Tag Archives: animals

Iowa Dogs at the University

Posted on by
8

No, the University of Iowa isn’t admitting dogs (though I would much rather room with a dog than some random human). I’m referring to a new course at the University, taught by Mary Trachsel (who I met through the Iowa Humane Alliance). The course is called Dogs Inside and Out, and Mary was kind enough to send me the syllabus. Basically, the students will be reading, writing, and talking about dogs all semester! Who wouldn’t want to take that class? Kids these days have it made. The main text they’ll read for the course is Man Meets Dog, by Konrad Lorenz, which I haven’t read, and they’ll read parts of Inside of a Dog, by Alexandra Horowitz, about which I have read (and I have been meaning, and meaning, to post a review–stay tuned). The most exciting part of the class is that they will do final projects pursuing a question of interest about dogs–anything from how dogs interact with each and with humans at the dog park, to how dogs are represented in adolescent literature, or the position of dogs in a certain community (these are all examples that Professor Trachsel provided). Hopefully I’ll get to hear about their completed projects, and I will pass on what I learn.

This class at Iowa isn’t a pioneer in dog-related college courses; dogs stormed the halls of our higher-learning institutions a few years ago (and there have been animal-related courses that included dogs at the University of Iowa). My friend Debra Pughe wrote an excellent article for Bark magazine called Studying the Dog, which explores collegiate courses, literature, and research that centers on dogs. The canine academics include the philosophical exploration of humans’ interactions with dogs, representations of dogs in art and literature, dogs and public policy, canine cognition, and much more. I highly recommend reading it, though it may make you wish you were a college kid once again.

Would you sign up for Dogs Inside and Out (or another dog-related college course)?

A Visit with Wizard Dog

Posted on by
2

Duke and Gertie got to visit Wizard Dog (aka Lucy the dachsund) at her new house this evening. At her house, she can not only walk along the back of the couch and hide behind it, she can crawl under it! Duke was mystified. It’s always intriguing to watch big dogs and little dogs interact. Gertie often took the role of protector, getting in between Duke and Lucy if she thought the play was getting too vicious.

Tough doxie!

Maybe Lucy was just showing off her game face for the big race this Saturday (the Wiener Dog Race at Oktoberfest in Galena). She plans to show up at the race site, hop on the registration table, and demand to know the whereabouts of last year’s winner. She will then strut up to him and call him a fatty (because, as you may have read in this post, he has gained two pounds since his big win—and two pounds in Dachshund World is like a hundred pounds for humans).

Here is Lucy in her gangsta warmup outfit:

Intimidating, huh?

Gertie and Duke think that an athlete of Lucy’s caliber needs bodyguards. So they’ll be wearing black SECURITY t-shirts, walking in front of her and growling at the other dogs who try to get too friendly.

In unrelated dog news from the internet, I found this story about a Pug Social in Vermont. It reminded me of my daydream to gather as many boxers as possible in one park. We would, of course, have to get a group picture. It would be mass chaos with all of those goofy dogs but such cute mass chaos! Maybe Mid-Iowa Boxer Rescue would host an event like this. This one was hosted by a pug rescue group, I believe.

Anyway, wish Wizard Dog good luck this Saturday! I will be excited to report on all of the details of the event, including the race heats, semi-finals, and finals, the crowning of Wiener Dog King and Queen, the costume contest, and the doxie parade.

What mystifies your dogs? Who are your dogs’ friends? Have you ever been to a Wiener Dog Race? (Lots of questions today!)

Dog Days of Fall

Posted on by
16

Whoever decided the muggiest, ickiest days of summer should be call the “dog days” obviously did not have a dog. Tomorrow is the first day of fall, and these are the dog days–crisp, cool mornings that encourage friskiness and afternoons temps in the 60s and 70s, with some sunshine for basking and breezes to carry scents.

I’ve seen many dogs enjoying walks on the bike trail, schoolyards, Noelridge Park, and all around town. I have wished a few times lately that I had a forehead-mounted camera ready to capture happy doggie moments. It seems like dogs and their people have been in a good mood this week, really enjoying these easy temperatures and the first glimpses of autumn colors in the trees. Gertie and Duke have enjoyed walks around the neighborhood and Bever Park, as well as frolicking in their yard and outdoors at Dog Zone.

Autumn here we come!

Gertie and her treasure ball.

Ah, love this weather!

What is your dog’s favorite weather? What do you and your dog like about fall?

Upcoming DoggiEvents: Off to the Races

Posted on by
1

PAWS in the Park

PAWS in the Park–Cedar Rapids Animal Care and Control will be hosting the first annual PAWS in the park this Saturday, September 24 in Noelridge Park. Race-day registration begins at 9:00, with the races starting at 10:30. The event includes two fun run/walks, pet contests, and vendors, and it will raise money for the Spay and Neuter Fund. I will probably miss the event, but it sounds like a lot of fun. Hopefully Duke, Gertie, and I can make it next year!

