Here's a reward to everyone who contacted their Representative to support H.1499, a bill that would help protect victims of domestic violence and their companion animals in Massachusetts. It's an add for Pedigree dog food, but it's also a beautiful, funny video of dogs! ` Since Shaun White couldn't be bothered to show up for the Closing Ceremonies, I had to look elsewhere for a snowboarding hero. When Dogs Snowboard from Mountain High Resort on Vimeo. Someone let me know if the link doesn't work. If it doesn't, you can access the stencils from the Dog-Breed Pumpkin Stencils slide show. In May, she participated in a study called "Cognitive Processing in Domestic Dogs", conducted by Professor Marc Hauser, Director of the Cognitive Evolution Laboratory at Harvard University. The idea of the experiment was to determine dogs' ability to think through a problem on the basis of the choices they make. I can't tell you about the experiment, because we never got to do it. Strummer never made it past the first warm-up exercise, during which she was supposed to learn how to interact with the experimenter. This kind of thinking about what motivates dogs, i.e. the dog works for food, assumes a very poorly trained dog. Any dog that has been trained, like Strummer, that the relationship with her human (not the food) is the reward for good behavior will fail this test. A pet dog, especially a well-trained pet dog, is not a tabula rasa. Most pet dogs have developed an understanding of what behavior is expected of them when it comes to food. Strummer, for example, eats her meals from her bowl, and she eats food that has been offered to her (she does not beg for food). We can put cheese and paté out on a coffee table and leave Strummer unattended in the room, and Strummer will not touch the food. By putting food in a container, the experimenter was inadvertently giving Strummer the choice to reward herself by stealing the food. That is not a choice that Strummer was willing to make. Apparently, Strummer was not the only dog to reveal the flaws in the design of the experiment. A member of the Lab stopped me and Strummer on Harvard's campus about a month ago and invited us to participate in an experiment. When I told her that we already had and that Strummer didn't do very well, she explained that they had redesigned the experiments. Yesterday, the Lab called and asked to make an appointment for an experimental session with Strummer. We're going back next week. If you would like to participate with your dog in studies to understand canine cognition, you can sign up online. James Carroll's beautiful and moving column today makes me feel really good about my advocacy for off-leash recreational areas in public open space. Socializing and exercising our dogs off-leash fulfills an evolutionary promise that we made made generations ago when we allowed wolves to scavenge food and shelter from our dwellings in return for services rendered. Somerville Mayor, Joe Curtatone, was a guest on Radio Boston this afternoon for a show about "Dog-Friendly Boston." Asked about allocating public money for dog parks, the Mayor laughed: "The last time I checked, we weren't writing checks to dogs." In all seriousness he explained, "people want to live in the urban core and you have to provide them with amenities and services". "Like New York,"he said, "we need to maximize and have the most flexible, dynamic open and recreation spaces." Curtatone addressed complaints that he has heard but, "overall," he said, In addition to the Mayor's comments, I especially liked the sequence with Adam Ragusea, Associate Producer for Radio Boston, who adopted his first dog a few months ago. Ragusea's story is the familiar story of city-dwellers who become dog owners. Since he adopted his dog, he has begun to visit parks he never visited before. Rausea and his border collie mix, Lucy, visit the off-leash parks in their Cambridge neighborhood: Pacific Street Park as well as Fort Washington Park. They also travel to visit parks: They take the Red Line to the Joe Wex Dog Recreation Space at Peters Park in Boston's South End, and they visit participating parks in the Green Dog Program in Brookline. I was interested to learn more about the Boston Dog Owner Group's proposal for expanding off-leash privileges in Boston Common. In addition to a designated area in the Common for off-leash recreation, they are working with the Beacon Hill Civic Association on establishing a secondary off-leash area that would rotate on a six-month schedule around three different sites in the Common. There's been a lot of brouhaha and hubbub in the local media about the pilot off-leash area at Cold Springs Park in Newton. It was refreshing to get a reality check from Amy Koel, Chair of the Newton Dogs Off-Leash Advisory Committee, who said that by reputation it's a lot more controversial than it is in reality. Koel's verdict on the pilot area: "it is working." (I thought it was cheesy on the part of Radio Boston that they played up Koel's PhD in human psychology, which has no bearing on her volunteer work in her community.) One caller from Somerville said that he was a former dog owner but would