Embarcacao - The Vessel: Thank you!!

Sometimes a distant dream comes true at a time when you least expect it.  To a post written in 2007, on the 10th of October, 2010 (10/10/10 - what a lovely number!) Tam Aham Brumi Brahmanam wrote a translation of Embarcacao.  I hope to reproduce his efforts here to give justice to one of the most deeply beautiful songs ever written.

Embarcacao
The Vessel

Ai, ness mundo ca tem sô sofrimento

Oh, in this world here there is only suffering
Ma naquel olhar cheio di mágoa
But in that stare full of sadness
Modê crê tão cedo na felecidade
For believing so soon in happiness
Tcheu titá fogá na solidão
Something that is drowning in deep loneliness

Ma na embarcação quta levá nôs vida
But in the vessel that takes our lives
Um bom timonero nô ta desejá, pa guiá-no
We hope for a good helmsman to take us
Na temporal nô ta reá vela
Through the storm and pull down our sails
Pa nô ca perdê na profundeza dum amargura
So we will not be lost in the deepness of a sorrow


Terra longe à vista é um doce promessa
The desired land seen so far is a sweet promise
Ma qui ta desfazê nindiferença
But it is not making no difference
Um sonho nascê na porto dilusão
Because a dream is born in the port of illusions
Fgi pa longe parcê um solução
Fly away to a far place seems to be a solution


Ma na rota incerta di nôs destino
But in the uncertain route that is our fate
Nô ta pô esperança num brisa mansa e constante
We are putting our hopes on a sweet and constant breeze


Pintchi vela dnôs existencia
That blows the sails of our existence
E na paz levá, assim, nôs nau
And so in peace takes our vessel
Pum horizonte cheio di luz e bonança
Towards a horizon full of light and peaceful feelings


Pintchi vela dnôs existencia
That blows the sails of our existence
E na paz levá, assim, nôs nau
And so in peace takes our vessel
Pum horizonte di luz e bonança
Towards a horizon full of light and peaceful feelings

How do we live our lives in our sleeping, soft, silent, subtle, dreaming moments, when they shatter as we wake? How do we explain our lives to the people that fill it in our waking moments, when they can't reach us where we sleep?

I can't believe that people live like this, half-lives, half-asleep, half dreaming.  I can't believe that I used to live like this.

Stateless - Bloodstream

You need to be in an ice-cold room with a roaring fireplace, wrapped in furs, sipping a whisky glass filled with ice-cubes and a very good shot of espresso, listening to this.

Stateless - Bloodstream
Wake up, look me in the eyes again
I need to feel your hand upon my face
Words can be like knives
They can cut you open
And the silence surrounds you
And haunts you

I think I might have inhaled you
I could feel you behind my eyes
You've gotten into my bloodstream
I can feel you floating in me

Words can be like knives
They can cut you open
And the silence surrounds you
And haunts you

 I think I might have inhaled you
I could feel you behind my eyes
You've gotten into my bloodstream
I can feel you floating in me

The spaces in between
Two minds, and all the places they've been
I've tried to put my finger on it
I've tried to put my finger on it

I think I might have inhaled you
I could feel you behind my eyes
You've gotten into my bloodstream
I can feel you floating in me

Song for Whoever: Unplayed Piano

A beautiful, beautiful, beautiful song!  One of those lovely collaborations between two of my favourite artists who really should be me and you in another rambling life.

Incredibly poignant... further research shows it was for/about Aung San Suu Kyi.

Unplayed Piano - Damien Rice & Lisa Hannigan
Come and see me
Sing me to sleep
Come and free me
Or hold me if I need to weep

Or maybe it's not the season
Or maybe it's not the year
Or maybe there's no good reason
Why I'm locked up inside
Just 'cause they wanna hide me

The moon goes bright
The darker they make my night

Unplayed pianos
Are often by a window
In a room where nobody loved goes
She sits alone with her silent song
Somebody bring her home

Unplayed piano (unplayed piano)
Still holds a tune (still holds a tune)
Lock on the lid (years, years pass by)
In a stale, stale room (in the changing of the moon)
Maybe it's not that easy (too many windows)
Or maybe it's not that hard (in a stale, stale room)
Maybe they could release me (stale, stale room)

Let the people decide
I've got nothing to hide
I've done nothing wrong
So why've I been here so long?

Unplayed pianos
Are often by a window
In a room where nobody loved goes
She sits alone with her silent song
Somebody bring her home
Unplayed pianos
Are often by a window
In a room where nobody loved goes
She sits alone with her silent song
Somebody bring her home

Unplayed piano (unplayed piano)
Still holds a tune
Years pass by
In the changing of the moon

Parachute - Cheryl Cole

Probably the only correctly captured version of this music video available on the net.  Forget about going to YouTube, the recordings of the videos are jinxed.

Just absolutely adore the dance and sync of imagery (costumes, movements, photography) used with the music.


