to dress as Fang or Hedwig.
  5. Speaking of the animal stars of these films, check out this quiz about the wild stars of Oscar-nominated films.

Have you ever watched the Starz Bunnies version of Harry Potter?  I present to you the crew’s first five years at Hogwarts:

Want more?  Go watch Part II.  After that, have some fun with these Sorting Hat Out-Takes.

Have a woofy wizarding weekend!  (One option? Get your pup his own invisibility cloak.)

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Through a Dog’s Eyes

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Ugh. Yesterday, I had to take a sick day.  It was absolutely zero fun.  The one bright spot was getting to catch up on my DVR.

One of the programs I watched was called Through a Dog’s Eyes.  It’s a wonderful documentary that aired on PBS in April (and again in September), and it follows a group of people as they visit Canine Assistants to meet their service dogs for the first time.  Canine Assistants is a group that breeds, trains, and places service dogs with people who have physical disabilities, seizure disorders, and other needs.  (Canine Assistants provides the dogs free to the recipients through donations and sponsorships.)  The stories of the recipients are moving and interesting – and it gives a whole new perspective on the human-canine bond.

Here’s a preview for the show – if you missed it on PBS, you can watch the entire program on the PBS website.  (Bonus: it’s narrated by Neil Patrick Harris.)

Learn more, after the jump.


PBS has a wealth of useful information and great links on its page dedicated to the program. (There are even outtakes, training tips and a section simply called “More Puppies” – talk about knowing your audience.)

The founding of Canine Assistants is a great story.  Jennifer Arnold was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at the age of sixteen.  Jennifer’s father suggested she get a service dog.  An organization denied her application, which provided the inspiration for Jennifer to found Canine Assistants.  (The organization is truly a family affair.)

Jennifer’s training philosophy is also a great one – it’s based on the idea that the dogs want to please their people, and it’s about positive reinforcement rather than domination.  (I’m sure our friends at Never Shock a Puppy would approve.)  The program also briefly touches upon the science behind the dog-human bond.  (Through the PBS site, I found a link to the Family Dog Project, which is dedicated to researching this bond.  Interesting stuff.)

Paw Nation is doing a series of posts about another recipient who is getting a dog from Canine Assistants.  The first post appeared earlier this month – I’m looking forward to reading more.  (You can also read an interview with the After-care Coordinator for Canine Assistants.)

If you’d like to learn more about Canine Assistants, visit them here.  I’m also considering picking up Jennifer’s book (also called Through a Dog’s Eyes)… after the documentary, I’m sure it will be good!

Have you seen the documentary?  What did you think?

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Head of the class

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Speed Bump
(via Speed Bump)

It’s September… which means school is back in session.  I haven’t been a student in quite some time.  Neither has Ms. Bella.  She did take one obedience course… seven years later, she does sit when asked (most of the time). 

We’ve been lucky – Bella’s a fairly low-maintenance gal who doesn’t get into much trouble.  When we eventually adopt dog number two, we’ll have to be much more diligent! 

If you haven’t already guessed, the topic of today’s No Frown Friday is… school!  Let’s hit the books:

  1. This week’s punny pet names are based on some famous names that chose the School of Life instead of a college degree: Drew Hairymore, Nose-Anne Barr, Roarin’ Beatty, and J.K. Howling.
  2. During college, I often found myself suffering from doggie withdrawal.  Earlier this week, I read that Yale Law School had recognized this epidemic, and offered a solution: if you needed a boost, you could check out Monty the pup for a 30 minute play date.  The circulation listing quoted in that post is so cute it’s out of control.  (A sample… “Subjects: Dogs in libraries; Stress reliever for law students.”)  It turns out that Monty might not have been available, but that’s okay.  A girl can dream.  I would have owed so much in overdue dog fees.
  3. Who needs obedience school? This “” has a college degree!
  4. You may (or may not) remember those great literary punny pet names I shared back in June.  In any event, there’s a second installment – quite a treat!  (Be sure to take the pun-filled quiz… I’m still giggling about Captain A. Lab.)
I’ve pulled today’s video out of the Internet archives, and dusted it off for your amusement.  I remember when I first saw this video last year. It quickly earned a place on my list of favorite things:


Reactions: (1) I would have been so much better at science if it was taught by puppies.  (2) I would like to open a school where all lessons are taught with the help of puppies.  (3)  I’ve already got a foolproof plan for the drama program.

Speaking of smarty pants pups, sometimes well-educated service dogs school others in the Americans with Disabilities Act.  If you want to learn more about the valedictorians of the doggie world – those amazingly smart service dogs – check out Canine Companions for Independence.  CCI spoke at Blog Paws West last weekend, and by all accounts it was amazing!

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Don’t judge a dog by its cover

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“He wasn’t a bad dog – he simply didn’t know any better;
he’d never lived in a house.”
from “Can You Teach a Bad Dog New Tricks” by Jim Gorant

A friend suggested I check out an article in this past weekend’s issue of Parade magazine.  So I rifled through my newspaper (I’m still old school on Sundays) and pulled out the insert.  Staring at me from the cover? An adorable dog.  A pit bull, to be exact.  After reading this article, I knew I had to share it with you.

The title of the article is “Can You Teach a Bad Dog New Tricks?”  The “bad dogs” in question are Michael Vick’s pit bulls.  (I think it goes without saying how very, very terrible he is… but we’re focusing on the dogs here, so I’ll save that angry rant for another time.)

We’ve all heard about what happened to Michael Vick after his dogfighting ways were discovered.  But what about the dogs?  Find out more after the jump…

Continue reading →

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