For all of you dog-lovers out there who humanize your dog, this is the book for you.

I know most of us have “voices” for our dogs, and we’ve all given them little personality traits and thoughts from time to time. (For example, at our house we frequently discuss with our Golden Retriever, Benson whatever happens to be worrying him that day; he is a little worry-wart dog as made evident by the look in his eyes and his little cone-head look. Oftentimes we have conversations with him about what is worrying him - with one of us obviously being the dog’s voice. I know, we’re totally nuts).

Anyways, back to the book. Dog Park Diary: the Social Round of Goody Beagle is all about Goody’s life at the dog park. It’s a diary he kept of one of his more rousing weeks at his favorite place: the dog park.

I must say, this book is HILARIOUS. I was laughing out loud on the second page. It so poignantly brings to life what we all think and say and do for our dogs every day. We humanize them.

Goody teaches us all about proper dog park etiquette, namely about “sniff-butt,” every dog’s favorite activity. He tells us stories about the other dogs, some his friends, some not his friends. He teaches us all about Beagles, too.

There are so many things we humans don’t know our dogs are thinking: Goody will tell you all of them.

So if you’re looking for a FUN read and a belly laugh, pick up a copy of Dog Park Diary: the Social Round of Goody Beagle. It has some GREAT photography to accompany the story as well.

Tomorrow, Friday, June 20 is National Take Your Dog to Work Day! Hooray! Can’t wait to participate in this one.

I’m bringing along Henry (aka Peanut) the sassy Bassett Hound I have referred to in previous posts. Hopefully he will refrain from his vocal antics for the day. He loves to moan, whine, bay and howl at things - especially other dogs. We’ll see how it goes…

For those of you taking part in the festivities (or not I guess), send this cute pet eCard to other revelers:

The ASPCA recently put up some helpful information on their site. Click to read Top 10 Office Etiquette Tips for Dogs.

Here is a picture of Henry - I entered him in a pet photo contest for my work so I hope he wins! All day tomorrow Henry will see what its like to be a professional Interactive Copywriter for the day!

Lori Lebda and Tami Bergeson have hit the nail on the head (in my case anyways) with What Dog Are You? Discovering Your Inner Pooch. This book, fresh from the printing press, lets the reader explore his/her traits, abilities and personality and associate them with a breed of dog.

Based on three quizzes, the “Pooch-onality,” Dapper Dogs,” and “Biscuits or Bones,” a number value is assigned to you. Each quiz results in a specific breed type and those three are your “puppy genetic makeup.”

Your overall score is your overall breed. I must say I was shocked when I read what breeds I was in the three quizzes because I had never heard of them: Basenji, American Foxhound, and Tibetan Spaniel. Overall I am a Dalmation and it’s remarkable how much the description of that type of breed fits my personality.

The book lumps us into categories of breed types after giving us our overall breed: Gems, Trend Setters, Private Eyes, and lots more. There are also many more surprises in here that I don’t want to write about because I don’t want to spoil it for you!

This book is wildly entertaining and was so dead-on about my personality that I couldn’t believe it! It’s really quite funny! It makes a perfect pet-lover’s gift, too!

Pick up a copy if you can. Otherwise, come back and visit this blog in a few weeks as I will be giving away copies in an upcoming contest!

Wags,

Jaime (the Dalmation)

I think I might have shown this before but it’s just too cute to not feature by itself. This is my favorite picture of my one Golden Retriever, Benson.

For the sake of keeping us all together and making new friends in the pet blogosphere I have started talking about my favorite pet blogs once a week. This week’s Pet Blog of the Week is Lab Tails.

Lab Tails is about the lives of FIVE Labrador Retrievers: Ridge, Pinot, Elsie, Baxter and Kenya. They are all great friends and seem to have so much fun playing together, sharing sticks and toys, cuddling on the dog hammock, etc.

