Boot Camp

Bo (woof) In Commentary:

It didn’t dawn on me until I was five years old why people wore shoes. It also happened to be the same year I slit my paw pad open on a sharp rock, losing two pints of good old fashioned Bo blood. So delicious, ask any vampire.

Seeing the benefits of protecting a canine’s paws on treacherous ground conditions, Chinese firefighters decided to do something about it.

Rescue dogs working with Chinese firefighters have been given leather shoes.

The picture is of rescue dog (con't @ http://boknowsonline.com/2008/05/29/boot-camp/)

Oh, Deer

Bo (woof) In Commentary:

My deer, you think it’s easy being a dog don’t you? Think again, as a friend of Rudolph shows the world. Check it out…

A deer wearing an orange dog collar kicked a child in a Santa Rosa County neighborhood, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s weekly report. After the May 8 incident, FWC officers investigated and found that the deer had been kept in a cage at a nearby residence.

The deer probably beat up a poor little dog and stole its designer collar. A little lesson for you pups ...(con't @ http://boknowsonline.com/2008/05/28/oh-deer/#more-460)

Ram It Home.....I Thought I Had Issues!

Bo (woof) In commentary:

Just to set the record straight, I think it’s actually a cat not a dog in this video. If it truly is a dog, then it was just messin’ around. Either that or it takes the short bus to doggie daycare....http://boknowsonline.com/2008/05/22/ram-it-home/

Banned Superbowl Commercial (BOL!)

I love dogs that help humanity live a better life. I ’m just not sure which dog in this video is helping more. I’ll let you decide....http://boknowsonline.com/2008/05/19/banned-super-bowl-comml/

Elementary, My Dear Rover

Bo (woof) In Commentary:

I’ve heard of bomb sniffing dogs, cadaver dogs, and even hot dogs, but I’ve never heard of pub sniffer dogs. Where else but in Scotland would you find this rare canine breed?

A police operation has started in south west Scotland to send sniffer dogs into pubs to search for drugs. A total of 13 bars were visited by patrols in the Stranraer area as part of the initiative.

Going undercover requires the dog to assume the identity of the typical pub goer. Once it procures the confidence of the locals, it is free to search for drugs while the targets go to the wee. This appears to be a well thought out strategy and will, no doubt become a very effective tool in fighting drug crime.

A spokesman for Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary confirmed that no drug offences had been detected in the first phase of the operation. However, he said that more random searches were planned with the full backing of local licensees.

OK, so maybe it isn’t that effective. To put the spokesman’s comments in other words, “We’ll continue this until we have at least one arrest. Then we can call this bird brained idea a success.”

Sgt Jim Hendrie said the patrols, which took place earlier this month, (con't @ http://boknowsonline.com/2008/05/19/elementary-my-dear-rover/#more-432)

Bowser Beer For Dogs

Bo (woof) In Commentary:

My old man loves beer and he refuses to give me any. He tells me that alcohol, hops and carbonation are bad for my innards. I don’t buy it. I think he just wants all the beer for himself. That excuse is now going out the window because look at what I just found out on the internets. Dog Beer! You heard right. 3 Busy Dogs has created Bowser Beer. It’s just for dogs and it tastes like beef. Let the party begin…

Introducing Bowser Beer^TM

Does your dog drink responsibly?

I will say that lately I haven’t been drinking very responsibly. In fact, just before I go to bed at night I load up on a bowlful of water. Then, at about 3:00am, I wake up my father so he can carry me downstairs and let me out. He looks tired, but that’s not my problem. Anyway, I’m thinking that maybe Bowser Beer can get me off the water habit and on to something better. Let’s see what’s in it:

Bowser Beer^TM is made from filtered water, pure malt barley, and infused with dog-loving beef extract - without hops or alcohol. It’s low-cal, like our pretzel treats, so you can spoil without guilt.

An infusion of dog-loving beef extract? Sign me up for a case of the stuff.