never own a dog again because he thinks that it is inappropriate to own dogs in the city. Matthew Parker, Vice-President of the New York Council of Dog Owner’s Groups (NYCdog, pronounced "nice dog") had a great reply: Parker sees people who are visiting from either other countries or the suburbs walk past the dog park in his neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY, and they marvel at how the dogs, both off leash and on leash, are very calm with each other and around people. That's a direct result of socialization, which dogs get a lot more of in the city than they do in the country. Puppies Behind Bars "Dog Tags" program provides free trained service dogs for veterans with physical or psychological wounds. There was a touching story yesterday in the Wall Street Journal about a psychiatric-service dog named Tuesday, a golden retriever, and his owner, Luis Carlos Montalvan, an Iraq war veteran. Five years ago, I blogged about Tyson the skateboarding bulldog. Today I'm pleased to bring you some of the sixty dogs that caught some waves in the fourth annual Loews Coronado Bay Resort Surf Dog Competition in San Diego. It's great to see the dogs practicing safe surfing. Most of them are wearing life-jackets and using their surfboard leashes. Who knew that surfing was on-leash recreation? The event raised $15,000 for the Modest Needs foundation, a non-profit that works to prevent poverty. I found a cute video about how owning a dog makes the world a better place. (I'm not sure what this has to do with Lexus, but there's a whole series of Puppy Love videos.) via e-mail Opening reception Sunday, December 7, 4 to 6 pm, Brickbottom Gallery (1 Fitchburg Street). This is a great exhibition: Eleven artists represent their much loved dogs! The show runs from December 4, 2008 to January 10, 2009. Viewers of City Tails on City Cable are familiar with a regular segment in which host Rob Auffrey asks people around the city to guess a local mutt's breed background. Auffrey's own mixed-breed dog, Max, was one of three mutts featured in an article on breed-identification DNA testing online on the Dog Channel. Max had two DNA tests: The Canine Heritage XL Breed Test, which which detects 108 breeds and is conducted by a painless cheek swab, and the Wisdom Panel MX Mixed Breed Analysis test, which detects 134 breeds and requires a simple blood test by a participating vet. What breeds are in Max? [via e-mail] The Arlington Dog Owners Group (A-DOG) is sponsoring the Arlington premiere of Prison Pups on May 22, at 7:30 p.m. at the Regent Theatre, 7 Medford Street, Arlington. "Relationships with dogs and other companion animals have numerous benefits to individuals of all ages, and to the community at large." This is the guiding principle of the Arlington Dog Owners Group, and it resonates in the film by Arlington resident Alice Dungan Bouvrie, who will be available to answer questions about the film at the screening. By taking on the responsibility of caring for a puppy, the inmates develop self-confidence and the capacity for nurturing and affection. This film, produced in cooperation with WGBH, won Best Documentary Award and has been the official selection at several other festivals. Corrections consultant, Kathleen M. Dennehy will introduce the film. Dennehy was the first woman appointed Commissioner of Correction in Massachusetts. Superintendent Lynn Bissonnette of MCI-Framinghm, who appears in the film and was instrumental in bringing the prison dog program to Massachusetts will also be available to answer questions. Tickets are available in advance for $8 from the Regent TheatreRegent Theatre box office at 7 Medford Street in Arlington Center (call 781-646-4849 or visit their website) or at the door May 22. Proceeds will benefit A-DOG and NEADS (Dogs for Deaf and Disabled Americans). Best Friends Pet Care, a national chain offering boarding, grooming, training and day camp, is improving the chance of survival of family pets in emergencies with their 'Cause for Paws' program, which provides pet resuscitation masks for community firefighters. The Best Friends Pet Care Center in Sudbury, in partnership with Save A Dog, a Massachusetts-based all-breed, all-volunteer dog rescue group, recently donated two sets of specially designed oxygen masks for use on dogs and cats to the Wayland Fire Department. According to an article in the Wayland Town Crier ("Helping pet rescue"), an anonymous Wayland pet owner donated to Best Friends Pet Care’s "Cause for Paws" program, which matches donated funds, then purchases the lifesaving masks for distribution to the fire departments targeted by the donor. Susan Adam, manager of Best Friends Sudbury Pet Care Center, and Shirley Moore, president of Save a Dog and Wayland’s Emergency Animal Response team leader, presented the donation to the Wayland firefighter Alexiss Wheeler and her dog, Tiller, on behalf of the Wayland Fire Department. See Prison Pups, a documentary about the Concord Farm prison's training program for service dogs, tomorrow, Saturday, November 4, at the Museum of Fine Arts! via e-mail Produced in association with the Filmmaker-In-Residence Lab at