Cheryl Cole - Parachute on muzu.tv

Socializing Your Dog

Bailey's now a pretty confident puppy around the house.  She's been socialized with vacuum cleaners, carpet cleaners, lawn mowers and pretty much turns her nose up at them as nothing to be afraid of (fell asleep with the vac running the other day).

I'd wanted to document what I did to socialize her, because many dog magazines, training books and websites all tell you to do this, but many don't actually tell you what exactly "socialize" means.

In a nutshell, socialization is associating something neutral to nice happening to the puppy with a particular event (eg. a vacuum cleaner turning on), preferably with the first experience the puppy has of the event, in order to cement in their minds that when the event repeats itself, it's not a bad or scary thing.  The main time to do this is between the fear periods from 8 to 12/14 weeks of age but bear in mind that dogs learn all the time, even when they are adult dogs.

Think Happy Thoughts

Think about the things you remember when you were a child, say around 5-6 years of age.  Were they of school holidays, a particular favourite uncle, of certain foods, smells, sounds?  The memories you form in childhood would most likely be impressions, short of being a genius, few people are likely to remember lottery numbers from 1984, unless they'd won something then.  Impressions are most cemented in memories when they are associated with emotions, happy or sad.  This is exactly how it is for a dog and especially a puppy, memories and associations are formed from emotional responses to stimulus.

So the formula therefore is simple - happy = good; scared/sad = bad.  This knowledge is a powerful thing, as you can use this pretty much to condition your dog to respond in a particular way to pretty much anything.  The scary thing is that you'll have to remember that you don't turn on your dog's memories whenever you want to press "record", it happens all the time, whether you're conscious of it or not.

So something as ordinary as a vacuum cleaner can be a horrible experience for Beanie who could have been accidentally kicked when she was a puppy approaching a vacuum, to an OK to even good experience for Bailey who was cuddled in her bed and dropped random treats when the vacuum cleaner was turned on.

Reprogramming is Possible

Also remember that intense emotions experienced during an event can "over-write" less intense emotions experienced for the same event.  That is, with adequate exposure and given time, even adult dogs can be reconditioned to look at an event they previously thought was negative in a positive to OK way.

I was taken aback by how quickly dogs readjust in that way when taking Beanie for a long 5 hour car ride a few years ago.  Prior to the road trip, Beanie had only taken short 30 minute car trips to the vet or the park.  She wasn't hugely not in favour of car rides, but the jostling and movements frequently upset her stomach and balance, and made her uncomfortable, to the point of loads of whining, crying and vomiting on some rides.  So when I first started the long 5 hour trip, the first 30 minutes contained the usual whining and crying.

But a few preparation items were different for the long trip.  I'd prepped a spray of doggy calming pheremone in the car, as well as comfy cushions and beds for the long haul.  I'd also made sure of an empty stomach (so no vomiting) prior to the start of the trip, and fed small snacks along the way.  The joy of the small treats, coupled with the creature comforts and pheremones led to a very settled dog after 30 minutes.  She even fell asleep along the way, and for the rest of the journey and thereafter, all car rides were accepted with a floppy lie-down, as Beanie learnt from that one long trip, that car rides are just another excuse to take a long nap.

Associate, not Distract

One of the things I did wrong with my first dog was to distract my dog with plenty of nice stuff (treats and bones usually) when something possibly unpleasant was happening (eg. getting their nails cut).  This was the result of having read and misinterpreted the less than clear instructions of socializing your dog by giving them something pleasant with something possibly unpleasant.

Timing is everything here, but you'd want to reward the behaviour of being calm or at minimum nonplussed about the event (remember - focus on what the dog is feeling during the event) rather than distracting your dog to the point that they don't remember what's happening to them except that they were getting a treat.  This is what happened with my dog when her nails were cut.  In desperation, while I was cutting her nails, I had to enlist the help of an ally who was dangling bones and stuffing treats into Beanie's jaws to keep her happy and quiet.  The result, Beanie didn't know or remember that her nails were cut, only that being on the table (when she was groomed) resulted in the consumption of many nice things.  To this day, she loves going on the grooming table, less so what happens to her after she gets on it.

The result, a lot of reconditioning after that rewarding Beanie for standing there quietly while her nails are being handled and held in a specific way to allow for them to be cut, by giving her the treat after they are cut, and not during.

I did this with my new puppy by sneaking in snips from the nail scissors when I was cuddling her, in the most uneventful way - just a few nails a day.  She now doesn't mind this one bit and thinks it's normal cuddling behaviour from me, and I don't even need to treat or trick her into accepting anything until the full paw is done with a cuddle and a small bite.

Create New Associations to replace the Old Ones you Don't Want

If something has an association that you don't want (eg. dog barking = mad panic!!) - create a fresh association that the dog hasn't seen before which has a positive response and link the two.

