Branded Collars & Leashes

HC was packing her house recently and came across the collars & leashes she bought for us last year. These are no ordinary collars & leashes because she hardly allow us to wear it in case we get it dirtied!!! Weird, aren't the collars & leashes meant for us to wear?

The reason why we don't get to wear it is because HC said it is not available at COACH store in Singapore. Frankly speaking, we dogs don't care what brand our collars & leashes are. In fact, we much prefer without it so that we can run free.. hehehehe

Since it is so precious, we only get to look at the photos ....













Actually, our collars and leashes are not extravagant as compared to my friends. Herbie got his Louis Vuitton collar in Europe (wow!!!!)
Scuba got a gucci collar from his godpa. (I need a godpa too... anyone??)
Rafv, the rich one, got TWO sets of branded collars & leashes - Louis Vuitton & Gucci.
And guess what, their collars & leashes are more expensive than mine, yet I have seen them wearing it to PARK! Life is so unfair.....

Maybe I should secretly sell or trade it for more food or balls. At least I can get to use them. Anyone interested?

Dog's Best Friend

It is a well known fact that "Dogs are a man's best friend". In fact, Harry Truman said, "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." And it is no surprise that almost every US President in recent years has had dogs while in office.

However, my guess is that Presidential Dogs have no choice because they hardly get to socialise with other dogs.. what if they get kidnapped by terrorists!!!!

But for normal dogs like us, who are our best friend? Is it our human companion or other dogs?

I have seen so many dogs, when off-leash at the park, went crazy playing with other dogs, ignoring calls from their human companions. I have also seen countless humans chasing & shouting after their dogs and finally gave up as they can never outrun the dog. (it is really a funny sight.. many a times, I tried to control my giggling)

WHY?? The humans will start asking themselves or complained to their human friends that their dogs are usually very obedient at home, but once outside, they turned deaf and/or rebellious.

Let me give you our dogs' perspective. We ignored you because you are NO FUN as compared to the other dogs. And it is all your fault because you allowed us to play endlessly with other dogs, and just stand there and watched us play. And if you tried to recall us, we will pretend not to hear knowing that you will eventually give up trying to recall us.

When I was merely a puppy, I resented HC's strictness. She will allow me to play with other dogs only for a short while. And when she calls me back, I HAD to respond to her within the third call. If I rebel and let her chase me around the park, I will get a major punishment from her! But I have learnt to realise that if I respond to her, I will get rewarded either by a praise or a game of fetch.

What I am trying to say is, it is okay to allow your dogs to have fun with other dogs, but ultimately, they must still prefer to play with their human companion. And at any time, they should respond to their human companion. The human should be the dog's best friend just as dogs are man's best friend.

Long ago, HC had signed up for Mogens Eliasen's online newsletter - The Peeing Post and found this particular article extreme beneficial. It talks about how humans should strive to be the best fun provider in order to improve the bond between them. Note to humans - please sign up and you will get regular online newsletter for FREE!

Oh... the previous post - I talked about Rude Dogs. I was rude once cos I loved to snatch other dogs' new squeaky balls all the time. When that happens, HC will punished me by scolding me and/or making me sit/stay at a corner. But she will later show me my ball, and started playing happily with me. After a while, I started to realise that it is definitely more fun if I just play with my own ball with her. In fact, if I happened to take someone else's ball mistakenly (same type of ball), she only need to say 'leave it' and I will obey.

(HC : we had the experience of having this crazy dog who keeps snatching Joey's ball all the time. I have tried to bring a few balls with me as spare but all will be stolen by him. It is so frustrating, and more so, when the owners merely said, 'Sorry.... but I cannot control my dog too!'. So, I make sure that Joey does not learnt this bad behavior too by being firm with him initially.
This particulr dog is trained using 'Positive Reinforcement' by some self-proclaimed animal behaviorist who prefers to reward good behaviour and ignore the bad ones. Yeah.. she didn't realised that by ignoring the bad behavior, it will distress the other party.What is ironic is that when the owner show the treat (reward) to the dog, he ran away from her because the stolen balls are definitely more fun than some treats that he can easily have anytime of the day)

Jack's Birthday

Jack celebrated his birthday last Sunday. HC guess he is about 8-9 years old.

HC had been slogging in the kitchen since morning and she was grumbling that we dogs had it easy, cos we only need to sleep and eat. But that's not true! We (Jack, Tommy & I) were actually salivating the entire day.

