All Blog Posts (6,243)

Last weekend was quite eventful for our little family!  Once a year, sadly only once per year, the Dallas area pools close for the summer season, and on the magical day following, the pools are opened up for all of our canine friends -- Doggie Splash Days!  Way back in July, I started researching the best splash days to attend, and I decided on Mesquite and Rowlett, the same two that we attended last year because I liked them so much.  At a price of $5/dog, $1/human at Mesquite and…

Jeff and I have a running joke that our Milton is such an independent individual, unlike your typical loyal pup, that he could be happy living with just about anybody, as long as that person is capable of throwing a tennis ball.  This fact doesn't make us feel too good, but it is a fact.  Our goldendoodle just doesn't have an awful lot of family allegiance which at times can sting, but we do admire his self-sufficiency.  I would say that we are a bit more dependent on Milton for love…

Im sure many of us have a similar story, at least the first part.  The one where you are out for a walk with your dog, or at the dog park or maybe the  groomer,  and you see someone else with a doodle too (or whatever breed you both have) and you stop and exchange the usual pleasantries…”Oh cute doodle!”  “golden- or lab-?” “how old is yours?”  you smile and share a laugh about their antics and then eventually go on your way.

This story just happens to be a little…

I am due to be a grandma almost any day now.  My daughter is overdue by a few days and no matter how hard she thinks this pregnancy has been on her, it has been equally hard on me.  My daughter and I have a love/hate relationship.  I love to give advice and she hates to hear it.  I never got the memo that said moms are supposed to just listen, nod their head, and respond with nothing that amounts to actual words.  Megan is a researcher and I am a doer.  When she tells me she has researched a…

Hello, Belle here,

It had been a fairly dull week until Monday.  Dad Tom was working at a banking school in Madison and wasn’t around nearly as much as I’d like.  Yes we walked 2-3 miles in the morning.  But not only wasn’t he around during the day time, my huge dog park was closed.

But yesterday was a very special day.  Banker school is out so Dad Tom was around.  We went on our morning walk.  Then after I had a chance to rest, he started working with me on “Sit” and “Lay”. …

Our goldendoodle is a local celebrity!  Yesterday Milton was featured on the Life section of the Dallas News website with his picture as the opening shot for a slideshow of photos on Rowlett's Pooch Plunge, a doggie splash day.  We took this screen shot because Milt was sharing web space with... Rick Perry of all people!…

When I was younger, I used to love gymnastics.  I took gymnastics lessons and even spent a couple of summers at gymnastics camp.  Unfortunately, when you are tall as I was as a kid, it didn’t take a genius to realize that I didn’t really have a future in gymnastics, when I could place both hands on the top bar of the uneven parallel bars and still have my feet on the floor.  If I would have tried one of those fancy dismounts where I spun round and round from the top bar, I would have been…

Bruno, a year-old male Maltese was scheduled to be euthanized by the San Bernardino, California Shelter.  No one wanted to adopt poor Bruno.  Guess why?

In all our years of rescue work and the…

Happy Birthday Buddy Boy! He was a challenging puppy, but has become my best friend. He makes me smile and laugh everyday of my life (I could add swearing to that list too, but it's usually with a giggle).…

The ocean off San Diego is very warm (hopefully as a precursor to an El Nino event which will bring us much needed rain in the fall and winter.

An added benefit to the warm water is that we are experiencing a deluge of warmer water fish off our coast.  Local day boats are getting yellowfin and bluefin tuna as well as Mahi Mahi (AKA dorado).  I have been fishing twice and eating yellowfin tuna on the grill 2-times a week.  The dogs are also sharing in our bounty and they love…

There are several essential commands: "come!", "sit!", "down!" and "stay!" which make living with a dog easier and which could possibly save the dog from harm.  However, there is one, very easily taught command which, IMO, is also essential and which can also save the dog from harm.

"LEAVE IT!" Holly was taught this command at Therapy Dog Boot Camp.  It is used when a dog wants to pick up something that the handler doesn't want the dog to pick up.  This can be used anywhere, I…

Belle here,

Another week has gone by.  This is a picture of me enjoying MY deck.  I’m gaining confidence that I’ve finally found my forever home – enough that I’m beginning to reveal my naughty side.  Everyone thinks I’m so sweet and nice – especially my fan club members.    But before I went blind I was a feisty little girl.  I can feel my mojo coming back.…

Hello, my furry and non-furry friends.  Thanks for tuning in. I am celebrating my first birthday today.  It's time to break out the dog friendly cake and champagne, and sing The Beatles' "Happy Birthday" in a toast to my long and prosperous life.

I've had an eventful summer and I hijacked my human mom's blog in order to share the highlights with you. For more on what this dood with a 'tude has been up to, CLICK…

Remember the blog I just wrote where I got all touchy feely about sleeping with Fudge?  Well, scratch what I said and let me start over.  Circumstances have changed here and I now want to keep Fudge in a crate at night so she cannot touch me.  I think once I get done with my story, everyone will agree with me.

The other night, John had a business dinner and the dogs and I were home alone.  Now, normally this is a good thing, because when John says he won’t be home for dinner,…

You’ve heard Belle’s side of the story of her first two weeks.  Let me share mine. 

If you’ve re-homed multiple dogs, you begin to understand you don’t really know what you are going to get.  If you’ll give me a bit of latitude on the definition of re-homed, I’ve re-homed my last four dogs, the last two of which are rescues.

Dancer was bred to be a show dog.  As pure-bred collies go, he was drop dead gorgeous.   The problem was this dog was built to run.   He was way too much…

Lady Belle here,

In my last post I filled you in on my first two days in my forever home.  Today, I’m celebrating my two week anniversary.  I’m proud of the fact that my blog has a lot of readers.  Many of you are giving my new dad advice on how to bring me up.  It’s funny to watch him continually reevaluating how he’s doing things.

I want to share a funny story with you.  I heard dad saying the other day that our morning aerobic walks are designed to build MY cardiovascular…

We have had several very strong applications for Sully so I expect that he will be leaving us for his furever home soon.

Mia, the Maltese-mix who had such a difficult time and who almost died has been adopted.  Her new furever parents were kissing her as they left our house and she was kissing them in return.  Those are the moments that make all of our work worthwhile.

We are getting another Maltipoo today, and we will soon also be getting little Summer, Mia's daughter, because…

Google the terms “dog” or “canine” along with “cognitive maps” or “mind maps.”  You’ll be surprised as I was at how little is out there.  There are some technical manuscripts discussing theories on how the information is actually stored.  I don’t care how the information is stored.  More important to me is what is stored and how to make use of cognitive mapping in adapting a blind dog to her environment.…

I have never had a problem sleeping.  My oldest sister reads a book while she walks, can’t sit still for a minute and thinks naps are a waste of time.  We once went on a ski trip with her and her family and I felt like I was at boot camp with Jillian Michaels or the Energizer Bunny.  We would finish one activity and she would immediately want to know what we were doing next.  If I said we were going to our room to relax, she wanted to know for how long and if I gave her any kind of a…

Me: Lachlan, ummmmm, what are you doing?



Lachlan: Napping, duh.



Me: You do know that you're surrounded by more-comfortable places to nap, right?



Lachlan: M'comfortable. Shut up.



Me: You're stuck, aren't you?



Lachlan: Well ... yeah, a bit.



Me: Would you like a hand getting down?



Lachlan: If you…