Thursday, July 10, 2008

Jazz and Elvis(???) in love?

So Elvis has been with us 6 weeks now and we adore his goofball attitude. But I have discovered a few things about these two. The first is you can only have one boss/leader in a pack and demotion is very humiliating no matter who you are. I recently had to demote both Jazz and Elvis/Sully/Rocky (still no new name) But with the help of the latest issue of Labrador magazine we made a progress in no time. Jazz of course my pride and joy academically, did it no time, and Elvis well he is a little slower to learn, I do not think he is not smart by any stretch of the imagination, but I believe he is immature, yes dogs can be immature too. And his romantic crush on Jazz makes it impossible for him to concentrate. Visualize: 15 year old boy seeing a super beautiful 15 year old girl in string bikini wearing his favorite perfume(lunch meat) carrying a football in one hand and baseball cards in the other. But if you or anyone out there has a problem with a bossy dog Lab or not I recommend this article, there is no scolding or time outs involved it is just a redirection of pack leadership. We as pet owners don't realize by letting that cute little ball of fur, with the big shiny eyes curl up just this once on your bed with you, we have now given over leadership of the relationship. Sort of like a romantic relationship. The hardest part I have learned is to constantly stay in charge,which is almost an impossible task, sort of like driving through a rain storm with out windshield wipers, you manage but its hard. What I tell people when I am asked which is oddly alot, dogs are like your average 15 year old they think they want freedom and to be in charge because they think they know everything, what they really want and need is love and discipline in order to grow up to be happy adults.

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Politics and Fido

...a Latin name meaning "I am faithful." As such it is a terrific name for the average protective and loyal family dog. However, it gets its popularity from a celebrity tie-in. Apparently, Abraham Lincoln, a largely self-educated but very erudite man, named his dog Fido. Americans followed suit in droves, putting the dog name Fido firmly in the top 20 names. Lincoln’s choice of Fido for his dog’s name was perfectly logical. Fido is the Latin for faithful, which when dealing with any pet dog is entirely appropriate