So what’s the best time to enjoy this hearty, beefy drink?

[While] watching sports on the couch or after a long, dusty walk … Put some party in your animal!

Or I could just drink some before my 6 hour nap, and then some more after I get up to pee. And, hey, nothing says party like a drunk 103 year old canine with an attitude. I just hope this stuff doesn’t make me argumentative.

Bowser Beer^TM comes in a handy 6-pack of 12 oz. bottles […and you can] personalize your beer with a picture of your favorite dog!

I hope the bottles are twist offs. I hate bottle openers because I just can’t get a grip (con't @ ttp://boknowsonline.com/2008/05/16/the-high-life/#more-422)

Lap Dog Dance

Bo (woof) In Commentary:

Even a sarcastic dog like me enjoys a good heartwarming story so I felt compelled to pass this one along.

Buddy the lap dog is back in Mark Hench’s lap after a months-long odyssey that included a dognapping in California and a mysterious reappearance in Texas.

Hench? Most likely short for Henchman, me thinks. So when dealing with Henchman is it really that surprising that a dognapping occurred? I think not.

“He is a wonderful dog, just a complete joy and very well-behaved,” said Gloria Pollock, the last of a string of volunteers who brought the Bichon Frise to Hench’s doorstep in Fort Collins on Saturday afternoon.

Hench had the bed, the food, the dish and the leash ready for Buddy and immediately reattached to the dog he considered “my little son.”

Hench was living in Ventura, Calif., last year, when he bought Buddy from an animal shelter.

“I had him for about three months,” Hench said. Then one day someone riding a bicycle grabbed Buddy and pedaled off, according to an account relayed by a neighbor.

Is it me or is there something strange about a bicyclist grabbing a dog and pedaling away with it? Seriously, who was the dognapper, Lance Armstrong?

For three months, Hench scoured the streets of Ventura, looking for any sign of Buddy. Hench then got sick and had to move to Fort Collins to be near his daughter. Months later, Hench was in a car when his cell phone rang.

An animal control officer from Fort Worth, Texas, said a microchip scan of a moppish little dog had identified Hench as the owner. Could he swing right by and pick up the dog?

So there is an upside to bagging and tagging us dogs. And all this time I thought it was just so Big Brother could watch our every move.

Well, he [Hench] was about 750 miles away and disabled.

So, Rescue Angels on Wheels got involved, alerted a few volunteers on their database and arranged a car transport from a Texas foster home to Colorado Springs, then to (con't @ http://boknowsonline.com/2008/05/14/lap-dog-dance/#more-409)

Hippo Lives As Pampered House Guest: Must See To Believe

This story is unbelievable. So much so that I had to make sure it wasn’t posted on April 1st. Take a read, or if you’re already feeling like the dog days of summer are upon us, just watch the video at the end.

To come upon a hippopotamus in the wild would be sobering and cause for serious alarm, but a South African family has become surrogate parents to a hippo in their house as their pampered pet. Jessica the hippo prefers her home creature comforts to a life in the wild as she wanders around their house, eats at their table, drinks sweet coffee, and even gets a massage before she goes to bed. Shirley and Tonie Joubert rescued the abandoned hippopotamus from a river bank on their property in Hoedspruit, Limpopo, South Africa after a devastating flood when she was merely hours old, and still had the umbilical cord attached to her in March 2000.

Traumatized and in dire need of her normal milk, the former game ranger created a substitute for the orphaned hippo.

The Jouberts’ hand raised her - not wanting to leave her to dire fate of being eaten by crocodiles or starving to death - fully expecting her to return to the wild as soon as she was old enough. They’ve spent the past 8 years raising Jessica, and the world’s only tame hippo has never left since.

Hmm…they’re kinda like cats. Give them an opening, next thing you know, they don’t know when to leave.

