In a Time of Pandemic: Scooby-Doo Face Mask

 In this time of pandemic, I think we all need some cheer.

Zazzle has some nice, colorful and fun face masks which are well made, a good price and come in a large variety of designs; like this design from the official Warner Brothers store. The Scooby-Doo Face mask.

Scooby-Doo Face Cloth Face Mask
by scoobydoo

Book Review- Suspect by Robert Crais

Suspect by Robert Crais

 

 



Robert Crais has created a new vision in crime drama fiction. In this book we meet Maggie, a beautiful 85 pound German Shepherd. She was a patrol dog with the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan until a bomber and snipers kill her handler and leave her too badly wounded to continue as a Marine.

 

We also meet Scott, an LAPD officer scarred and suffering  post traumatic stress after he is shot and his partner are wounded in a bizarre ambush in a poor and run down part of Los Angeles.

 

Scott, attempting to return to active duty in the LAPD joins the K9 unit. There he falls under the spell of Maggie a dog who seems so destroyed by her experiences in Afghanistan that she will never work again.

 

Together they come to understand each other slowly, and Maggie proves that some of the best detectives never need say a word or carry a gun.

 

I read this book in one sitting, I could not put it down and loved every moment of the story.

 

Crais has put in a lot of work building great characters in the past, but for me Maggie is there in the best of Crais's characters beside Elvis Cole.

 

The pace is always tense, you worry enough about the characters individual well-being to make the book a great read. All is not tension though, there are lots of releases especially at the K9 training facility where the instructors try to instill a little dog into the recruits.

 

Crais has definitely put a good deal of time into looking for background into German Shepherd behavior, and it pays off with a good story.

 

You may buy Suspect from my Amazon.com Store here.

I Have a New Dog on the Way

This last year has been my longest time in thirty years with no dog in the house.  I now feel that it has been an empty year lots of things have happened. Three hospital stays, starting a new online business, all that fills time but there has been an empty space on the floor next to me that should have been filled with a dog.

Sadly my next dog will not be a German Shepherd. It will also not be a pet. It will be either a Labrador or Golden Retriever. It will be a working dog, a guide dog from Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael, California.

We will meet in just about eight weeks time. I am very excited about the prospect of having a working dog. This will be a whole new experience . A whole new level of being around a dog.

We will train for two weeks together in San Rafael and San Francisco and then graduate the school on November 2.

I plan on writing on my experience with a guide dog using this blog. German Shepherds will still be here with a little added portion of anecdotes and information about guide dog life.

Sadly, for me at least, the German Shepherd is no longer the preferred dog for guide dog work. This will be a change of breed for me. But I am sure we will all learn something new over the coming years.

The Great Horticulturist

I well remember when Polly was little more than a puppy, aged about six monthsold she became enthralled with gardening. In particular bulbs.

I had for several years been growing  several dozen Bluebell flower bulbs from seed. I had collected the seed from a nearby wood and grown the plants on every year until the bulbs became large enough to plant back in the wood to spread the bluebell flowers.

One day I spent a morning planting a set of year old bulbs in a border of my garden to grow on for ripening for planting out later. Polly sat quietly by my side, watching my every move. She showed no direct interst in the bulbs. Just wanted to show the usual German Shepherd love of being in a supervisory role.

That afternoon I went out shopping and when I returned home. There was a very proud Polly, sat at the edge of the living room carpet with a beautifully neat and straight row off freshly dug up Bluebell bulbs. The very same bulbs she had watched me plant just a few hours earlier.

German Shepherd Tote Bag

German Shepherd Tote
William Elliott at Zazzle
 

I recently created this Tote bag design on zazzle.com.

Available in a range of bag sizes priced from under $10 for the economy design these bags are hard wearing and versatile. Use them for carrying your groceries, baby supplies or books from the library. The bags are of rugged design and will last for a long time.

Even use the tote to carry your dog supplies on that car journey to the dog park.

See the German Shepherd Tote here

Can I Mourn theLoss of My Dog

In my thirty something years of working with both German Shepherds and their owners, one abiding question I have found is,

"After he dies. A I silly for mouring his death?"

The simple answer to this question is that you are ok to mourn the loss of your dog.

Many people, most often men in my experience are for some reason ashamed for expressing feelings for their dog. I don't know why. It just seems to be that way and the experience crosses national boundaries, as it was in Britain it is here in the Unoted States.

It can be that the memory of your dog can come back at the most simple of triggers, you may walk past a spot where you walked together, thesound of a scratch at the door, a glimpse of an old toy. These bring back all the emotions that you once felt. Anger, fear, sadness, happiness all in a muddle and often overwhelming.

Let the emotions come and go on their own. If a tear comes let it. Recognizing that you have these feelings rather than supressing them is the key. As you recognize and acknowledge them they actually lessen in intensity.