Lab Tails is written by the labs’ human Mom. She says her blog is about “observations about and lessons learned from three (no, make that four) (now it’s FIVE) Labrador Retrievers.”

These five playful labs have a HUGE plot of fenced in yard to play in. They seem to be spoiled (just like we are - this is now Benson and Gibson typing this up - we stole the laptop while she wasn’t looking). Their human Mom bought them dog hammocks (raised beds) that we are just dying to try out! They are so cool and keep dogs off the ground!

These labs always have so much fun retrieving (check out this post of a triple-threat retrieve). Some (or one of?) them are bred so they can keep up the family name (how important for a strapping retriever!).

This is one of our favorite pictures of the Lab Tails’ dogs:

If you are looking for some entertainment and fun, we encourage you to check out Lab Tails. It’s one of our new favorites!

Wags,

Benson and Gibson

For the sake of keeping us all together and making new friends in the pet blogosphere I have started talking about my favorite pet blogs once a week. This week’s wonderful pet blog is a dog blog. It’s called A Dog’s Life, the Real Story.

Our Golden Retriever friend Mogley is the author/blogger over there. Mogley sure is a lucky dog. He gets to have foster brothers and sisters to play with all the time because his humans are such wonderful people. They are so wonderful that they take in foster Golden Retrievers from Golden Retriever Rescue of the Rockies (funny that the acronym is “GRRR!” BOL!)

Mogley always has so much fun with the other dogs and he loves to play. He loves to play more than any other dog we have ever come to know. Mogley’s humans often take Mogley & Co. to the parks and trails out there in beautious Colorado where they find all kinds of streams, lakes, ponds and swamps to gallup around in. Lucky duck! The pictures of such pre-meditated swamp swimmings (often done without human’s permission) are hilarious! We always get a great BOL when we see them and so does our human! She says it is so typical of us Golden Retrievers to take unsupervised swims before our humans know what we are getting into. Mogley also likes to run through the sprinkler!

From Mogley’s blog:

My Humans leave the key board of the computer on the fireplace hearth so I can write my own blog and tell you about the daily life of a Golden Retriever. I am a foster dog, living with a family that provided me a home when I was homeless. A poodle once said that golden retrievers can’t spell, but poodles can’t run spell check! Read the first blog, it was written by a human, but it gives you my history.”

Although Mogley says that he is a foster dog, we suspect that he is in his forever home.

We encourage everyone to go and check out A Dog’s Life, the Real Story, because it’s real true! We Goldens live like Kings (as do most of the dogs we have met in the pet blogosphere!). We visit Mogley on a daily basis to see what he is up to. His life is SO exciting!

Take care everyone and have a grrr-eat weekend

Love Benson and Gibson

Our father always takes us to get shaved for the summertime since our fur is so long and we prefer to spend summer days lounging around outside chewing sticks. We Golden Retrievers are known for our rich long fur so its always nice to be “naked” for the summer. Our Mother calls us “naked dogs” when we are shaved and we’re totally fine with that.

Here is me laying in my favorite position, the “froggy dog” position (as my sister so eloquently calls it):

And here is my brother lying on the carpeting waiting for everyone to go to bed for the night. Its harder to see his naked body since he is a white Golden Retriever:

In the meantime, my kitty kin is teaching my sister a lesson in how to actively ignore a human:

He prefers not to be bothered when he is outside spying on birds, chipmunks and mice.

It is raining all day today, boo hiss. We Golden Retrievers have to refrain from our normal spring activities of stick-chewing, squirrel- and bunny-chasing, and peeable-plant-finding.

I find comfort in the big brown leather couch my Father bought for me (how silly of him to think there should be room for humans to rest here at night).

While my brother seems to perfectly happy trolloping around the house flinging toys around and smiling for pictures…

Hopefully tomorrow the sun will shine again and we can venture to the park to roll in the mud when our Father isn’t paying attention.

Hello everyone,

I got an interesting reader question last week and I am hoping that some of you might have some input to answer this gentleman’s question. I do not have much experience with dog breeders.