WGBH, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA Studio Cinema, Belmont, MA Berks County Film Festival, Reading, Pennsylvania Asheville Film Festival, Asheville, N.C Please check out the website for photos and more information: Les Masterson has an article about the film in the Arlington Advocate this week: "Training program assists dogs, inmates." Addressing the problem of dog waste in the streets of New York, Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, authors of the Freakonomics column in The New York Times Magazine want to know: "How do we deal with the occasional miscreant who fails to scoop?" ("Dog-Waste Management," October 2, 2005) In San Fransisco, irresponsible dog owners may soon create a niche for entrepreneurial collectors: the city is interested in a program that would recycle pet waste into methane "to power a turbine to make electricity or to heat homes," according to Reuters ("Dog poop--the next alternative energy source?" February 22, 2006,"). Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, authors of the Freakonomics column in The New York Times Magazine consider a high-tech proposal to the address the urban nuisance of dog poop that was proposed by Lauren Mecka, a sixth-grader from Hoboken, NJ : DNA sampling ("Dog-Waste Management," October 2, 2005). It's a good proposal. Both a video and the text of Ms. Mecka's address to the Hoboken City Council is archived online at edmecka.com, "The Hoboken Community Activist Website." According to Dubner and Levitt, DNA sampling has been proposed for dog waste management independently by civic leaders in Vienna and Dresden, where, unlike Hoboken, it is under consideration. In fact, it stands to reason that the typical licensed dog is less likely to offend than the typical unlicensed dog, since the sort of owner who is responsible enough to license his dog is also most likely responsible enough to clean up after it. How, then, to get all of New York's dogs licensed? How indeed? Mecka suggests Dubner and Levitt suggest paying people to license their dogs: via e-mail In Duboce Park, in San Francisco, Norcal Waste Systems, a solid waste management company, will be implementing a recycling program to collect dog feces in biodegradable baggies and convert it into methane gas. "The methane can be piped directly to a gas stove, heater, turbine or anything else powered by natural gas," as reported by Carolyn Jones, Staff Writer for the San Francisco Chronicle ("Powered by Pooches," February 21, 2006 ). Washington was concerned about foxhounds he had "adopted" from the Marquis de Lafayette that were in the care of John Quincy Adams, who had brought the dogs to New York from Europe. Washington's dogs were safe at home at Mount Vernon when he was supervising the construction of an earthenwork forts at what is now Fort Washington Park, located on Waverly Street in Cambridge. Today the park is one of four in the City of Cambridge where dogs are allowed off-leash. Combining historical considerations with consideration for the people who live in Cambridge today, the Cambridge Historical Commission has approved the temporary installation of fencing that will make the legal off-leash recreation area a safe area for off-leash recreation. The new fencing is not historically accurate; therefore with its approval of the temporary fencing, the Commission has stipulated that, within five years, the City must come up with a more harmonic alternative. "A dog's life is not very long," said Commission member Jo Solet. "And if we put off putting up the fence, it really is a sacrifice for the dogs and the people [who own them]." The creative compormise was reported in the Cambridge Chronicle on January 12. via the Cambridge Dog Owners Group (CDOG) Eighteen Somerville second-graders' descriptive essays about their favorite animal were printed in the June 30 issue of the Journal. Six essays were about dogs. Cats and bunnies tied for second, with two essays each. Other favorites include alligators, dolphins, horses, penguins, rats, seal pups, snakes, and tigers. Here are some of the ways that young Somervudlians describe the dogs they love. "Huskies are my favorite because they run fast." —Johnny G. "My dog is a Dalmatian. It has black and white spots. . . . I love my dog very much." —Natalie G. "A dog looks dappled like a dotted dress. . . . A dog is noisy like a crying baby. A dog is loud like my mom when she yells." —Ryan C. "My favorite animal is my dog, Bob. . . . Bob smells like his food." —Sarah P. "My favorite animal is a dog. . . . I like the pet because he's nice to people." —Tanya S. Bunnies and cats and tied for second with two essays each. Other favorites include alligators, dolphins, horses, penguins, rats, seal pups, snakes, and tigers. Have a great summer, and best wishes for third grade! Peaches was cloned last year from a cat named Mango, owned by Leslie Ungerer, who oversees most of the feline projects at Genetic Savings and Clone in Sausalito, CA. I wonder what Strummer would do if I brought her home in puppy form to meet herself. But I don't really want to know. There has never been and will never be another Strummer. … or how dogs may be smarter