Example: Neighbour's Dog Barks > your dog's response is to bark and run around frantically. You make a small sound (eg. duck quacking or whistle blowing) when you hear the neighbour's dog bark and give your dog a treat. Gradually, your dog comes to associate the sound of the neighbour's dog barking with the neutral quacking sound, and from there, a treat.

Beanie for example already had a really bad relationship with the vacuum cleaner.  Whenever the cleaners came to vacuum around her, she would go stir crazy, even if in her crate, and bark and try to get at the vacuum from the safety of her crate.  She did however have a very fond love of Pedigree Dentastix chews, which was stronger in her like-list than her dislike of vacuums (so I learnt).

So one day I gave her the chew in her crate, while proceeding to vacuum all around her.  The result from that one experience was that now when she sees the vacuum cleaner, she runs to her crate and wants for a Dentastix.

So overall tips from me:

1. Treat, not trick.  Make your dog conscious of what you're rewarding before rewarding the behaviour.
2. Behave as if the things which should matter (nail cutting, grooming, vacuum cleaners) actually really doesn't.  Remember your dog isn't born with a list of things which should matter to him and which should not, they are learned behaviours in early puppyhood.
3. Be conscious that your dog is learning 24/7 and use this to good effect by modifying behaviour bit by bit.
4. Link associations you don't like to a newly created positive association.

Making Tiramisu

I think from now on, every Valentine's Day I'm going to make some tiramisu, just to remind myself of how love tastes like.

Making Tiramisu

Ingredients
5 egg yolks
5 heaped tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons full Amaretto, almond liqueur
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
500g mascarpone
10 Italian boudoir biscuits, lady's fingers
250ml espresso coffee
Dusting of cocoa powder

Method
While the sobering glass
Of espresso gently cools,
Take a risk, with two
Tablespoons of Amaretto
In the glass, swirl.  Leave.

Melt overt sweetness with
Empty promises of fertility,
As the even hint of posh vanilla whisks,
Three more swags of Amaretto, and a taste:
Almond nights warm the throat, becoming
A light, frothy cream,
Almost needing substance.

As the pale scent of Amaretto fades, commit
Mascarpone into the bowl, sense
Solid cream folding into being, except
Unevenly, like so many imperfections
Sensed in a lover.  This is a practice
In patience, glossing over lumpy bits,
Until the length of repetition blends
Into a habit of cream and cheese.

You are now ready.  Lay gentle fingers
Into cold coffee, bed into glass, spoon
Cream mixture in gentle sequence, careful
Not to jolt the delicate cushion.  Repeat
Until the lips of glass almost kiss
The outline of cream, complete.

Leave, in the cool hours of refrigeration.
Better yet, forget your effort overnight.
Tomorrow pretend to discover a new
Fondness for trifle, dusted over
With cocoa powder.  Serve.

Word Commands in Training

I've learnt the hard way, and from personal experience that 8/10 dog owners inevitably speak to their dogs in human terms, and expect their dogs to understand the grammar, vocabulary and meaning of what they are saying. We forget, ultimately, that dogs don't understand language, what they do understand is a series of frequently repeated sounds that they come to associate with an action or event. The intelligence of dogs to be able to learn many different sounds is a double-edged sword, they make us forget that we didn't actually cross the barrier of understanding of language, we merely pretended that we did. After all, isn't language just a frequently and widely used set of associations with events, objects and actions? Perhaps it's not that insane to think we might extend this language to dogs as well.

Be very careful what you say...
The main problem is that the words we (humans) are usually taught to use with dogs can sometimes work against us. Take this key example, I was taught to use "Come" to have my dog drop everything that they're doing and move towards me to get a treat. Inevitably, the word "come" was the first thing in my mind when I wanted my dog to be near me for anything, be it a treat, food, a hair cut or a nail clip. Not all of those events were actually events that my dog wanted to be near me for, however. Still helpful however, for my dog to learn to drop everything and come to me, though - except that the association with the word "come" has been tainted by the not-so-nice nail clips.

I ended up teaching (accidentally) my dogs to break up their play and "Finish" to come to me for a treat. This was done by me deciding at random intervals that they've had enough play, I said "Finish" and walked to the food bowl to dispense a treat. Very quickly they realised that whenever that word was uttered, however softly or gently, the food bowl was about to dispense something good. Needless to say, when they heard this word, they dropped whatever they were doing and ran to me to get a treat. I'd accidentally taught them the meaning of "come" but with the word "finish".

I have to now decide before even getting a dog the words I'm going to use, and what they mean and most importantly, stick to them. At the moment, I'm leaning towards words that I don't frequently use in normal speech, just to avoid the mix-up in meanings. At the same time, I have to have a clear hand gesture associated with them - vital for deaf dogs, but actually essential to avoid audio mix-up too. You soon find dogs respond to the hand signals more, regardless of what you say to them.