Here’s the question and I hope to get some input from you guys! Thanks.

My problem with breeders is more on the light side. Say you want a dog. I’ve had Cairn terriers, Goldens, and I’m presently looking for an English Setter. I think it’s easy enough to look around, talk to a handful of breeders, and select a decent breeder. I believe that I’ve been fortunate enough to talk to a good number of caring, knowledgable, responsible breeders. The problem for me comes about when I want any kind of commitment from the breeder about my “place in line” and my ability to select a pup from an upcoming litter.

Most of the breeders I settle on here in WI only have one to three litters a year. I think this is good because we’re talking about responsible breeders who care about what they do and act responsibly in the breeding area. But when I ask if any pups will be available from the next litter I start getting the runaround: “I hate to tell you that you will get a dog because you may be very disappointed if this doesn’t actually happen so I’ll just tell you you’re on the list and maybe you will get a dog”.

What becomes clear over time is that a web of intrigue exists involving the breeder’s needs for future dogs, the stud dog owner’s pay-off (usually one pup from the litter), the needs of any breeder friends the litter owner is hoping to satisfy, ya-da, ya-da, ya-da.

Bottom line: if I’m just Joe average asking a good breeder to sell me a dog, I won’t get a straight answer about where I stand in line in the puppy selection process. I fully understand that litter sizes can be erratic. But if I’m willing to pay for a dog ahead of time, or place a substantial deposit, why can’t I be told that I will get, say, #2 choice or #3 choice or…?

It seems that the deck is strongly stacked against the family pet buyer or, in my case, the family pet buyer who entertains at least a thought of breeding his animal. Good, responsible, talented breeders don’t have too many litters per year and they keep most of the best dogs or sell them to breeder friends. A guy like me is going to get a decent dog, well cared for, well socialized, and with parents who have passed xray tests, etc., but is not going to get much of a pick of the litter and is not likely to get an animal worth breeding. Add to this the fact that the last two purebreds I bought in the last 10 years came with a contract I had to sign promising that I wouldn’t breed the dog (must be spayed/neutered to get AKC registry; what’s the point).

I like the idea that I’m getting a dog with parents certified against physical problems. I like talking to good breeders and getting insight into the breed. I like the care responsible breeders provide their pups.

I dislike the idea that I can’t seem to purchase a good breeding dog. I also strongly dislike the buying process, in which the breeder typically fibs to me about what’s going on. What’s going on is that I’m at the bottom of the food chain. I’m considered a “pet owner” and their’s no way a breeder is likely to give me desireable dog from the litter no matter how much I pay or how long I’m willing to wait.

I love dogs. I want to purchase an animal with the best chances of good health. I would like the possibility of breeding my dog. I only see this last possibility as feasible if the breeder will help out, as I know I don’t have the necessary knowledge to do this.

What do I have to do to get a first rate dog? Most breeders seem to have arranged for the sale of the most desirable pups and will only sell “pet” quality dogs to the general public.

Any thoughts?

John K.

PLEASE CROSS POST!

This is perhaps one of the most important petitions we can all sign. It calls for a boycott of all Amish products until they stop their inhumane and disturbing practices of running puppy mills.

Thanks so much to Dogster’s For the Love of Dog Blog for this information.

Here’s more information from the Boycott Amish products until puppy mills are discontinued petition.

“To: Amish & Mennonite puppy mills
I will boycott all Amish products until puppy mills are stopped. This is greed in its worst form and this is how consumers make their demands known. I simply will not buy Amish products while this practice continues.”

And before you start saying that boycotting Amish products will affect people who aren’t participating in puppy mills, think again. Amish communities are very closed to and extremely disinterested in what they call the “English.” That’s all of us, btw. Unless their leadership declares puppy mills are off limits, the Amish puppy millers will keep up their dirty work. The only way to convince these puppy millers to quit is to make the whole practice very expensive to the WHOLE community.