We had set dinner - Meat patties, mashed potato and carrots. One more scheduled item - shepherd pie was missing cos HC decided she had slogged enough in the kitchen for the day.













As usual, we had to 'queue' up for dinner - Jack, me, followed by Tommy.
However, Tommy was not happy he was last in queue that he actually barked at Jack when Jack's eating! Poor Jack almost choked cos he heard Tommy barking and tried to gobble down the food as quickly as possible.


Picture of the cake...













Jack had the honour to bite into his cake first. All the while, I was busying barking below the table and at the same time trying to eat up those crumbs that fell onto the floor.













When it was time to distribute the cakes, it was chaos! No pictures cos the humans were busying feeding their own dog.

Jack was not happy that he had to pose with his presents.
He can't wait to open them up.














Jack opening up his first present - Salmon Sticks!















As Jack is quite stupid when it comes to opening presents, I decided to help him.

Jack looking worried that I will take away his presents.

A Different Tommy

A lot of us have seen the macho side of Tommy. The one who is active, likes to act tough and basically gets into trouble with other dogs...

He is now staying with us for a few days, and at home, however, he behaves differently.

Unlike the usual macho him, he likes to play with squeaky soft toys at home. Sometimes, he fell asleep with the toy still in his mouth. And the other unexpected behavior is that he is terrified of thunder and rain!

Tommy has a special gift. He can sense when the rain is gonna start without looking up the sky.

Here he is, getting worried and hid underneath the table among his favourite toys. (These toys are all MINE!)














Thunder roaring... now, where is Tommy?














oh.. there he is! Hiding behind HC's chair..














He tends to follow HC wherever she goes, even in the shower and toilet. HC decided to calm him and use Bach's Rescue Remedy by spraying the essence on his tongue. Within mins, he calmed down considerably, and laid down near to Jack. He still look a bit worried, but was no longer panting hard and hiding. Even when HC moved away, he was confident enough not to follow her everywhere.

The longest night of my life

I have not been sleeping well for the past few nights, and will usually wake up at 4a.m. HC will also be woken up by my tossing and turning, sneezing, or staring (sometimes, I just stare at her when I am bored). Since she is awake, I will asked her to open the bedroom door so that I could go to the toilet. And she complained of being so tired to clear the papers in the middle of the night. After my toilet break, I will jumped up on her bed and snuggled real close. (which she hates!)

So, just before bedtime last night, she insisted that I pee and poo hoping that I wouldn't wake her in the middle of the night. I pee but decided not to poo. She was very upset and keeps asking me to... but I could only sit on the papers looking at her nervously. She got so angry that she threw me, along with my bed out of her bedroom. She then proceeded to lock the bedroom door.

I waited and waited.. and eventually went to poo but she didn't even open the bedroom door! I was so scared and nervous as this is the first time ever that I am left alone to sleep in the living room.... waaaaaaaaaa.......

(HC : My intention is to keep him locked out of my bedroom for 10 mins but I was so tired that by the time I opened by eyes again... it was 4a.m.! Poor Joey was outside alone for almost 5 hours.. when I quickly opened the bedroom door, Joey was staring at me, ears folded and looking oh so sad)

Rude dogs, ignorant owners

This post will probably offend some readers, but what the heck, this is my blog right?

I have always wanted to write about the many rude dogs and ignorant owners that we met, but I never really get down to doing it, if not for the encouragement from Jack (read : pushing blame).

There were times when we were in some park, happily minding our own business. Me, playing fetch and Jack sitting at a corner day-dreaming. Than, out of nowhere, there will always be strange dogs who came charging at us. To the owners, their dogs are just being young, hyper, friendly who wanted to make 'friends'. But they, the ignorant humans did not know that it is bad manners. How would they feel, if say, they are playing some computer games, and this strange person came up to lick, humped, or pushed you? So, when Jack or me retaliated by barking, nipping and chasing the 'friendly' dog away, the owners will say..'wah.. so small dog, so fierce!'

Note : Jack and I are not rude, we are just displaying normal behavior in response to rudeness. We do not show aggression towards other dogs unless they invade our space.

An incident recently made us realised the risks ignorant owners put their rude dogs in.

We and another big dog were in the park, each minding our own business. This medium size dog (I shall call him R) came charging in, and went to Jack to bump him. Jack was so angry that I think he nipped R and he (R, not Jack) jump back and yelped. R then turned his attention towards me, and wanted to disturb me. I was angry and told him off by nipping him, but I think I didnt nipped him hard enough cos he keeps coming back. All this while, R's owners did not make any effort to rein his dog in.