So the list is:

• Sit. Meaning: Put your bum on the ground. Hand Signal: Two fingers to thumb, brought upwards towards the face.
• Down. Meaning: Lie down. Hand Signal: Ideally pointing downwards (so that you can command a down while standing up) but my dogs ended up learning this as a downward facing palm moving down to the floor.
• Heel. Meaning: Stay close to my heel when walking and on a loose lead. Hand Signal: Slapping side of thigh to indicate staying close to my leg.
• Paw. Meaning: Shake paw, give me your paw. Hand Signal: Upward facing palm at dog-face level to shake the paw. Left palm for right paw, right paw for left palm.
• Beg. Meaning: Sit pretty, or sit back on your haunches with two front paws relaxed and folded in front. Hand Signal: Latest trick I've learnt, so not perfected yet. Come-hither signal with index finger upwards. (Because it's funny but also because one of only hand gestures that allow you to hold a treat and do at the same time.)
• Chill. Meaning: Lie down and take a break and relax. Good words to use would also be, "relax", "take 5", "kit kat". Some people call this "Settle" but I find "Chill" easier to learn because it's a single word, and also because one inevitably says "Settle Down" which is confusing. Hand Signal: Not much needs to be done with this actually, so I sweep the downward facing palm (for the down) across to the side, like a tai-chi movement.
• Spin. Meaning: Turn in a circle, at the moment, any direction is fine. This apparently is a great way for your dogs to clean their feet on the rug, but I have something else in mind. Hand Signal: Index finger in a counter/clock-wise direction.
• Speak. Meaning: Bark. Hand Signal: Next to your mouth, open and close hands.
• Silent/Shhh. Meaning: Stop barking, keep quiet. Hand Signal: Finger on lips. Don't say anything. This is a great one to teach the kids.
• Kick it. Meaning: Kick your front and back paws (usually on a rug). This helps your dogs to remove most of the mud from their paws before the end of a walk. One of my dogs does this anyway after a pooh, so wasn't that hard to teach. Hand Signal: Index and Third Finger in a walking movement.

Dog Names

I've always had a thing for interesting dog names, and if I had my way, would like a dog named Kafka and a cat named Easter (insider joke from a Tori Amos song).

It struck me as wildly appropriate for a dog to be named after a great academic, a famous writer, poet or philosopher. As such, dog names I love are:

• Tolstoy (Leo)
• Kafka
• Plato (joke on the famous dog belonging to Mickey Mouse - Pluto)
• Auden
• Kipling (see, you could go Kip for short)
• Tolkien
• Gandalf (already taken by a very cute guinea pig!)
• Orwell (four legs good, two legs bad)
• Chomsky
• Shakespeare

The only exceptions to these are Socrates and Aristotle, which for some reason must be reserved for cats.

Favourite Doggy Things to Buy from Human Stores

It's a sad reflection of the world that pet store merchandise have ended up outpricing human store merchandise, but without waxing lyrical about the good old days, why not make the best use of that fact? After all, your dog doesn't really care that he's sleeping on a paw-printed blanket, he can leave his own jolly paw-prints on it!

These are the favourite things to buy from human stores, without any negative effects.

1. 
   
   Irma Fleece Throw £1.69 from Ikea. Larger than the average dog fleece blanket, it's machine washable and would fit dogs up to large sizes. This is my favourite dog blanket, I hardly ever get anything else and for the price, would not want to! A side benefit of fleece is that it is a magnet for dog hairs, so casting a throw over where your dog likes to sit will reduce the number of stray hairs floating around the house.
2. 
   
   Hairdressing Scissors, £5-15 from most leading pharmacies or Boots. Because I like to groom my own dogs and only send them for a professional undo twice a year, I invested in a thinning scissors (the one that looks like it has a comb on one edge) and a regular hairdressing scissors (that cuts). I use these only for my dogs, and have another pair for real human use. These are exactly the same as grooming scissors for dogs, and for a fraction of the price.
3. 
   
   Meat tenderizer for coprophagic dogs. A classic favourite for dogs who eat their doody - you can buy a specialized bottle of powder to sprinkle on your dog's food to stop them from doing this, or you can try meat tenderizer (which pre-digests the meat proteins in the food so avoids remnant nutrients that the dog eats up), fresh pineapple, MSG or apparently, courgette. The benefit is the flavouring, dogs love it!
4. 
   
   Omega 3/6 vitamins, 1000mg from leading pharmacies. Buying this in bulk from the neighbourhood pharmacy allows me to get 1000 capsules (I give my dog one a day) for about £9.99 when it would cost upwards of 3 times that much from a company that makes them only for dogs.
5. 
   
   Manicare Nail File. This one is a controversial one, doggy nail files (in metal) don't cost that much, but they don't work as well. I've found that the Manicare Nail File, albeit initially more expensive, lasts much longer and works much faster on the nail in sanding down rough spots. My dog is happier, and I am happier.
6. 
   
