I think it’s because he likes a full helping of poo to pick up rather than little rabbit turds while on our family walks. Copper, Kensy, Patience and I are more than happy to comply. Hey, it’s what we do.

Then I read today’s story about Giant George and suddenly I’m worried.  Let’s face it, GG puts out the same amount of poo we do, but it only needs to be cleaned up once. If my old man is one thing, it’s lazy. But come to think of it, if this were the only thing my father was worried about, he would have gotten himself an elephant years ago.

Anyway, here’s George and his story from the Daily Mail.

Standing at nearly 43 inches tall from paw to shoulder and weighing a staggering 245lbs could this be the world’s new tallest dog?

Pictured here in the parks of Tuscon, Arizona, George, a four-year-old blue great dane, looks more like a miniature horse than a dog.

The gentle giant, who measures 7ft 3ins from nose to tail, could be a prime contender to take the title from the former record holder, Gibson, a harlequin Great Dane who passed away from cancer last August.

Now George’s owners, David and Christine Nasser, are awaiting confirmation from Guinness World Records to see if he has achieved the lofty heights.

‘He’s 42.625 inches at the shoulder,’ said David. ‘He’s very very unique.’

According to David, George consumes 110lbs of food every month, and sleeps alone in his own Queen Size Bed.

David and Christine raised George from when he was 7 weeks old, but never expected him to grow so big.

The couple eventually had to move their aptly named dog out of their king sized bed, when he grew too large for the three of them to share the same sheets.

Dr. William Wallace of the Buena Pet Clinic in Tucson, who witnessed the documentation necessary for the Guinness record, said: ‘In my 45 years of experience working with giant breed dogs, without question, George is the tallest dog I have ever seen.’

Clearly there’s a bit of an up-sell there, and something I’m quite appreciative of, when they look to match a homeless animal to a needy human. But is it really necessary?

All studies I’ve read have shown absolutely, positively no downside to the relationship…from a human’s standpoint. For the pet, there’s quite a few negatives but we’re willing to let it slide for some free kibble. Hey, it’s what makes us more adorable than we already are.

So I read today’s paper and I see one human didn’t get the memo. It seems he’s got an issue with none other than his dogs. Yeah, his best friends!

Come to find out he has an invention he wants to sell to the world. Sure it’s clever, even thoughtful, but did he have to throw his love machines under the sanitation bus?  I’ll let you be the judge.

The Detroit Free Press has the scoop (pun intended).

For the last two years, Curt Fournier of Linden plopped himself into all things dog poop.

Fournier, founder of GreenDog LLC, a start-up company in the pet-waste disposal industry, consulted doctors and veterinarians; he perused blogs and online forums, looked at countless studies and even did a few of his own.

“I could probably teach a class on dog poop at this point,” joked the 34-year-old Flint native.

He ain’t the only one.

Fournier’s research was the basis for the development of the Powerloo, an outdoor, hands-free, flushable toilet for dog waste.

The Powerloo works much like a indoor toilet. It sits just below ground level and taps into sewer lines that lead to waste treatment centers. Priced at a bit less than $1,000 a unit, the device comes with an optional heating unit to prevent freezing.

“Both the Centers for Disease Control and Environmental Protection Agency say pet waste should be flushed down a toilet, but up until this point, there was really no safe or convenient way to do so. Carrying dog poop into your house can be unsafe, and not to mention gross,” Januszewski said.

According to the EPA, dog waste is a leading contributor of water contamination and also carries harmful parasites and pathogens that have the potential to infect humans and other animals.

“Vicki and I were getting tired of cleaning up the mess left by our two dogs and thought that being able to flush it down a toilet in the backyard would make things easier,” Fournier said.

GreenDog expects to produce 500 Powerloos in 2009. Fournier projects that by 2011, GreenDog could produce as many as 12,000 units, with revenue potentially reaching $12 million.

While pet owners will be a target market for the company, GreenDog also plans to market the Powerloo to municipalities and businesses such as dog breeders, doggy day care centers and pet-friendly apartment complexes.