than wolves (and chimps, for that matter). "The human world is the dog's natural environment." —Vilmos Csányi, Chair, Department of Ethology, Loránd Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary. Boston.com today is running three photo galleries in the Fashion section under "Your Life" featuring dog fashion. "Pooches primp and hit the runway" starts out benignly enough: the first two slides feature Juneau, an American-Eskimo dog, at Fidough on Charles Street, and Oberon, a Wire-Fox Terrier, and Redwing Indian Wolf, a Collie, from Medford. But the remaining pictures are images from Target's "Doggie Show:" deformed dogs with deformed women (and men) on the other end of the leash. "Dog Fashion Show" includes a couple of gifts for the dog who has everything, a $500 winter coat made from bobcat fur and a $2,500 necklace by Spanish designer Antonio Menendez. While the necklace is at least something the dog's owner could borrow, a bobcat-fur dog coat does nothing to strengthen the bond between an owner and her dog. For $500, on the other hand, she could buy eighteen weeks of positive training classes at Canine University in Malden. "Pups as accessories" is basically a photo essay on animal cruelty. An expensive Tiffany necklace, however, is still the better-buy: It doesn't have razor sharp teeth, it doesn't have to be house-trained, it doesn't have to be taken out first thing in the morning in the dark, rain, cold..., and it doesn't mind if you only take it out once a year. Toy and Teacup dogs are, in the apt words or Mark Derr, "mutants maintained to feed human vanity." In Dogs Best Friend: Annals of the Dog-Human Relationship (1997), Derr observes To be fair, since I have become a dog-owner, I have developed an appreciation for small dogs. I was won over by Cassie, a Maltese who is known in the environs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to cavort with dogs many times her size and weight. Yesterday she was fetching a stick that was four times her length! Derr is an avowed big-dog person, but his irritation is less with small dogs themselves than with breeding practices that produce physiologically unsound animals. Derr is, in fact, quite the fan of "feists" and some hunting terriers that "uphold the honor of small dogs." Ahmed Tharwat, producer and host of the Arab/Muslim-American television show Belahdan in Minnesota's Twin Cities, describes his first social experience as a dog owner: Tharwat cautions dog-owners, however, not to use their dogs to reach out across the cultural divide to their Muslim neighbors: Dog-owners are reminded that sit-to-greet is the preferred behavior of a dog that is being introduced to a friendly stranger. via a Letter to the Editor in the October 4, 2004 Bostson Globe. Historically, poodles were groomed for practicality for field-training, hunt tests, and so on. According to the Poodle History Project, the benefits of the "historically-correct working-Continental" clip are as follows: training each other in acts of communication we barely understand The book that was most influential in our family's decision to adopt a dog was, without qualification, Donna Haraway's The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness. Haraway's representation of the human-canine relationship helped me convince my husband--who has pet allergies, who never had a pet as a child, and (the most significant obstacle to his being persuaded) who frequently complained that the problem with people who have dogs is that their only topic of conversation is their dogs--that owning a dog would enrich our lives. One of Haraway's explicit goals in the book is to offer "even the dog phobic--or just those with their minds on higher things-- . . . arguments and stories that matter to the worlds we might yet live in" (3). Strummer was in a small way made possible by Haraway's work. I heard Haraway speak about companion species twice in 2002. Her emphasis on the problems that arise for both dogs and for people when people treat dogs as furry children or as animated stuffed animals rather than as adult members of an other species impressed me for its common sense. The Companion Species Manifesto, covering in relatively few pages a wide range of topics relating to dogs--from their co-evolution with humans to their current situation coexisting in the world with humans who do not necessarily acknowledge that co-evolution and co-existence--serves as a handy reference to other works of interest to dog-people. Haraway does an excellent job of addressing ambivalence in general, cautioning that "companion species cannot afford evolutionary, personal or historical amnesia" (82). In particular, the later sections, covering the breeds the author lives with and loves, Great Pyrenees (livestock guardian dogs) and Australian Shepherds (herding dogs), as well as dogs needing, with a nod to Virginia Woolf (Wolf, Woof), "a category of one's own" offer a little food for thought on the controversies surrounding both purebred and rescued dogs. An historian of science, feminist theorist and a poet of a kind, Haraway writes in a style that may be off-putting to the reader who is first-and-foremost