It is all part of the natural mourning process. Time and acceptance help, you do not forget with time you just don't suffer the deep pain anymore.

Kong Toys

Your German Shepherd dog is a very intelligent dog.

They can quickly become bored and this boredom can lead to destructive behavior in even the best behaved dog.

All of my German Shepherds have loved Kong toys to keep them mentally active and free of boredom.

Kongs are made of heavy duty rubber and are virtually indestructable even for the heaviest chewer.

You can fill many kong toys with treats such as peanut butter which encourages the dog to lick inside the toy to extract the treat and occupy its mind with a real puzzle.

For a selection take a look at our Kong Toy Store

Dog Friendly Dining at Dockside Too, Morro Bay CA

The Dockside Too  Restaurant in Morro Bay, CA is  a great place to go if you are taking your pet to the beach in Central California.

The restaurant lies on the dock at Morro Bay, only a few minutes walk from the wide expansive beach which stretches over five miles from Morro Bay to Cayucos.

 

Morro Bay is a small city a few miles north of San Luis Obispo and about thirty minutes drive south of Hearst Castle, San Simeon . If you are travelling on Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway, in either direction you will not faile to see either the three massive chimneys of Morro Bay Power Plant or the great granite mass of Morro Rock, an ancient volcanic plug rising from the ocean.

Morro Rock



The Dockside Too, is across the street from the Morro Bay Power Plant, if you keep driving downhill and towards the chimneys and the rock you will see a string of fish restaurants along the dockside. Dockside Too is closest to the rock footpath behind the Harbor Office.

Food at the Dockside Too is served fast food style, you order in the fish market portion where you can also buy fresh caught fish to take away. Your name is then called as your meal comes ready and you return to collect the food yourself. The food is very good and reasonably priced.

Dogs are very welcome to sit at your table outside and you can also get bowls of water and a basket of dog treats is close at hand for you to share a meal with your companion.

 

After you havve eaten you may want to walk down the path towards the rock, this path will eventually lead you around the car parking lot to the beach.

The walk snakes along the inlet and you will almost certainly see several Sea Otters along the walk as they dive for clams among the seaweed.

 

      You may be able to see the family of Sea Otters near to the Boat on Morro Bay inlet


For More Dog Friendly Places visit our Bookshop
 

Not Alone

There are days when I sit here typing and suddenly I here a shuffle or rustle down to my right.

I know I here the noise it is solid and I suddenly feel Polly is there again.

I took Polly's bed out of my office shortly after she died. It is cleaned and in the next room. Maybe my next dog will like it to lay on as much as Polly did. But it seems that even that dog bed is still here beside me.

Polly would sometimes shift on her bed and it would make a particular rustling sound, together with her very vocal sigh.

I don't believe that I imagine this sound. I wear headphones as I type in order to hear what I am typing from my screen reader and this sound comes across as solid as the voice of my screen reader.

It is rtue in my opinion that our furkids never really leave us. We carry them with us all our lives. But maybe, just maybe our furkids never do leave us. They spend some of their time just coming back to tell us everything is just fine.

 

I Hope For a New Dog

My hopes for the New Year are many. I hope to get back to work after my recent stroke, I hope that the Chicago Bears might win the Superbowl again soon, and I hope for a new dog.

The dog I am hoping for is not to replace Polly, non of our dogs is ever replaceable in anyway. They are individual and special.

No this new dog is going to be a working dog. He or she will be my guide dog.

I have been blind now for almost 3 years. I get about on my own with a white cane, but I would love a dog again. At the moment there is something missing in this house and it is a dog.

Sadly however the Guide Dog for the Blind charity here in the United States no longer use the German Shepherd as a guide dog. They use only Golden Retrievers and Labrador Retrievers or a mix breed of those two.

My one regret in order to have a dog is to give up my German Shepherds.  Oh Well we can't always have exactly what we want.

At present I am waiting on my doctors and Guide Dogs for the Blind to contact each other. The long Christmas break is a bad time to start something, Isn't it?

Then a home check can be arranged and if that is successful I will be placed on a waiting list for training sometime in the summer or maybe Fall of 2013.

But that will fly

This one Will Bring Tears to Your Eyes

Have you ever left your shepherd for any length of time?

I did several times. But this video will bring all those feelings back.

A Shepherd goes after his ball in a game, comes back and his master is home from deployment.

Wonderful sloppy Shepherd growls ensue, but he won't give up the ball.

To any military reading this, thank you.

First Christmas Alone

This Christmas is a strange one for me.

It is my first Christmas without a dog for 24 years.

For 24 years I have scoured the aisles of stores looking for a gift for that special German Shepherd in my life. Seven Christmas' with Suki, 16 Christmas with Brett and 18 Christmas' with Polly.

