When a dog turns 13

Happy April Fools Day!

Special offer - 2 days of daycare for $50.  Click to buy.

The note below was written to our customers in an email blast on April 1, ,2012.  This was our inaugural April Fool's Prank.  There was no such Bark-Mitzvah!  :)  Thanks for having such a great sense of humour.  Here's a little online special to our valued customers.  These two days of daycare will never expire.



...Marley recently turned 91... but in human years that's 13... so his parents decided to throw him a bark-mitzvah on this special ocasion.  When they approached me about renting the Woof & Shloof facility for this purpose I have to admit I was a little surprised... but I could quickly tell that they were genuine because they requested a Sunday (aka, not the Sabbath).

Rabbi Weimaraner led a beautiful service... it was the first of it's kind in Toronto (that I'd ever heard of anyway).  It wasn't a huge gathering, but nearly 45 guests attended (7 or 8 dogs and the rest humans).

Obviously this whole story is a little silly, but it's true and I couldn't make it up if I tried.  I am so grateful for the opportunity to attend such a fun and loving ceremony celebrating the wonderful life of this dog.  If you've never heard of a bark-mitzvah, then you have to check out some of the highlghts in the video below.

Parent, Teacher, Playmate...

Our dogs are completely devoted to us. We find them under our desks

when working at home, on the kitchen floor while we’re cooking, at the
door when we come home and sometimes in our beds when sleeping...
We’re already our dog’s best friends and we hardly had to do anything
special... sadly, there are rare situations where we don’t even love
them but we somehow receive their complete devotion.
Let’s not ask what it means to be man’s best friend... Let’s flip the
question around a little... What does it mean to be my dog’s best
friend? When I think of my answer to this question I think of the
title given to Chinese masters... The title is called Sifu. It
loosely translates into ‘the role of the father and the teacher’. My
answer also weaves in a third thread... that of the playmate.

We bring our dogs into the human world and we expect their animal
senses to operate like our own. We need to remember that their senses
are much stronger than ours and that’s part of the reason why so many
young pups are constantly distracted! It’s our duty to teach them how
our world works and what appropriate responses we expect from them
throughout the day as they encounter to all sorts of stimuli
(squirrels, doorbells, traffic, other dogs on leashes...etc). This
duty is ongoing and never ending.

As a parent, we have other responsibilities to our dogs. We should be
considerate of their lifestyles. Is our dog eating a healthy diet?
Is he physically fit and well exercised? Is he emotionally balanced?
Our dogs only learn through experience. We need to remember that their
primary experience of life is a reflection of how we live our own
lives.

Life is meant to be enjoyed... when we find ways to fill our days with
playful moments with our dogs how do they respond? With focus,
motivation and joy! I think that the secret to raising a perfect dog
is a healthy balance of all three roles... the parent, the teacher and
the playmate. I try not to think of being one role while forgetting
about the others... rather, I try to find the appropriate balance of
all three in any given moment.

Thrill of the hunt

A history teacher at my dad’s high school sent him this picture.  It’s of a hunt that took place just north of Bathurst and St Clair.   I’m not totally sure how old the photo is, but I know that the photographer died over 50 years ago.  The more I gaze at this picture the more I get lost in time...

I’ve marvelled at the sight of a dozen scent hounds walking off leash and in line formation... Their spot is behind the lead horse and ahead of the second horse.  All eyes are clearly focussed on the leader, likely waiting for the command to chase.

Is the rider using treats to get their focus?  Is he using fear?  No... he’s using neither.  I see tails up, relaxed mouths and lots of eye contact... this pack is a well oiled machine.  Each dog is highly disciplined, has a clear purpose and is very respectful towards its leader.  These are working dogs who don’t need to be praised every ten seconds to know they’re doing a good job.  They’re working and they love it!

My imagination tells me that this pack is a mix of mostly veteran hunters and perhaps a lucky few on their first hunt.  These lucky few have spent countless sessions training in an enclosure... learning to follow the scent of a fox but not a raccoon.  Welcome to the big leagues.

 

Soon these dogs will be returning home for the evening.  They’ll undoubtedly engage in ceremonious play... they’ll eat... then they’ll sleep like stones until the morning....  A day in the life of some happy dogs.

This story reminds us that our dogs were bred for genetics, for purpose, for instincts, stamina, courage and a whole bunch of different things.  For many of us today, we show our love to our dogs with unbridled affection.  We must remember that our dogs LOVE to work, love to exercise, and love to think.  When we take care of these basic needs first, our dogs will shower us back with even more love than we can imagine.