interested in doing right by her or his dog, but Haraway's labored language highlights the kind of effort that must be invested in any attempt to understand a being that does not speak your language. "The recognition that one cannot know the other or the self, but must ask in respect for all of time who and what are emerging in relationship is key" (50). Kinda reminds you of Rilke: Haraway also explains the problems I've been having teaching Strummer to fetch a ball: Strummer may in fact be, like Haraway's mixed-breed dog, Roland, a meta-retriever. Every person is a potential dog person. The online dating service, match.com missed an opportunity by targeting its recent social mixer Singles and Pets Mingle--at Somerville's own Pet Spa--to singles who already have pets. How many dateless people out there are also dogless? Why not give people a chance to end their datelessness as well as their doglessness at the same time? And, really, new relationships are fragile enough as it is without a young couple's having to deal with cultivating a relationship between their two dogs as well. Did match.com hand out educational materials about introducing pets when combining households? Another online dating service, Animal Attraction, caters specifically to "pet lovers." According to their website, they are "proud to team up with The Humane Society of the United States [HSUS]--exclusive provider of the most reliable and up-to-date pet care tips." But I couldn't find any information for couples about introducing their pets to one another on either the Animal Attraction site or on the HSUS site. In her book, Successful Dog Adoption (Indianapolis: Wiley [Howell], 2003), Sue Sternberg devotes a chapter to "Adding Another Dog." While her tips are not irrelevant to dog owners who move in together, nonetheless, the situation of a family that owns a dog or dogs and is considering adopting another dog is very different from that of two dog owners who move in together. The family that Sternberg advises always has the option not to add another dog. Dog owners whose dogs are not compatible have two very different options: break-up or get rid of one (or both) of the dogs. The website, "Doggie Door to Canine Behavior," offers tips for Introducing Two Dogs, but, ultimately, concedes that "some dogs are used to being the only dog and do not wish to 'visit' or 'meet' anyone else for any length of time." Here, too, the final word is that the responsible dog owner must be prepared to "reconsider your plans to add a new dog to the family." Which brings me back to the beautiful potential that there is a dog person within each of us. If you are dateless and dogless, go out to the local dog park and meet the dogs. Dogs are great icebreakers. Just remember, the rules of engagement are sitll the same: it's the person, not the dog, with whom you wish to cultivate a relationship. Be friendly toward and respectful of the human first, he or she will help you to be friendly to and respectful of the dog. As far as I know, Somerville does not have a skatepark. Skateboarders are invited to join forces with Somerville dog owners in the interest of creating a dog skate park. Admittedly the constituency of potential users for a dog skate park is one, and he lives, not surprisingly, in Huntington Beach, California. I'm ashamed to admit that Tyson, the Skateboarding Bulldog, has better control of his board than I ever did. In my defense, my board was a yellow plastic "Banana Board." Skateboarding Bulldog via Boston Pooch* *UPDATE 22 February 2006: The Boston Pooch site is, alas, defunct. Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute in Seattle, Washington, have been involved in two recent studies of dog genetics. In March, the results of a study by Deborah Lynch of the Canine Studies Institute in Aurora, Ohio, and Jenny Madeoy, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute were widely reported. Lynch and Madeoy concluded that all contemporary dog breeds descend from "ten progenitor breeds" and propose groupings of contemporary breeds according to these ancestries, which differ from the American Kennel Club's seven groups. In May the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center again made headlines. The center's Elaine Ostrander and colleagues confirmed that selective breeding has resulted in distinct genetic differences between breeds. Pedigree dogs, it turns out, may facilitate research into inherited diseases, because, unlike the human population, the inbreeding in pedigree dogs produces many subjects with "the same genetic disposition" to a given disease. This boon to researchers, of course, is the bane of pure-bred dog owners. Take, for example, the Standard Poodle. The website, Versatility in Poodles lists a daunting number of congenital disorders in the Standard Poodle gene pool, including hip dysplasia, sebaceous adenitis, progressive retinal atrophy, cataracts, Von Willebrand?s disease, thyroid malfunction, Addison?s Disease, auto immune hemolytic anemia, Juvenile Renal Disease, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease, and gastric torsion/bloat. (John Armstrong writes, in "The Nature of Genetic