Source

Galena Oktoberfest Wiener Dog Race–The Galena Lions Club is hosting Oktoberfest on October 1, and it includes a Wiener Dog Race! l am pretty excited to see this race action–Tom and I are going with our friends Chandra and Andrew and their doxie Lucy (“Wizard Dog” to Duke and Gertie). The gossip on Main Street Galena is that last year’s winner has put on two pounds, so the field is wide open. We plan to bring a winner home to Cedar Rapids (meaning that we expect Lucy to win–no pressure Wizard Dog–not that we are going to dog-nap the winning wiener dog). I’d like to take Gertie and Duke to the race to cheer, but I’m pretty sure Gertie would enter the race by force. We may be taking them with us for the weekend, though, and staying at Galena Log Cabin Getaway, where they can rub furry elbows with alpacas and goldendoodles. I’ll report back on our stay!

Source--He looked kind of like this, but with a more distinguished goatee and slightly darker fur.

On another note, don’t you love when you’re sitting at a stoplight, and you absent-mindedly look out your window, smile at the passenger in the car next to you, then do a double-take and realize it’s a dog? I “met” a goldendoodle this way today. He was very handsome, with a thick goatee and honey-colored fur. I hadn’t seen a goldendoodle with that shade of fur, but I specifically rolled down my window to ask his dad what kind of dog he was ’cause I just had to know. Gertie does this sometimes. No, she doesn’t roll down the car window and talk to people, but she’ll lie down on the car seat after a long day of play at the Dog Zone, and then pop up at stoplights and surprise people. I love seeing those surprised smiles on people’s faces.

Do you know of any dog events happening in Iowa or surrounding states this fall? Do you ogle dogs in cars?

Would You Punch a Bear?

Posted on by
Reply

(AP Photo/Juneau Empire, Michael Penn)

No? Not even to save your dog from being carried off like a salmon? The Gazette recently ran an article about an Alaska woman who punched a bear to save her dachsund. You can read it here. Normally if I read about someone punching a bear, I would feel bad for the bear and angry at the assailant. And many people probably think she’s just plain crazy for risking her life. But I totally understand her impulse to save her dog. Luckily we don’t have black bears here in the Midwest, but I would do just about anything to save Gertie or Duke. I have jumped in front of Gertie when a seemingly aggressive dog charged us on the street (he turned out to be all kisses), but I’ve never punched a wild animal.

Would you punch a bear to protect your dog?

And apparently the Gazette employs some dog lovers (yay!) because just a few days later, they ran this article about the dog with the longest ears (according to the Guinness Book of World Records). I guessed it was a basset hound, but I was wrong. (I’m leaving the picture out so you can take a guess.) As a lifelong lover of dog ears (so silky!), I say bravo.

Were you right? What did you guess?

Happiness Illustrated

Posted on by
2

Disney World what? According to Gertie and Duke, The Farm, not the Disney park, is the happiest place on earth.

The shirt says it all.

They romped and stomped and bounded. They impersonated a thundering herd. They hunted mice in a staccato duet–Gertie: pounce, lunge, point and freeze. Duke: spring, stomp, freeze–alert. Back and forth.

They sipped from the pond at sunrise and splashed in the muddy waters.

They were wild things, running free.

And even after this:

They were lovey dogs in the big red truck:

But after the ears-flapping-in-the-wind, jowls-bouncing joy came the make-me-gag, Could-You-Be-More-Disgusting? incident. Apparently, during his third trip to the farm, when I was so proud that he was bold enough to explore the woods on his own, Duke ate some deer dung. But I didn’t notice when he emerged from the woods, when I could have washed his mouth out in the pond. No, I didn’t find out until later–when he barfed it up on the living room carpet. I will spare you the details, but something meant to come out the back end of a wild animal projecting from the front end of a dog is just as gross as you would imagine. And I spent more than an hour blotting the carpet. Ugh. But I suppose it was worth it for all of that happiness; I’ve just told Duke that if he’s going to eat poop, he should have the decency to keep it down.

What’s the most disgusting thing your dog has done?

Upcoming DoggiEvents

Posted on by
Reply

Don’t forget these upcoming DoggiEvents:

  • Dog Swim–Mt. Vernon’s Davis Park this evening from 4:30-6:30 p.m.
    • Remember your dog’s rabies vaccination certificate from a vet–not just a rabies tag
  • K9COLA’s Wine For a Cause–Friday, September 16, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

I will post a re-cap of Duke’s introduction to the farm later today! For now, I’ll just say he loved it so much he puked…

“The Saucer of My Heart…”

Posted on by
2

“…fills with “milky admiration” (from the poem “Dharma,” by Billy Collins. Read the whole poem here–it’s one of my favorites. It really speaks to dogs’ ability to live in the moment.).

