Hang Five

I live in a land locked area so when I see news like this it makes me jealous. While I get to trek up mountains, carrying my owners lunch and drink on my back, these dogs get to go out and surf. Yeah, that’s right, surf.

This year was the 3rd Annual Loews Coronado Bay Resort Surf Dog Competition at Imperial Beach in California.

These canines bring a whole new meaning to the term sea dog.

In cool shades, t-shirts and Hawaiian shirts these mutts know how to ride on the crest of a wave.

Despite some ruff conditions about 60 brave four-legged competitors took part in America’s largest surfing competition for dogs.

If you consider standing still on a board, getting wild applause for doing it and receiving treats in the end ruff conditions, then yeah, I guess the conditions were kind of tough out there. Read more

Watch Your Step

We’ve been known to jump through hoops for acceptance, but there are some of us who’ll go just a bit further. Take this Mastiff for instance.

A Chinese dog has performed a breathtaking high wire stunt in front of thousands of spectators. The two-year-old Tibetan mastiff called Hu Hu (Tiger) performed the stunt at a special event to showcase dog tricks in Chongqing city.

I find it hard to believe that any dog named Tiger can pull off anything other than being a mediocre canine actor in a mid 70’s television show. So my expectations were kinda low until I saw the picture. Read more

Numbers Game

Some think this dog is amazing . Me, I’m not surprised.

In case you missed this one, a Mission Viejo woman’s dog — a 9-year-old cockapoo known as Cookie Einstein — has become a celebrity of sorts for her apparent mathematical abilities, the O.C. Register’s Niyaz Pirani reported over the weekend.

She [Cookie] adds, subtracts, multiplies, divides and calculates square roots and simple algebra through barking. And Cookie can answer if the question’s asked in either English or Spanish.

Bi-lingual and good in math…she must have scored well on her SATs.

Cookie won’t respond to anybody but Miller, and she won’t bark unless there’s a treat involved — sliced turkey being one of her favorites. You might think that there are signals communicated between owner and pet; instead, Miller simply holds Cookie’s mouth until she’s ready to hear the answer.

Do I doubt Cookie knows the answers? Of course not, for every canine knows we’ve been bred to be good at math. We’re constantly counting the number of treats we have been given in a day, match that against recent trends and do a quick regression analysis to determine the likelihood of getting more. It’s as instinctive as chasing a cat, or a mailman.

I wonder what would happen if Miller asked Cookie to tell her the value of Pi?

Anyway, if you’re skeptical take a look at the video below:

 

Silly Rabbit - Tricks Are For Kids

I’ve never been into dog tricks; they’re rather, oh I don’t know, beneath me. However, play me in a game of three card monte and I’ll be walking away with your owner and your collar. I can’t say whether one is better than the other but Cindy the spaniel decided to go the first route, learning to be the queen of dog tricks in the process.

An eight-year-old dog is amazing her owners and neighbours with an astonishing array of tricks.

Cindy, a pedigree cavalier King Charles spaniel, can balance objects on all four paws while lying down.

She can also keep a golf ball in a spoon held in her mouth while balancing objects on her head.

Proud owner Mark Bucknell, from Wednesfield, in the West Midlands, said: “Who needs the telly when you’ve got a dog like this?”

Mrs. Savales for one.

He said the family started teaching Cindy tricks when they took her in as an eight-month old.

Cindy is also a dab hand with a golf ball and a spoon

Ron Bucknell, 75, said the family had run out of tricks to teach her.

That’s not what Buddy, her pimp told me but who am I to shatter Ron’s world?

It took her six months to learn to wait for her reward but, despite having undergone two leg operations since, her circus skills have remained intact.

She pees like an elephant, eats like a lion, and loves to go car riding with a bunch of clowns. I guess they’re right, her circus skills seem to be intact.

Mr Bucknell had this advice for his envious fellow dog owners. “You don’t do the dog any favours if you leave it as a dumb mut.

It’s the same advice I have for canines. You don’t do your owners any favors by leaving them dumb. Make sure to train them to feed you, walk you and let you out to do your business on your schedule not theirs.

Quick Withdrawal

Modern day dog’s are so much more technologically advanced than me and my generation. Just read this story on dogs using ATMs. In my day, all that was ever taught to ‘assistance dogs’ was how to write out a check. Time flies when your begging for food…

They might not be able to help if you forget your Pin, but these dogs can get your money out without paws-ing for thought.

The pooches are among an army of ‘assistance dogs’ who have been trained to withdraw money from cash machines for their disabled owners.

They are adept at inserting and withdrawing cards at ATMs to help owners in wheelchairs who are often not able to stretch far enough to do it themselves.

A spokesman for charity Canine Partners, which trains the dogs, said: ‘They put in the card and take it out and take out the money and give it to the person in the wheelchair.

I wonder whether they’re also trained to accept the ATM surcharge when prompted? Read more