Disease" (2000 rev.), available online at The Canine Diversity Project, that some "genetic diseases" are, in fact, conformational problems: "If the fancy as a whole decides that a taller, narrower dog looks more "refined," more of that description will be kept for breeding purposes, and the population will be shifted toward a more bloat-prone conformation.") Through selective breeding of dogs, the modern breeds have been developed. Historically, selective breeding was practiced to achieve functional results: dogs who could hunt badgers, chasing them into and retrieving them from their underground holes, i.e. the Dachshund; dogs who could withstand the arctic climate and pull heavy loads, i.e. the Siberian Husky and the Alaskan Malamute; dogs who could kill foxes, i.e. the Fox Terrier. Today, as evidenced by the AKC's breed standards, selective breeding is concerned almost entirely with morphology, which is to say appearance. A sad example of this is the sloping hind-quarters of the German Shepherd Dog, which makes the breed highly susceptible to arthritis. Other sad examples include the stunted snout of the Pug, which causes respiratory problems, and the oversized skull of the English Bulldog, which exceeds the capacity of the birth canal, requiring surgery in order for puppies to be delivered. (See, for example, The Millennium Bulldog Club of Pretoria (South Africa), General guidelines for breeding Bulldogs, "Caesarian or not," and Celeste A. Clements' article "Breed Spotlight on Pugs: Not Just Another Pretty Face".) In The New Work of Dogs: Tending to Life, Love, and Family (New York: Randon House [Villard], 2003), Jon Katz argues that most dogs in America today have the task of "attending to the emotional lives" of their owners. Yet, the ability to do this work is not something that is being selected for by dog breeders. In general, no one is selectively breeding for the qualities that make a good pet. If you are looking for a good dog for a pet, you are just as likely to get one from an animal shelter or rescue organization as from a breeder. The Dog Owner's Guide offers several considerations of the pros and cons of owning a mixed breed dog. Rescue organizations differ from animal shelters in that the former do not have kennels, in which an assortment of dogs from which you may choose are housed. Rescued dogs are housed individually with foster families who socialize and train the dogs before the dogs are deemed "adoptable." Most likely, a dog adopted from a good rescue organization will be house-trained and will have the foundation of the basic obedience commands. Additionally, the foster family should have introduced the dog to a lot of different people and other household pets; therefore, the dog should have a rudimentary understanding of how to behave among humans in our homes and in our world. All Breed Shelters The Animal Rescue League of Boston has four adoption centers--in Boston, Dedham, East Brewster and Pembroke--and offers dog training classes (for owned animals and those adopted from ARL) at all of their animal centers. At Buddy Dog Humane Society, in Sudbury, "adoption counselors work with potential adopters to match them with a friend for life." Boston's captured strays, as well as pets that are unclaimed by their owners, are available for adoption at the City of Boston Animal Shelter, run by Boston Animal Control, in Roslindale. The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) has seven animal care and adoption centers in Boston, Methuen, Cape Cod, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Brockton and Springfield. All Breed Rescue Organizations Boston Dog Rescue in West Roxbury rescues dogs from local pounds and shelters, as well as shelters in the south. All dogs available for adoption reside in foster homes. Save A Dog rescues adoptable dogs from southern shelters. Their dogs reside in foster homes, but Save A Dog holds occasional adoption events at local pet service providers (kennels, pet supply stores), where you can "Meet and Greet" dogs that are available for adoption. Somerville dog fanciers and film buffs can get together at the Central Library, Wednesday, April 28, 2004, for a screening of Alice Bouvrie's "Iditarod ... A Far Distant Place," narrated by Susan Sarandon. Additional information about the film and its Boston University educated director are included under Library Notes in this week's Somerville Journal.March 2, 2010
Eye Candy
March 1, 2010
Bulldogs, The Pet for the Extreme Pet Owner
October 27, 2009
Carve your Jack-o-lantern to Match Your Dog!
Better Homes and Gardens has pumpkin stencils of different dog breeds. You have to register for their website to download the stencils, but it's free.
October 2, 2009
Call Backs!
Strummer has been called back for a second experimental session at the Canine Cognition Lab.
During the first few warm-up exercises the dog was supposed to learn that the experimenter provides food and that the food is often hidden in a container. Strummer's "problem" was that I was not allowed to give her any feedback or information about what I wanted her to do. The experimenter used no verbal cues: The food was to be her reward.