“I don’t know whether she thinks I’m a hippo or she thinks she’s a human. But we have the most fantastic bond.” When Tonie calls her name, Jessica honks out her own greeting in return.

Jessica seems to believe she’s part of the family and regularly forces her way into the house. “We try to keep the door closed, but she pulls down the handle and lets herself in.” Shirley adds.

Imagine having a hippo around the house. You’ll never have to worry about how you look. It’s like if you’re a little overweight, you don’t want to be hanging out with the fit Jack Russell in the neighborhood. Nope, hang with your chubby Cocker Spaniel buddy and you’ll always look great.

The monster mammal gets sweet potatoes and a bowl of wheat bran for breakfast, her favorite meals of corn on the cob and cabbage, regular snacks of dog biscuits which she shares with the Jouberts’ English bull terriers, drinks up to 20 liters of weak coffee a day which Tonie bottle feeds to her, and is even allowed to eat from the kitchen table.

Wheat bran and coffee for a hippo? That can’t be pretty.

(Con't @ http://boknowsonline.com/2008/05/13/hippo-hop/)

What's In A Name?

Bo (woof) In Commentary:

Much like our owners, we don’t have much input in selecting our names. At least we’re getting closer to being named as if we were a member of the larger family than in days gone by. I can’t complain about my name, but my sister may have a beef since I haven’t heard of many kids named Copper. Here’s an article on trends in dog names based on surveying owners in the bay area of SanFrancisco.

They’re not just Fluffy, Rover and Fido anymore.

As dog and cat ownership has expanded to nearly 2 out of 3 American households and spending on pet pampering products has exploded, Bay Area residents have taken to giving their animals more human-sounding names - such as Max, Lucy, Samantha, Charlie or, in the case of one San Francisco papillon spaniel, William III.

But the most commonly loved pet of all, according to a Chronicle review of more than 60,000 pet licenses, is a Labrador retriever named just plain Buddy. He lives in at least 89 different Bay Area homes, the data show.

My old man likes to call me Buddy too, as in “Buddy, stop licking yourself”, “Buddy, take the cat’s head out of your mouth”, and “No Buddy, I don’t want to watch Air Bud again.”

The Chronicle looked at animal license records from San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose to find the most popular pet names - and the most perplexing.

The computer review showed that people are naming their pets like children. Seventeen out of the top 25 tags for dogs and cats are typical people names. Six pets were named Jennifer, seven Marcus and four Kevin.

Beagles are likely to be Bailey. Boxers often are Rocky. Dachshunds are Oscar. And Jack Russell terriers are, of course, Jack.

That’s borderline breedist, no? What if this article were about humans, do you think they would observe: Italians are likely to be called Joey Bag of Donuts, Germans are likely to be named Wolfgang and Canadians have propensity to have last names of Eh?

“Personally, I don’t understand it,” said Spivak, who first worked with the San Francisco Society for the Preservation of Animals and now is a part of Maddie’s Fund, a new family foundation dedicated to saving the lives of shelter animals. “I like food names myself - like Honey, Peaches and Cookie.”

I’m with him. I like to name my humans after food names too. I refer to my father as (con't at http://boknowsonline.com/2008/05/12/a-rose-by-any-other-name/#more-396)

When Sausage Dogs Attack - Part Deux

Bo (woof) In Commentary:

I’ve known a few dachshunds in my time and each one of them has been very friendly. That’s why I don’t understand this report on another sausage dog attack. The previous attack story can be found here.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, May 7 (UPI) — A member of Denmark’s Queen’s Guards said he required three weeks’ sick leave after he was attacked by a royal dachshund while patrolling the palace grounds.

Nikolaj Fogh, 20, said his superiors tried to keep the royal pooch attack quiet, the Copenhagen Post reported Wednesday.

If Fogh had any sense, he’d keep it quiet too. C’mon, it’s a dachshund that bit him, not a great dane or a lab or even a cocker spaniel.