If my old man ever installed the Powerloo in our back yard, I’d make sure to use it the way he uses our inside toilets. Yup, I’d make it a point to pee all over the Powerloo’s seat and then dribble the rest on the ground.

That way, he’ll know how my mother feels.

Photo courtesy of RASHAUN RUCKER/Detroit Free Press

Employees of a US pet shop expecting a shipment of tropical fish and salt water received a man’s dead body instead.

He says he learned the body was that of a 65-year-old San Diego-area man who died of early onset Alzheimer’s disease.

The body was supposed to go to a research laboratory in Allentown, a 70-mile (113-kilometer) drive away.

US Airways Inc. released a statement saying the air cargo problem was caused by a “verbal miscommunication between a delivery driver and the cargo representative.” The Tempe, Arizona-based airline says it’s deeply sorry.

I wonder if the pet store employees were tipped off when the cargo representative was a fish.

But those were the days of Scooby’s youth. It turns out that at some point he was given to a French lady where they shared an apartment in the city of love, Paris. Sadly, their relationship ended tragically.

Scooby [a dog] will give evidence [at trial] as he is believed to have been with his 59-year-old owner when she was found hanging from the ceiling of her Paris flat.

Police believe the death was suicide, but her family cry murder – and the only witness to see the alleged crime is on four legs.

Why is it that Scooby always finds himself in the middle of some crime? Has the thought not crossed anyone’s mind that he may in fact be the perpetrator of the crime?

It is hoped Scooby can collar the potential perpetrator, having already played a leading role during a preliminary court hearing in Nanteree, a Paris suburb.

He is said to have hounded a suspect, “barking furiously” after being taken out of the kennel and into the witness box by a vet.

Of course he’s going to try and push the blame onto someone else.  And I bet, like OJ, he’s going to spend the rest of his life hunting them down…on a golf course.

[Lawyers] said: “Human evidence is unreliable enough, let alone canine evidence.

“Besides, the victim died two and half years ago, which is seventeen dog years! How is the animal supposed to remember that far back?”

Especially for a dog with a history of suspected drug use. Weed kills…just ask Shaggy.

It states that men, human men, follow the same rules of engagement as male dogs when it comes to wooing the opposite sex. Really? I have to say, my father is clueless, and he managed to get a girl. Granted, it’s my mother, but still she’s a chick.

I bet he never even sniffed her crotch before asking her out for a Happy Meal at Mickey Dee’s. What a blockhead.

Me? I get whatever I want out of women, be they pretty or dogs. But that’s because I know what I’m doing.

Here’s the story about the study from The Times of India.

Just like men, dogs too know how to win ladies’ hearts – and that too from a young age.

According to a new study, while playing, young dogs let the female pups win, even if the males have a physical advantage.

They might lose the game in the short run, but they could win at love in the future.

The experts found that male dogs place themselves in potentially disadvantageous positions, which could make them more vulnerable to attack, and researchers suspect the opportunity to play may be more important to them than winning.

Infact, the gentlemanly dog behavior is even accompanied with a bow. “We found that self-handicapping tends to occur in conjunction with play bows,” the Discovery News quoted lead researcher Camille Ward, as saying.

“A play bow is a signal that dogs use when they want to communicate playful intentions to a potential play partner,” added Ward, a lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan and director of About Dogs LLC. She is also author of the forthcoming book, Relationship-Based Dog Training.

“We know that in feral dog populations, female mate choice plays a role in male mating success. Perhaps males use self-handicapping with females in order to learn more about them and to form close relationships with them — relationships that might later help males to secure future mating opportunities,” the expert said.

Hey, the only handicap I have when it comes to mating is that I have no nuts, figuratively and literally speaking.

To reach the conclusion, the experts studied puppy litters from four dog breeds: a shepherd mix, Labrador retriever, Doberman pincher and malamute. Play data was collected when the pups were between three and 40 weeks old.

The scientists examined how the puppies played with members of their own sex as well as with the opposite sex.