September 28, 2009
Dog Park Poetry
"The park is an artificial space necessary to the urban setting, with raked gravel instead of soil, piped water, and escape-proof gates, but that does not prevent the dogs from returning, for the span of our visit, to a state of nature that soothes even those of us who are mere observers."
"[T]his bond is what we contemplate in beholding dogs as wonders, recognizing creatures who would lead humans back into the natural awareness on which Earth’s survival now depends."
August 7, 2009
Somerville, like NYC: Model of Urban Living
the response has been extremely positive. Whether it's from residents who have just moved here, or have been here for a long time who have pets--and I have two dogs--or people from out of town who visit here and say "That's an incredible commitment to urban living!" I think that, if we want Somerville, like NY does, to be a model of urban living, you need to have those amenities. It's a great use of tax dollars.
July 12, 2009
Service Dogs for Servicemen and Women
June 23, 2009
Dogs Surf to Fight Poverty
February 7, 2009
Puppy Love
December 3, 2008
Best in Show: Artists and Their Dogs
September 14, 2008
Local Mutt Gets National Press
a) Samoyed, Alaskan Malamute, Greyhound
b) Pomeranian, Keeshond, Poodle
c) Dachshund, Miniature Schnauzer
d) English Bulldog, German Pinscher, HarrierMay 19, 2008
Prison Pups at the Regent Theatre in Arlington
Prison Pups is a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the life of four inmates at New England Correctional Center, a minimum-security facility in Concord, as they raise and train assistance dogs for the NEADS (Dogs for Deaf and Disabled Americans) program based in Princeton, MA.
March 4, 2007
Wayland Pets Breathe Easier
November 3, 2006
Prison Pups Screenings
Filmmaker Alice Bouvrie's documentary, PRISON PUPS won the Best Documentary Award at the Berks County Film Festival in Reading, PA! (See below) Here are the upcoming screenings for PRISON PUPS. We hope you can come to one of them!
Saturday Nov 4, 2006 at 2:40pm
Remis Auditorium, 465 Huntington Ave, Boston
(617) 369-3306 Tickets will go on sale mid-October
Monday, Nov. 13, 2006 at 7:30pm
376 Trapelo Road, Belmont, MA (617-484-1706)
Saturday Nov. 11 at 12:00pm
Prison Pups is the "Best Documentary" winner!
The Abraham Lincoln (A Wyndham Historic Hotel) The Washington Room
(www.berkscountyfilmfestival.com)
Saturday, Nov. 11 at 11:00AM
Asheville Community Theater, 35 E. Walnut Street, Asheville (828-254-1320)
www.mineralkingproductions.comAugust 19, 2006
One man's trash
Back in New York the sociopaths are inspiring a local art movement: Sprinkle Brigade. One of my favorite installations is the recent (August 6, 2006) "Law and Order," in the West Village.July 22, 2006
So Simple a Child Could have Thought of It
It might cost about $30 million to establish a DNA sample for all the dogs of New York. If people stop violating the law, then New York has spent $30 million for cleaner streets; if not, the $30 million is seed money for a new revenue stream.
Unfortunately, there's a big drawback to this plan. In order to match a pile of poop with its source, you will need to have every dog's DNA on file - and in 2003, the most recent year on record, only 102,004 dogs [estimated to be 10% of all dogs] in New York were licensed. Even though a license is legally required, costs a mere $8.50 a year and can be easily obtained by mail, most dog owners ignore the law, and with good reason: last year, only 68 summonses were issued in New York City for unlicensed dogs. So even if the DNA plan were enacted today, most offenders would still go unpunished.
conducting an annual doggie- registration day, [which] could be sponsored by one or more of the major dog food companies held in the spring and promoted as a fun-filled day for pooches and owners alike.
Instead of charging even a nominal fee, the city may want to pay people to license their dogs. And then, instead of treating the licensing law as optional, enforce it for real. Setting up random street checks for dog licenses may offend some New Yorkers, but it certainly dovetails nicely with the Giuliani-era ''broken windows'' approach to low-level crime.
March 5, 2006
Poop Power
January 13, 2006
Local History
War is declared on the canine species in New-York, and they being strangers, and not having formed alliances for self-defense, but on the contrary, distressed and friendless may have been exposed not only to war, but to pestilence and famine also (George Washington to William Grayson [his assistant secretary and aide-de-camp during the American Revolution], August 22, 1875, quoted by Mark Derr in A Dog's History of America, p. 74).
