Happy Mutt Day!

Hug your mutt today. Don't have one? Hug someone else's.

July 31, 2009 is

Mutt's Day

Mutts are often viewed by purebred dog owners and the public as being at a lesser value than purebred dogs. However, mutt dog owners know better than that!

They merit their dog's uniqueness and diversity. They know that their mutt doesn't need to walk around to prove anything to the other dogs or dog owners. And they know that their dog certainly deserves a day of celebration for their mixed breed heritage.

So take your mutt for a walk today, or better yet, if you don't own a mutt dog, today is a perfect opportunity to go adopt one!

Frisbeedogging--Ur doing it wrong

Mojo and Karma are doing it right though.

Puppy Playtime

First up, puppy playtime. It's a free class that Holly offers to help socialize puppies.











We put up the puppy playground today, which is basically XS agility equipment, and had lots of fun introducing them to the pups.









Afterwards, we were left with bored, sleep-deprived trainers, and a puppy playground. Hilarity ensued.




And I know, I totally should have known better. Always carefully supervise children when playing with dogs. Kid stole the dog treat I was using to lure Duke through the tunnel. Twice. Poor Duke.

Duke met a cat today

Three cats actually. I needed to let my brother-in-laws pups out today, but I was returning from a frisbee demo and had Duke with me. Duke's met their dogs before but he's never been that close to a cat. I figured the cats could go out of Duke's reach if he annoyed them, and I'd keep him on leash just in case.

Ember, the calico kitty, greeted us at the door. Duke was curious, but in a "that's a funny looking dog" sort of way, not a "I'm going to eat you now" way. I shooed her away to make sure she didn't explore the great outdoors while Duke and I came in. Bug, the fluffy yellow cat, was laying on a table, and Duke walked right up to her and sniffed hello. Ironic, because Bug would have run away from me if I walked up to her. But no.....strange dog can walk right up and say hi.

I let all the dogs outside to do their business and the ritualistic "omg, there's a new dog amongst us, must.mark.everything!" Wilbur, one of BIL's pugs, was strangely fascinated by Duke and kept following him. Meanwhile, Duke was nervous and kept trying to get away from Wilbur. I laughed at my poor big dog getting chased around by a little pug.

We all came back inside, and Blue, the third cat, was perched and on high alert because this thing was in his house. The thing was still being chased around by Wilbur, so he didn't notice Blue at first. On his ninth lap round the kitchen island, Duke finally noticed Blue. By this point, Blue had lost interest in him, so he was just resting. Duke cautiously approached him from behind, but Blue heard him, looked up and gave Duke the stinkeye. And then Duke turned around and decided to go the other direction.

Right before we left, I went to love on Ember, and Duke started to follow me. Until Ember meowed. Not a "go away" meow...just a "love me, I love to be petted" meow. And Duke the not-so-brave ran away. The boy might be able to get awards for stupid pet tricks, but for bravery in the face of a 10 pound cat...not so much.

Why we use Jawz frisbees, by Duke

This is what club frisbees look like after two minutes of play. Two minutes.


This is what a Jawz looks like after 8 months of play. They cost $15, versus $1.50 for the club frisbees, but I think we can all agree that it's well worth the cost.

Duke is almost a therapy dog!

Duke passed the Therapy Dogs International evaluation! He's a vet visit and some paperwork away from providing some puppylove therapy.

Since he already had his Canine Good Citizen, the evaluator just needed to test him on a few things, namely how well he did around other dogs (easy to evaluate when you're at a huge dog show), how he did with wheelchairs and medical equipment (again, easy to evaluate when there's huge crowds), and how well he did "leave-it" around food. Fortunately for me, Duke has figured out that humans are mean and that food we place on the ground isn't necessarily for him. If I put food down on the ground, he usually ignores it. So the evaluator put a piece of pepperoni on the ground and told me to walk as close to it as I could, and I could give a small leash correction or verbal correction, but not to let him have it. Duke practically walked right over the food and didn't even look at it. Yay Duke!

There's another therapy dog group I recently learned about (Bright and Beautiful Therapy dogs) that I'm also considering. However, you can't be members of multiple therapy dog groups at a time, so I do need to choose within the next couple months. I had already made arrangements for Duke to be tested through TDI when I learned about Bright and Beautiful, so I went ahead with the test. Bright and Beautiful seems to be a larger group and more organized in my area, so I am leaning towards it, but right now my options are open.

Dog, how can this possibly be comfortable?