Yes I had two very long lived German Shepherds. I was lucky. The heartache of a loss comes too often to a dog lover and I count myself lucky to have had so few real heartaches.

Polly was the one for toys, she particularly loved a large Kong, with its hollow centre I could put trats and peanut butter inside and leave her for hours just licking and chewing.

Brett loved the luxury of sharing Christmas dinner with me. He always sat at my side, waiting for a piece of turkey or potato to escape. I never worried about my dogs eating human food in moderation, always saving one of my bites of everything for them. A sort of tithing really.

Last but most special, my first. Suki, She loved a huge thick dog bed. It was my first doggy Christmas present and lasted her for all her life, though she did get a little annoyed one afternoon when I fell asleep oresting my head on her bed, It was HERS afterall.

So now I face Christmas alone without a German Shepherd to buy for.I knew this time would come. It has and suddenly Christmas is a lonely time again.

Hug those Furkids for me.

German Shepherd Dog Facts

While browsing the Youtube site the other day, getting a GSD fix I came across this little informative video. I hope you like it.

German Shepherd puppy crate training

This is a great video showing how to train a puppy to go into his crate.

Crate training should be fun and happy for your puppy.

Lots of great tips.

Plus Manfred is a really cute GSD.

A Trip to PetSmart

Last week I took a trip to my local PetSmart.

Walking around the store with his owner was a handsome young German Shepherd Dog. He was about fourteen months old, the owner told me. She was taking him to PetSmart regularly to socialize him.

I scratched him between the ears and he almost immediately began to lean with his head against my leg and hand.

How I miss the German Shepherd lean. They just use you as a leaning post and love it when you just let them stand there.

It is ok to let just one do that. My wife's aunt has two adult German Shepherds, now the lean gets to be a problem. Over 160 pounds of dogs pushing on your lower legs is a bit of a handful.  Often I encourage either Louis or Lady to stand in front while the other stands behind me, if they both lean equally then they merely push against each other!

From the Pound

Over the weekend I had a story in mind. It is written from the view of a dog in the local pound or animal rescue. In my mind the main character is a dog, but it could also perhaps be a cat too, it depends on the readers imagination.

The story is a flash story, these are deliberately short pieces of creative writing, some consist of as few as fifty five words. Some may be as long as one thousand words.

This stiry is less than about three hundred words.

The dog or cat is waiting for its owners to come and claim him back, but has heard that he only has one day left before he is taken away to be put to sleep. The dog only recognises that his life can be saved by his own people.

To read the story in full CLICK HERE.

A Close Shave!

Last night, my wife and I were returning home from the cinema after seeing the movie "The Help."  Great movie by the way.

Well as we turned into the driveway, my wife slammed on the brakes and shouted
 "NO!"

There on our driveway were two skunks merrily playing and stopping to eat the cat food that our neighbor puts out for his cats.

The pair of skunks were quite unconcerned by the cars headlights and continued in their chase and eat game for several minutes.

Only when my wife sounded the car horn for what must have been the fourth or fifth time did they wander off, non too quickly to hideunder our neighbors trucks.

Havong bee n sprayed only a few weeks ago by a skunk in the back yard, and having had Polly skunked twice in four and a half years this time I was not going to get out of the car quoetly. I made sure the skunks knew I was there, talked loudly and sang. They were not going to be surprised by me this time and I ,made it safely into the house without the aroma of skunk filling my nostrils.

Dog Days: My Memories of a German Shepherd

Not long ago, and in part as a memorial on the ninth anniversary of his death. I posted these three stories about Brett on my hubpage.

The stories recount the years from 1988 until early 1995 when Brett and my first German Shepher Suki shared my life.

These are reminders of the funny things both dogs did and the story is the first part of a trilogy.

In the second part I will introduce Hariska Intrigue (aka Polly) that will complete the life of Brett and the third part will bring us fully up to date with the life of Polly as an international traveller and Queen of the Pawcific Beaches of California.

Dog Days: My Memories of a German Shepherd

My German Shepherd Playing in His Pool

What is cuter than a dog playing in a pool on a hot day.

I thought this video was great.

The Dog: Haiku

One of my other hobbies is to write poetry. A particular form which I enjoy is the Haiku.

Haiku are a Japanese form of poem, originally a warm up for Japanese poetry competitions they have been adapted for Western writers who produce the three line verses with 5, then 7, then 5, syllables per line. The form reduces pictures to their most basic to conjour up powerful images.

I created this series of four Haiku to honor the dog. I go from the puppy through the ages of the dog to old age. This is a poem for the well cared for dog, the loved pet, companion that I think we all share a love for.

To read The Dog Haiku   Click Here