Anyway, R made a BIG mistake. He went up to the other big dog who is minding his own business. R went to lightly nipped the big dog thinking it was a friendly gesture. The big dog, being less tolerant towards young, hyper dog grabbed R by the neck and shaked him. R was yelling the whole time when being grabbed. Luckily, the big dog owner and HC managed to get the big dog to release R. R's owners were too shocked to do anything...... consequence of a rude dog!

One more thing to add, for new owners who have submissive dog, please do not let your dog be bullied by other rude dogs. Go ahead and say, "please control your rude dog!" The person may feel offended, but your dog will look upon you as a leader who will protect him when need be. (Please do not confused this with over-protectiveness, which is another big NO-NO)

HC has found a very interesting article by Suzanne Clothier, and has gotten permission to put up the link to her article "He just wants to say Hi" on my blog.

My past hobby - Agility

A reader, Groovy from KL (where is that? Can I go visit?) just asked whether I still do agility. Well, I no longer practised cos HC didnt enrol me for any competition recently, and I don't have any agility equipments.

But her comment made me think of the good old days.... and I decided to dig out old photos taken by Auntie S, the GREATEST photographer ever (eh.. she is the ONLY photographer I know... so it is ok to call her the greatest).
Jack says : "shoe-shiner!!!"
































So happy.. last hurdle to go..


















Hao lian pic 1. I don't want to jump and HC got to carry me up the prize table. Judge laughed and said :"you are an agility dog!!"



















Hao Lian pic 2 - hehe














Actually I think Rafv got more prizes than me.But he not as proud :)

Pigs are smarter than dogs?

"That is not possible", I heard the canines shouting at the top of their voice. "Pigs are only good as canned luncheon meat!" .... please insist on MaLing brand if you're gonna have luncheon meat.

For those canines that have not seen a pig (parents banned you from T.V. ah??)
This is how a cuter one looks like...









And NO.... the above picture is not SCUBA! Scubs may be called a PIG bull terrier, but he is not even though he behaves like one sometimes (always sleeping) This is how Scuba looks...









Why did I say pigs are smarter than dogs?

Well, HC and I were watching a show on SCV's animal planet, and after that she said she wanted to get a pig instead.

In that show, this person has got 2 pigs at home. One of them, the black one weighs 300 pounds! (did I hear right??). The two pigs can do these:

1. Beg - sitting on two hind legs.
Easy.. alot of canines can do that. I know I can't cos you see, my tail was docked too short, and when I am in the beg position, it is painful to have to sit on my short tail. But Jack can do it very well.
Pig - 1 ; Dogs - 1


2. Pigs can play basketball
In that show, the pig took a ball in his mouth and throw it through the mini basketball hoop.
Okayyyy.... I can't do that.
Pig - 2; Dogs - 1

3. Pigs can surf (not internet)
A small piglet can balance himself on the surfboard with the owner behind him. I am quite sure I can do that cos I swim well. But not my fault that I didnt try it cos HC can't even swim to save her own life.
Pig - 2; Dogs - 1

4. Pigs can keep their own toys!!!!
The bloody pig has a toy box with lid. He can open the lid, throw the toys back in and flip the lid close!!!!! What kind of animal is that????
Look, I strived in organised chaos. (Learnt this new term from Auntie S cos she explained that her strength is to be able to live in organised chaos, and she can find her stuff easier when the table is messy. ) Same as Auntie S, I can find my toys very easily when it is all over the place.

HC said - No excuse.... Pig - 3; Dogs - 1

I argued with HC and told her that (some) canines can bark very loud and ferocious which will scare intruders away. Do you think an intruder will be scared by a pig that goes 'oink oink???'
She relented and said that she will not get a pig then. Secretly, I think it is because pigs are too expensive to feed (ask Herbie's mum...).

She then said 'oi.. the other day I saw another show that shows a dog can do BACKWARD FLIP in the air and catch the ball!!! Can you???'

Darn.... maybe I will go chew all the SCV cables. No more animal planet shows!

Men in big cars!

I decided I don't like men travelling in big cars, especially in BMW 7 series!

This is what HC and I saw this morning.

















This BMW was waiting in the slip road, as there were cars on the main road waiting for the traffic light to turn green. I spotted a blind man walking from footpath A to B. Blind man stopped when his walking stick touched an obstacle (BMW) and tried to feel his way around the car to get to footpath B but to no avail. And all the while, the stupid BMW car owner just looked. He didnt even bother to get down his bloody seat and bring the blind man to footpath B. The poor blind man got to wait till it is clear for the BMW to drive off before walking to footpath B.