July 5, 2005
1 out of 3 second graders prefer dogs
"My favorite animal is the dog. . . . Its fur feels nice and relaxing." —Jamie K.
May 28, 2005
Pleased to Meet Me
"They are fast friends," she said of mother and clone, who spend part of their time at the lab and part at her home. ("Hello Kitty, Hello Clone," By Anne Eisenberg, New York Times, May, 28, 2005)
April 13, 2005
"Clever Canines" in the Chronicle of Higher Education
February 25, 2005
A dog is not an accessory
Just as expensive as a Tiffany necklace, teacup and toy dogs have become the new fashion must have.
Like the Pekingese, some are acondroplastic drawfs with bowed and stunted legs, a punched-in face (brachycephalic head) and exaggerated coat. Others, like the Pomeranian, are midgets or ateliotic dwarfs, well-proportioned miniaturized dogs. . . . Nearly all of theses aminals—pugs, Boston terriers, Yorkies, Scotties, toy poodles, miniatureized spaniels, Maltese, Shih tzus, among them—are at the limit of their biological viability, unable to whelp naturally or exist without human intervention. Some are so distorted in temperament and appearance that it is hard to consider them dogs at all . . . . Many are unable to digest their food or relieve themselves properly. For all their problems they remain popular among people who want canine companions but consider real dogs too much bother.
November 24, 2004
Dogs and Diversity
I noticed something new was happening out there, something Arab-Americans have rarely experienced since Sept. 11. People on the street, in their cars, in the parking lot, and at the supermarket were giving me a new look?a friendly one. Strangers who used to skillfully avoid eye contact now wanted to engage me in warm conversation. . . . . Families congregated around me with their children to see the cute puppy. . . .
In Islamic tradition, Muslims are prohibited from touching the saliva of dogs. If you do come in contact with a dog, you're supposed to wash your hands seven times before you pray. Most Muslims will avoid dogs at all cost to stay clean for their daily prayers.
October 7, 2004
A sleeping dog this poodle owner can't let lie
The National Rifle Association is running an ad portraying, among other things, a Standard Poodle as a dog that "don't hunt," which is funny, because around the world the Standard Poodle has been recognized as--and bred to be--a gun dog. Unlike the American Kennel Club, which classifies dogs according to morphology and includes the Standard Poodle in the Non-Sporting Group, the United Kennel Club, which "supports the idea of the 'total dog', meaning a dog that looks and performs equally well," judges the Standard Poodle in the Gun Dog Group.
In the late 1980's, Standard Poodles, the original duck-dogs, were fully eligible to participate in C[anadian] K[ennel] C[lub]'s WC/I/X tests (rules adopted in 1981 for implementation in 1982; approval to allow SPs to run probably given in late 1985, since first SP title was awarded in June 1986); the United Kennel Club's Hunting Retriever Club's tests (UKC categorization enabled SPs to participate from the tests' inception); and to a limited degree in N[orth] A[merican] H[unting] R[etriever] A[ssociation] tests (Poodles became fully eligible in the early 1990s). In June, 1993, the Poodle Club of America initiated a retriever Working Certificate programme, the required pre-requisite for eligibility to participate in the AKC's retriever Hunting Tests. In 1996, the CKC initiated retriever Hunt Tests (AKC Hunting Tests lookalikes) for which Standard Poodles were eligible from their inception. As of 1 September 1998, Poodles are eligible to participate in AKC Hunting Tests (The Poodle History Project).the dog's legs don't cake with heavy mud, yet the hair is long enough in the short parts to protect against brambles (but doesn't pick them up as hitch-hikers), the dog can swim easily, yet has enough hair in the moderate jacket to keep dry and warm at the skin in cold water and brisk wet windy weather. By contrast, the modern Sporting Clip leaves longer hair on the legs where it gathers heavy mud, and, when wet, the shorter hair on the body curls tightly, leaving skin exposed to cold wind.
August 15, 2004
Better than "unconditional love"
Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue to exist, a wonderful living side by side can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see each other whole against the sky.
July 23, 2004
Dateless (and dogless) in Somerville
June 26, 2004
Dog Skate Park
June 2, 2004
Breed or Species
April 23, 2004
Dogs going the distance