   White Vinegar. Use for cleaning up instead of non-enzyme scent removers. I recommend having a bottle of enzyme scent removers as well, but if you'd need gallons of cleaners, then a bottle of white vinegar mixed 1:4 with distilled/filtered water works almost just as well.
7. 
   
   Popcorn. The non-buttered kind work a treat with my dogs, who chomp them down like there's no tomorrow. They're also relatively fat and calorie free, while keeping them satisfied with a good chew, so are great to treat when training. A trick I learnt from a magazine would be to keep a smelly beef/meat jerky in with the air tight container where you store the popcorn, so the smell of the jerky infuses with the popcorn and smells delicious to the dogs. Also works with plain Cheerios.
8. 
   
   Dog Soft Toys from Ikea.  Many small ones are under £2 with a wide range to choose from.  My puppy with softer teeth loves chewing soft toys instead of bones, and especially enjoys nibbling on soft toy paws and tails.  I used to get them from pet stores at over £5 each, until a recent visit to Ikea found excellent alternatives in durable, soft fabric for under £2 each from the baby and child toy sections.  Not only that, but if you're not keen on squeaky toys because of the awfully grating sound they make when they squeak, baby toy rattles (in a soft toy) provide an excellent sound that attracts dogs, with a lot less annoying sounds.  My two terriers love shaking them from side to side and hearing them rattle.
9. Baby Bottle Cleaners/Old Toothbrushes.  Even if you don't have a baby of your own, if furkids are as far as you go towards taking responsibility for another life, buy new or reuse from outgrown baby bottle cleaners or your old toothbrushes for cleaning out doggy Kongs at least once a week with a bit of dishwashing detergent.  Putting them in a dishwasher is also an option, but I find that tends to leave fur in my dishwasher which over time forms a gooey muck.

Ten Ways to Save Money (and still keep your dogs)

Because it is a truth universally acknowledged that the owner of a pet must spend a lot of money, pet stores frequently try to persuade pet owners into parting with their cash in the name of love. Since I have more principles than I have money, here are ten money-saving tips I use every day:

1. Use dog kibble as treats. Despite dog kibble being marketed in large quantities as food, they taste and look like small, bite sized treats to dogs. Some dogs are fussy about variety, namely they don't like eating something that tastes the same day in and day out. To these dogs, kibble aren't treats because they're boring. But other brands and flavours of kibble still are! If you have a dog like this at home, pick up tester packs from dog magazines, vets and pet stores and use them as treats. Buy a small pack of kibble (maybe the posher kind if you like) and use them only as treats to your dog. As an added benefit, they are one treat that can be eaten by puppies as soon as they are weaned, since many manufacturers tend to avoid making treats that are tolerated by very young puppies.
2. Find out your dog's toy texture preference so you can pick toys that he'll like. Different ages of puppies and dogs have different texture preferences. For example, Beanie likes hard, almost wood like, or plasticky textures that she can crunch into. She also prefers chicken flavoured toys to bacon flavoured ones. Bailey likes string, rope and cloth textures. Neither of them like soft rubber very much and both love shredding paper and cardboard. My winning combination of cheap toys are: a towel or rope soaked in gravy, braided then air dried; used water bottles, the harder the plastic the better. Boxes or toilet rolls (subject to supervision).
3. Use your old discarded pillows as dog beds. Obviously there's a size constraint to this one, but it should work up to a medium size dog. There are several benefits: 1) there isn't really a difference between an old pillow and a specially made, dog friendly, flat bed. Except the price. 2) Your scent on the pillow would make a world of difference to your dog. It would be reassuring and demonstrate your presence to a puppy, and even an adult dog will be able to sniff 'you' on it. 3) Because you were throwing it out anyway, the obvious damage your dog may do to it is limited to being suddenly far less naughty.
4. Newspapers can be pee'd on just fine. This is one of those things that I keep telling myself: what did people use to use before pee pads were invented? There are special solutions out there that attract your puppy to pee on newspapers, in case they aren't used to the texture or smell of it. These do work. If you're not parting with your penny buying eau de toilet, take a tissue sample of real puppy pee from one of the accident clean-up sessions and smear it on the newspapers. They trick the puppy into thinking they did it right in the first place, which sets off a positive spiral.
5. Buy life-time products only once... in a lifetime. There are some things you only need one of, regardless how many dogs you have. These are: nail clippers, slicker brush, a round ended pair of scissors, a doggy first aid kit (if you do get those). With these items, especially if you are planning to DIY for most of the grooming, it's worthwhile investing a fair bit of money and getting a good set, especially one that you protect from the kids and well meaning in-laws, so that you can learn to use them and use them well, for the rest of your or your dog's life.
6. Human things frequently cost much less than doggy things. Especially, grooming scissors, shampoo and conditioner, food/treats, vitamins, towels and fleeces. Increasingly, good and relatively inexpensive human stores have also cleverly branched out to selling doggy things. See my other post for Favourite Doggy Things to Buy from Human Stores.
7. Gain economies of scale with more than one dog. Buy certain non-perishables in bulk. Unless there are special medical reasons for doing so, my dogs are on the same shampoo and conditioner, the same brand of worming tablets, the same flea and tick treatment, the same food, obviously they use the same pooh bags, towels, cleaning up stuff and have different coloured leads. They also share the same treats and chews, in general. It's the stuff you end up buying and using infrequently that add to the cost of doggy ownership, not necessarily the things you think about - food and water and shelter - that a dog relies on every day.
8. The simple solutions are the best solutions. One of the things I've noticed with pretty much all pet stores is the increasing number of pet-keeping/managing/grooming/training gadgets there are out there in the market. No doubt the burgeoning dog owning population is one of the most untapped and profitable markets out there, but you gotta wonder how people had dogs that were well trained before all these inventions came about, and why homeless people have the best behaved dogs. Decide for yourself what the bare essentials are for you and your dog, and resist the urge to get another gadget that promises to save you xx minutes of your time. Dogs are creatures of habit, chances are all the time you'd save doing things a new and easier way would be outweighed by the learning curve you and your dog have to go through anyway.
9. Human food can cost significantly less than specialized dog food. It's a sad time of our lives when the food we eat cost significantly less than the food our dogs eat. Either our dogs are eating particularly well (which I doubt) or we are eating particularly poorly as a civilization. One dual-dog owning friend of mine switched recently to cooking simple recipes for her dogs with food and meat obtained from the supermarket. Not only are they far less processed and therefore healthier for the dog, they're also much more economical to run in bulk. Just remember that if you're taking on cooking all of your pet's food that you're consulting appropriate recipes to ensure a healthy and balanced diet (that's the one thing kibble takes care of!). More recipes can be found at My Dog Eats Better than my Husband.
10. Stop paying for the gym membership and use your best friend. Odd as I thought it would be, doggy owning friends of mine complain about needing to walk their dogs 3 times a day, and yet find the time to go to the gym to work out at least 3 times a week after work, not including those classes offered by the gym to help one stay healthy. Two most frequently quoted reasons were: 1) my gym instructor is a hard nut and would kill me if I quit, so I need the persuasion to work out. And 2) You get a balance of cardio and weights at the gym which you won't get at home. #1 makes me laugh - for one, there isn't a human I know that is more persuasive than my dog, and despite getting me to brave all sorts of weather to walk with him, I can still never get mad at my dog (or stay mad for long). And as for #2 - dog walking and spending time with your dog isn't only about a slow, long, leisurely walk, which is the frequent impression most people have. Build in sprints and games to vary the pace for a good cardio workout, play tug games with your dog, or practice lifting/carrying them around the house for endurance/weight training (overweight retrievers please apply!).

Introducing a puppy to an older dog

Well, I have Beanie, don't I? Beanie is an absolutely darling, and in hindsight, the vet who inspected Bailey was absolutely right when he said, "You were lucky with Beanie. Think your luck ran out with this one (Bailey)."

Beanie is sweet natured, submissive, loves humans and is playful. She's even taught herself to tolerate and play with kids on her own, despite having had very little exposure to children growing up. I'd wanted another puppy to keep her company, after falling in love with the sight of two Westies walking side by side on the street, tails wagging in unison. Selfishly, as Beanie got on in years, it would also take the edge off not having a dog at all should the untoward one day happen, as it inevitably would (so I thought).

Increasingly, more dog magazines dish out advice on how to introduce two dogs, or a puppy to an older, existing dog. The majority of them say:

• Introduce your pets on neutral territory like a park or public place. Easy to say when you've got two full-grown dogs, not so easy to do when you've got an unvaccinated puppy that should not be exposed to where other dogs might have been, so the park is out of the question. It's still a good idea though, premise being that dogs are territorial, and a direct introduction of newbie in oldie's territory would seem too much like an incursion. Friend's houses (who have no pets) or the car are appropriate alternative places.
• Keep the younger dog in a crate away from harm until you know your older dog is used to the puppy. Again, very wise, and would work if not for Beanie pawing through the crate trying to reach the puppy like a toy... and vice versa.
• Put something with the puppy's scent on it (eg. puppy's bed, pillow or towels) near the older dog, preferably days before you bring pup home, so older dog gets used to pup's scent. If older dog moves away or is otherwise averse, do it gradually to socialize the older dog. Hmm... wish I could do this. Beanie promptly went to Bailey's bed and fell asleep when I placed it on the ground. Without much ado, Bailey clambered all over Beanie's bed and used her indoor toilet tray without invitation or prior training.
• Keep loads of toys and beds and anything dogs may like all around, act like there is too much of goodness to go around to avoid jealousy and fighting over toys. Beanie doesn't like toys at all unless there are treats in them, so having Bailey snatch all toys for a quick nibble didn't seem to bother her that much.
• Give your older dog attention when your newcomer is around, to avoid your older dog feeling left out or replaced. This actually worked! I did also, schemingly, in the weeks leading up to Bailey's arrival, pay Beanie less attention and made less of a fuss, so the transition from all to nothing (just kidding) didn't seem quite as large. Works with frogs and boiling water, sure works with dogs.