Females were more likely than males to initiate play with their own sex, but that may be to stave off more vicious behavior later.

Now that’s what I’m talking about.

The study has been published in Animal Behavior. While males were less likely to initiate play with other males, they seemed eager to play with females, and would go to all sorts of lengths to keep the play going.

If males want to play with other males, that’s their business….not that there’s anything wrong with that.

What is the deal with President Obama naming his dog after me? Why my name? It ain’t cool Mr. President.

Let me set the record straight so everybody understands, there’s only room for three Bo’s in this world; Bo Diddley, Bo Jackson and Bo Hoefinger. That’s  it. No others need apply.

If you want to be a Bo, you can’t be. Membership is closed. Oh sure, you can be a Beau or a  Bow, but you can’t be a Bo.

Got it? Good.

Oh, and don’t even think about using an Executive Order to get your way.

I feel so much better now. So here’s a story from the Detroit Free Press about Beau, the presidential pooch (ahh that looks better already, doesn’t it?).

WASHINGTON — He has torn through magazines and stray socks, even sunk his teeth into the president’s gym shoes. Charm school taught him to sit, heel and shake a paw on command. He spent his first summer vacation on breezy Martha’s Vineyard.

That’s just a scoop of the poop on Bo’s[sic] first few months as First Dog of the United States.

… At least one dog trainer wishes the Obamas would use him to highlight such issues as animal overpopulation.

Another option, says celebrity pet trainer Andrea Arden, of New York’s Andrea Arden Dog Training, would be for the Obamas to become involved with programs that teach children to treat pets humanely, or to get Bo[sic] involved with work as a therapy dog.

“I like it better than Bo[sic] writing a book,” she said.

I hear you sister. There’s only room for one awesome book by a dog named Bo, and it’s called Bad to the Bone! Make sure to pre-order your copy today!

I do partake in peanut butter covered pills legally prescribed by humans who’ve spent way too much time in school and not enough time at the dog park. Yeah, I’m talking about vets.

I’ve downed my fair share of rimadyl, cosequin, glucosamine chondroiton, prednosone,  thyroid medication and antibiotics.

And of course there was the incident where I was given a human narcotic by mistake. That adventure I saved for inclusion in my memoir, if only as a cautionary tale to all dogs.

The intent of these pharmaceutical buying binges has been to make me feel better. My parents could have saved their money and just given me an Ice Pup instead. Trust me, those things will make any dog feel great!

When it comes to illicit drug use, I just say no. Sadly, some dogs don’t have the strong willpower I have. Seattle Pi has the latest example.

A dog owner thinks her dog got sick after accidentally eating marijuana at a Seattle park, and the theory may not be so far-fetched, according to police records.

Jack, a Labrador mix, hasn’t had a single health problem since Jen Nestor adopted the stray 11 years ago. But Jack’s recent run through the woods at Seward Park caused quite a scare.

Jack’s owner said on May 17, Jack wandered off for just three minutes on his own. But three hours later, “his head was rocking back and forth his eyes were glassy,” she said.

Nestor is convinced her dog got high on marijuana at the park. She believes the pot must have been stashed somewhere in the green landscape where she unleashed her dog.

Jack’s veterinary bills added up to $1,500. His medical records state he was dizzy, disoriented, staggering left to right and falling over when trying to sit. He also vomited large amounts of plant material and liquid that smells like marijuana.

Three weeks have passed since the incident, and the couple’s friends laugh at what they call a random situation.

The effect on Jack has been dramatic. He now demands to lay on the couch all day, watch  Animal Planet and eat doggie pizzas.

Who does he think he is, Matthew McConaughey’s dog?

Do they pay the chickens for them? Do they steal them? Or do they have a huge bunny production facility that creates them? If created, will the factory have to purchase carbon credit offsets next year? And what will that do for the number of eggs produced?

They’re legitimate questions, but I suppose many of you are probably thinking, “Bo, why can’t you just focus on the fun side for a change. Can’t you just enjoy Easter for the celebration it is?”