“Of course you are entitled to sue the royal family, but we’d prefer it if you didn’t,” Fogh quoted a high-ranking officer as saying after the incident.

Maja Fogh, the guard’s mother, said it is unfair that the royal family’s dogs get special protection from the law.

“Any other dog would have been put down,” she said.

And if humans were put down, her son would be the first one pushing up daisies today.

For All Your Dog Bloggin Needs www.boknowsonline.com

The Norwalk Bomber

Bo (woof) In Commentary:

I’d like to congratulate the Norwalk Bomber on another well placed poo by a canine. As you know, our primary victims are those five and younger. It doesn’t matter to us whether our feces are stepped on or handled by little teeny weeny hands, just as long as it upsets the older crowd. Here are the details of the latest incident.

NORWALK, Conn. - A New York woman has filed a $100 claim against Norwalk saying a family outing to the Maritime Aquarium was ruined by dog feces.The woman claims her child’s shoes, along with the entire outing, were ruined when her 1-year-old stepped in dog feces outside the Maritime Garage.

Sweet. So not only were the shoes ruined, but the outing was ruined as well. It makes one wonder about the size of the offending feces.

City attorney M. Jeffry Spahr says the official response is that her claim is denied and in his words, “poop happens.”

Kelly DeBrocky of Mahopac, N.Y., wants the city to reimburse her for $54 she spent replacing her toddler’s ruined shoes and the expenses for parking and aquarium admission on April 5.

Parking -$5

Tickets to acquarium - $41

Shoes - $54

Another annoyed human adult…Priceless

Dog Catches The #11 Bus...Let Vacation Begin

Bo (woof) In Commentary:

I’ve heard about these things owners call vacations. Typically they’re long road trips to coastal towns for fun and sun. For me, it means having to put up with either an obnoxious dog sitter or raucous cage neighbors at the local kennel. It’s not a lot of fun.

That’s why I like this story about Hike, a border collie, taking the vacationing thing into his own paws and heading off for a little seaside get away.

A missing border collie was reunited with his owner after catching a bus to the seaside more than 20 miles away.

Worried owner Emma Ward printed posters and contacted dog wardens, unaware Hike was on the number 11 Arriva bus near her home in Connah’s Quay, Flintshire.

But four-year-old Hike was discovered 40 stops later under a seat after making the 23m (37km) journey to the coastal resort of Rhyl in Denbighshire.

Under the seat, huh. Apparently Hike wanted a vacation but didn’t have the means to pay for it.

Ms Ward said: “I was over the moon to get him back.”

Must be Ms. Ward is an astronaut. For you pups out there too young to remember, the first astronaut was actually a dog, Laika. No not Luka, that’s the lady that lives on the second floor.

She added: “I live in between two pubs and there’s an alleyway which I let Hike go out into.

“Everyone round here knows him and he’s always somewhere close by, just doing his own thing. He always comes back when I whistle him. But this time he didn’t come back and I knew something was wrong.”

She also contacted the dog rescue home where she spotted Hike two years ago, and alerted local dog wardens.

“I had phoned everyone, including the vets in case he had been knocked down. But then the call came from a dog warden to say he was absolutely fine and had got the bus to Rhyl.

“I was so relieved to see him. But when I got there to pick him up, he was playing ball with the driver - he didn’t have a care in the world.”

Of course not, he was still on vacation. I suspect however the growing knot in his stomach signaled the end of his time off was near.

(For all your doggie bloggin needs visit www.boknowsonline.com)

No Time To Take Fido To The Park....Try This

Bo (woof) In Commentary:Cool device for those younger than 106. Another machine that will allow your owner to get fatter than ever......
http://boknowsonline.com/2008/04/30/perpetual-motion-machine/

Perpetual Motion Machine

Bo (woof) In Commentary:

Cool device for those younger than 106. Another machine that will allow your owner to get fatter than ever…http://boknowsonline.com/2008/04/30/perpetual-motion-machine/