What they don't tell you:

• It's incredibly difficult training a puppy with an older, incredibly treat motivated, dog around, as Beanie goes through everything she knows how to do for 4 years now, and expects a treat for examplary behaviour. It must be because she's such a show-off, but did work in my favour as Bailey figured out copying what Beanie was doing was the quickest way to get her a treat, resulting in the ability to teach complex behaviours in a shorter period of time. Note to Self: If you feel you are being far, don't worry about not giving your older dog a treat all the time they demonstrate what needs to be done. It's not like they will stop doing it with a failed attempt, it actually means they try harder next time.
• Puppy playing with older dog intensely tends to result in house-training accidents. Beanie has no concept that Bailey needed the loo and wasn't just trying to get away to incite a chase. This necessitated teaching them both that gravitation towards the toilet zone meant that the toilet zone was out of bounds. It also necessitated watching puppy like a hawk and limiting play zones to a smaller area that Bailey could manage and gradually increasing the area as her control got better.
• Your puppy becomes your dog's greatest fan and longs to be her sidekick. Sometimes annoyingly so. Beanie being rather submissive isn't inclined to tell Bailey off (by growling) unless she's really ticked off, but has a long fuse. It's normally a good thing in a dog, but does require some intervention, which is the hardest thing for new duo-dog owners to figure out.
• Dogs have to fight to get used to each other (OK they do tell you that part), but it's nearly impossible to know when the right time is to intervene, if there is such a time.

Potty Training: Crate vs. Paper

For Bailey I ended up with a hybrid of both the crate and the paper methods.  In the end, the clincher for me was that Bailey did not like at all being in the crate, and although she did not eliminate in the crate, she was so hugely unhappy being in the crate even for a few minutes, I had to put her in a larger place which had to be paper-protected.

It was helpful however leveraging the typical habits of puppies around this age to speed up the process:

• Not going where she slept/ate allowed me to rig the stakes towards her pottying where I wanted her to
• Needing to go upon waking, after a meal, after drinking water, after vigourous play.  Initially, this was once every hour or so, which meant that I interrupted play every 30-45 minutes to place her where she should go to "try my luck".  Performance meant treats and coming right out again for loads of play, non-performance meant back to play until she pottied where she shouldn't, which meant end of play and back to the crate (with the paper).  This gave her a huge incentive to save her potty for the right place, and taught (in a roundabout manner) bladder control.
• Coupled with the above, because she usually sleeps in her crate, I led her to paper before doing anything else eg. taking her out for play, attention, food etc.  This gave her a huge incentive to empty her bladder and bowels before coming out, as she learnt that "empty" = play and fun.

I've been lucky that Bailey since I got her had been waking up in the middle of the night to potty, instead of toileting in her bed.  This cannot be taught by the owner, and is a habit she was made accustomed to by her breeder, who assured us that she would be paper-trained by the time she was ready to go home.  Check the conditions of your breeder in order to tell if this would be the case with your puppy - if the conditions are clean, no poo/pee in sight even with many puppies around, then your puppy is likely to be habitually clean which is a good thing.

It's probably also worthwhile emulating the house training method that the breeder was using if this is possible for your own circumstances.  Your breeder should be more than happy to give you tips.

Potty Training 2 of 2: Paper Training

Paper training was the only way I potty trained Beanie as a puppy, and is generally the well accepted alternative to crate training.  There are variants to paper training so this doesn't always mean paper, but the method all essentially involves placing newspaper/pee absorbent material all over where puppy lives, and gradually conditioning the puppy to eliminate on the particular surface of the paper.
This is done by feeding the puppy strategically on one unpapered side of the room only, where the bed is also placed, to encourage the puppy to utilize their instinct to move away from their food/bed to eliminate on the other, papered end away from their bed and food.  The premise of this training is that dogs tend to pick the same spots for future elimination, so gradually develops a surface preferences towards paper/pee pads etc.

The main thing to remember is that transitioning from paper to outside is a secondary process once the puppy has learnt to use the paper.  This is usually done by taking a small piece of paper with you when you go outside, and making that association in the puppy's mind that outside is equivalent to the paper.  Some dogs never need this step and make that association quite readily (the process of moving away from "home ground" generally tends to do the trick) but I guess others do rely on this step especially if they have been home-dogs for some time.