I guess I could if it wasn’t for the fact I’m not allowed to eat meat on Fridays, plus this charcoal patch on my forehead still hasn’t completely washed away. What kind of holiday season is that? In fact, substituting so much salmon for meat has given me a strong urge to swim up river and jump into a bear’s mouth.

But the following story illustrates some upside to Easter for dogs in the Illinois (pronounced Ill – e – noise) area.

TROY, Ill. – Donna Elief planted her feet firmly in the grass, held the megaphone up to her mouth and yelled: “Three, two, one. Hunt some eggs!”

And with that, a hundred or so dogs – tiny ones, shaggy ones, old and young ones, from Chihuahuas to Shiba Inus to Great Danes – went scampering into a field, noses down and tails wagging, searching for Easter eggs.

When the dogs’ noses touched the eggs – actually pastel-colored plastic ones containing dog treats – their owners picked them up, placing them in baskets or bags. The goal was to locate the “surprise egg,” which entitles the finder to a gift basket with chew toys and a flea treatment.

The Canine Easter Egg Hunt, held by the Hawthorne Animal Hospital and now in its fourth year, is a benefit event for the TreeHouse Wildlife Center near Alton, which takes care of wounded and orphaned wildlife. The event has cultivated some regulars, now veterans of the hunt, generating hundreds of dollars for the center.

“We come back every year,” said Priscilla Briggs of Granite City, as Nellie the collie and Freddie the sheltie panted nearby. “They just like to go out and have fun.”

Moments before the hunt began, the dogs and their owners lined up at the edge of the field – organized into four separate hunting zones for different sized dogs, “so the little ones aren’t getting stomped by the big ones,” Weishaupt explained.

The dogs charged in, finding all the eggs within minutes.

Not bad if you’re looking for a little exercise, but for me, I’ll just head to the local diner and get my eggs the way I like them…over easy.

Do you know of any dogs that actually enjoy their jobs? Sure Rufus may look like he enjoys snatching a biscuit from his nose, but he ain’t having any fun. Sunshine rolling over for a treat? A blow to her self esteem.  She might as well be working the pole.

Maybe the trick to happy employment is to do something non-traditional?

The following article explores that idea, highlighting one dog’s pursuit of a career less smelled…

These days, Dillon is working like a dog at Kimpton’s Hotel Burnham. You won’t hear him bitching about it though.

The 4-year-old bulldog is the new director of pet relations, serving as ambassador for pets at the hotel at 1 W. Washington. Stationed in the hotel’s living room, Dillon greets travelers, poses for photos with guests and helps provide treats to traveling pets. “We’re die-hard about our pets,” spokeswoman Jennifer Navarro said.

Dillon got the gig by following his owner, new general manager Duncan Clements, to the hotel from Dallas, where the bulldog served in pet relations at Kimpton’s Hotel Lumen.

Regardless of career, it all comes down to who you know rather than what you know.

At these times, when my parents offer me a plain old dog biscuit to entice me to sit, I’ll turn and walk away. When they offer me peanuts, I’ll stand there, staring back at them with the “You gotta be kidding me” look. Only when their offer is upgraded to a hot dog will I firmly place my butt on the floor, and if they went upscale with the Nathan’s variety I’ll even offer up a paw.

A couple in Louisiana would do well to follow my strategy for surely they could have gotten a little more in this transaction.

A couple traded their cockatoo and $175 for two children with another woman. All three have been arrested.

Paul and Brandy Romero from Louisiana had offered their cockatoo for sale for 1,500. But they were instead approached by Donna Greenwell who offered two of three children she was looking after to the couple for $2,000.

After some haggling the agreed price was the bird plus $175 for the two children, aged four and five. Greenwell was looking after the kids for a woman who was going through a divorce.

Greenwell, a truck driver, said she needed the money for adoption paperwork. The other child had been placed with a different family.

Just think, a year ago that cockatoo would have gotten you at least three kids. Just another sign this economy is headed for a depression.