Irritating bugger! Can't you just spare 1 min of your time to help the handicapped! Are you glued to your BMW 7 series seat?? I'll pray that you have a flat tire later!

That was another incident that happened awhile back, another blind man (yes... there are plenty of blind people near when we frequent) lost track and walked on the main road instead of footpath. The blind man was aware but he couldn't figure out where the footpath was and show signs of panicking. HC stopped her car behind him and bring him back to the footpath. He was so thankful after that. By the time HC walked back, a few cars had to stopped behind her cos it was a one lane street. Luckily no one honked at HC, otherwise, they would find flying shoes coming toward their directions.. hehehehe

The Mysterious Urn

Someone left this at our apartment corridor this evening between 7pm. to 8p.m.



















The urn says, "Ginger, Pom Dog" and dated 03 April 2006, aged 8 years 1 month.

As far as I know, my neighbour only has a cat. Who could be the rightful owner?

So poor thing, just put to sleep yesterday and now is in a tiny urn placed at the corridor. I wanted to bring it in, but HC said to leave it outside in case the owner came to pick it back. But she promised that should the urn still be outside by tomorrow morning, she will 'adopt' it and give her a resting place at our home.
She said, "if it is human ashes (CHOY!), I would probably be superstitous and cursed at whoever who left it here. But dogs are good. The doggy spirits can probably help to guard and bless the house!"

She also added that when we passed on (choy! choy! choy!) she will let our ashes stayed in the house too.

Eh... should we bless HC to strike a million dollars lottery?

Oh.... tomorrow is Qing Ming festival, wonder if HC will buy a roasted piglet for little Ginger, the Pom. After Ginger had eaten, maybe can we have it?

Rest in peace, Ginger!

New Search & Rescue Vest

Woo hoo.... I have got a new vest, custom made all the way from United States!

I was given a vest from SCDF after I got my certification. But as I have mentioned in earlier post, the vest is too big for me.

So HC decided that she should get a proper vest, and she couldn't find any in Singapore. So she went online and start searching. She saw one that costs US$600++ and decided that she will not buy a vest that costs more than me. Furthermore, these are professional vests meant for real rescue work - such as avalanche, natural disasters. The vests can even lift huge dogs up by helicopters! My kind of rescue are all mock-ups... hehehe
Anyway, she found one that is priced quite reasonable and decided to get it custom made just for me! So happy...

This is the SCDF vest. See how big it is..














My new vest !!!




















Side view of new vest















Close up view. See.. it even has my name

Flirtatious Rafv

Yeah I got evidence how flirtatious Rafv can be.

This is a picture that was taken 2 months ago, and HC just accidentally saw in Auntie V's camera a couple of days back. It was taken when I went there for doggy day care while HC was busy. Look at Rafv, I was trying to sleep on Scuba's bed (yes, I do have a habit of taking over other's bed. I am sure Scuba is ok with it). Rafv decided to snuggle onto the tiny bed with me. Look how he put his arm across me to prevent me from escaping. He then happily went to slumberland. Did you notice his tongue sticking out? Must be having some disgusting thoughts!!!!!

Look at poor me, couldn't move at all
Herbie! Where are you? You should have been there to pull Rafv's ear.

Am I a celebrity?

Hehehe my friends and I were featured in Sunday Times' Lifestyle today!

One of HC's friends asked if I am a celebrity now. I was secretly gloating over it, until Jack, irritating bugger said, "Fat hope, you think you are a celebrity? Look carefully at the tag again, it says - DLOGS, Silly or Inspired? They are implying you are silly to write a blog!"

Arrggghhh... jealous old cow!

I think I appeared in the ST before, and I got $100 voucher to spend in some pet shop. But quite disappointing cos that petshop specialises in small animals such as fishes and hamsters. They don't even sell my favorite ball!! Hmmmmm... I wonder if I will get another $100 this time?(HC : stop dreaming, no voucher this time. Just go enjoy your 1 min of fame!)

Oh... and I just remembered I was also featured on Today (together with Herbie) on January 25th too! But I think Herbie more famous than me cos he was featured more often. (Tomorrow ).

I think Jack's jealousy has made him gone all weird. He has been eating HC's plants, newspaper and even the tiny threads from our bed the entire morning. I hope HC will find out and scold him when she gets back home later.

Jack says : You may be in the news today. But tomorrow, some dogs will get to pee and poo all over your article. No one will remember you after today...