So my heart filled with admiration for Gertie (and pride) when this happened:

In our basement family room, an old, heavy, red and navy comforter covers part of the sectional couch. Duke likes to scratch his back against the edge of the couch. (Or maybe he’s marking it with his scent? Gertie does it too.) Anyway, he also likes to burrow into the blankets and rearrange them with his paws, creating nests or tents. Well, one night he tried to create a tent, but he got overambitious and the whole heaping comforter flopped over him, so he was completely covered.

At first Tom and I thought he was enjoying it. Some alone time, maybe? But then he started thrashing around, trying to get out. The more he struggled, though, the worse he was stuck–like trick finger cuffs. Keep in mind that it would’ve been really dark under the comforter.

Meanwhile, Gertie watched from her spot in the wedge (see picture). She cocked her head

Gertie in Wedge, Duke on Couch

as Duke thrashed. She waited. When he continued to struggle, then whimpered, she hopped down and touched her nose to his (through the blanket), as if to say, “I’m right here. You’re going to be ok.” (Not to anthropomorphize too much, but it seemed to be a reassuring gesture as she sensed–smelled?–his panic.) Then she stepped directly on the corner of the comforter. So with Duke’s next effort, and Gertie pinning the blanket down, he was free.

How does your dog make you proud?

When Girls Get Even

Posted on by
2

In yesterday’s post, I discussed how Duke has peed on Gertie’s head–twice!–on walks. But Gertie does have her own way of getting back at Duke when she’s pissed (pun intended). She usually does this when Duke has stolen attention–butted in on her greeting time. Or maybe he hip checked her into the wall or stole a toy.

Anyway, she makes her feelings pretty clear. She runs up to him, flips his ear back with her nose, and barks as sharply as possible directly into it. She’s barking mad, and she’s not gonna take it! Her purposefulness with this revenge amazes me–she’s done it multiple times.

What do your dogs do when they’re mad? Or am I anthropomorphizing too much–can dogs really feel anger? I know that dogs do have emotional lives (see Inside of a Dog, by Alexandra Horowitz, Time magazine’s Inside the Minds of Animals,” just to name a couple of sources), but their emotions are not the same as ours, so I don’t know that they necessarily get “mad” like we do.

He looks sorry, right?

K9s Make a Splash

Posted on by
4

If dogs ruled the world, or at least the Parks & Rec Department, the pool would look like this every day: K9COLA held their sixth annual K9Splash! at the Bever Park Pool in Cedar Rapids on Saturday, August 20 and Sunday, August 21, and it was the Waggiest Place on Earth. Seriously, the dogs were so happy–romping, running, splashing, jumping, frolicking, rolling, chasing. According to Jill Rowe, Volunteer Coordinator with K9COLA, 600 dogs and almost 1300 people attended.

I volunteered on Saturday. It was my first time at K9Splash, and I don’t know why I’d never gone before. A euphoric energy buzzed around the pool. I took many pictures of happy humans and waggily canines (scroll down to see more photos).

On Sunday, Tom and I took Gertie and Duke to the pool. They could not believe their luck when they entered the water wonderland. They couldn’t choose which butts to sniff or which corner to investigate first or which wet paw prints to follow. Gertie, normally cautious in new situations, bounded out of her harness and into the fun. Unfortunately, I forgot to put the memory card in my camera, so I didn’t get shots of our boxers enjoying the pool (and many new friends). Although it turned out to be lucky that I didn’t have my camera around my neck because I would have ended up dunking my expensive DSLR in the deep end.

You see, Gertie and Duke both wanted to swim with the “cool kids” (the retrievers in the deep end, aka the Varsity Team–see pictures below). They balanced precariously on the ledge, barking at goldens and trying to sneak the tennis ball out of a lab’s mouth. I shooed Duke away from the pool’s edge, but Gertie gathered up her courage and leapt in. She plunged under, and she surfaced in a desperate, go-nowhere paddle, with panic in her eyes. I had to drag her to the side by her collar, so then she was both floundering and choking, and once I got her there, I couldn’t figure out how to get her out (she’s really top heavy with her deep chest). Thankfully, a kind woman helped me heft Gertie out of the water. Whew! We stayed a bit longer, but Gertie didn’t venture past the wading area after her big swim.

Wheee!

This guy's dripping wet...

... but luckily someone brought a mop!

The canines had a romping good time, but they did not forget to focus on safety:While the non-swimmers stuck to safety, the Varsity Team paddled in the deep end:

Go get it!

But everyone needs a breather sometimes.

I’m already looking forward to next year. (I have many more photos of the event, so I’d like to add them to a gallery on the blog. Anyone know if I can do that (and how)?

And as always, here are some questions. It’s awesome  if you reflect on the questions as they relate to your dogs or dogs you know. But I would love to hear from you too, so leave a reply below! What makes your dog deliriously happy? Is your dog a swimmer, a wader, or a land-lubber?

** K9COLA’s next fundraiser is on September 16 (see the DoggiEvents page).