Pros:

• Puppies use in their own time, so you're less on a fixed schedule in having to watch the puppy like a hawk to determine when they need to go.  I still recommend looking for tell-tale circling and sniffing movements to encourage the puppy to go on paper, especially if the area where the puppy lives in is big enough for the puppy to not make it back to the paper in time.
• This is the preferred method for owners who have to work or be away longer hours, as it offers more flexibility in making sure the puppy has means to relieve himself, instead of being forced to wait which is horribly cruel.
• As they become more reliable on the surface/paper, a change in the positioning of the toilet can be effected. If you'd like to progress your puppy to an indoor litter tray, grass in the yard etc. just move a soiled paper to where you want your puppy to go, and the puppy tends to follow. This method was used in Singapore to train their dogs to use an actual squatting loo that was set into the ground. All the owners needed to do was flush when their dogs were done.
• Smell attractant pads and puppy training solutions on newspapers do help in rigging the odds to your favour that puppies eliminate on paper to speed up the process.
• This method is not cruel to dogs, neither requiring them to perform on demand, nor requiring them to hold it until their owners come home. Many dogs end up eliminating more or less on a schedule anyway when they grow older as their digestive systems settle around their feeding times, so this method doesn't prevent you from eventually training your dog to do it outside.
• Allows dogs to be toilet trained indoors permanently, which is convenient for flat dwellers or people who don't have easy, quick access to the outdoors.

Cons:

• Training in this method takes longer, as it relies more on coincidence than sheer willpower. While there are ways to stack the odds in your favour, nothing works 100% all the time.
• The biggest drawback to this method is the fact that puppies tend to shred or play with the newspapers when they are bored (they learn all too quickly that it's fun!), ending up in one very dirty puppy and also a very dirty area.  While there are ways around this (eg. putting the papers in a little tray away from your puppy's reach, redirection etc.) no single method is foolproof and much relies on your puppy already knowing a specific area to use. I have found that puppies from ages 8-10 weeks tend not to know/learn how to play with papers yet. As they become older and more exploratory, they inevitably figure out that newspapers are incredibly fun to shred. So note to self that if this method is chosen, get the preferred zone figured out by the puppy within those 2 weeks!
• I did see one other drawback mentioned on a site that said if you had a habit of reading your newspapers on the floor, your dogs not knowing the difference between today's news and yesterday's news may end up doing their business on a section you haven't read yet. Never happened to me, but the simple solution is to lay your papers out on the coffee table, or read the news online.
• Some people genuinely prefer their dogs never to develop the habit of doing it indoors at all for hygiene purposes.  Developing the paper > outside process can therefore be a longer way to get to the same place.

Potty Training Puppy 1 of 2: Crate Training

Crate Training is a very popular method of house training a puppy or dog.  It comprises getting a small crate for the puppy, just large enough for the puppy to lie down, sit up, stand and turn around in.  The puppy is taken directly to the designated toilet zone when he is out of the crate at regular intervals to eliminate and praised heavily when he does the right job in the zone.  The premise of crate training is that dogs naturally do not choose to eliminate where they eat or sleep, and so would exercise bladder control until they are out of their crates.

Pros:

• Teaches your dog bladder control, which is useful if the final arrangement for the puppy is to end up doing all of their business outdoors on walks.
• Easier for most dogs (with exception of puppy mill dogs) to figure out, as it's apparently doggy instinct not to dirty where they sleep.
• Makes it easier to manage puppy's time, as a puppy in a crate without much space to do anything won't. If done right, your dog falls into a routine much faster than a puppy that isn't crate trained.
• Added advantage of teaching puppies to settle in a confined area, making travel and temporary confinement in the future acceptable to dogs.
• Faster to accomplish, dogs take within a week to get the hang of this if done right, although it needs to be continued.
• A schedule can be set up at timed and planned intervals, instead of just whenever puppy feels like it.
• Because of the predictability and bladder controls, eliminating on command is easier with crate training.

Cons:

• Built up reliance on the dog eliminating around the owner's schedule.  Note that the most important word in the first benefit is the word "all".  It would be cruel to provide your dog with insufficient opportunities to eliminate, especially when they are young puppies, which means 1-2 hours until they are 3 months old, then 2-3 hours until they are about 6 months old, gradually adding another hour for every month of life until they reach about 6 hours.  This represents a significant commitment to taking your dog to where you want them to do their jobs, come rain or shine or frost.  Because dogs develop a regular routine quickly, you should also be taking your dogs out around the same time every day that your dog is used to.  And no, dogs don't understand weekends too well.
• Puppies need a lot of trips outdoors on doggy duty.  For puppies under 3 months of age, this is once every hour at least. Again, puppies don't understand night/day very well either, so that means multiple midnight trips to the loo outdoors for at least the first 2-3 weeks.
• (You) Messing up (literally) with the crate can mean that the doggy instinct of not messing where they sleep is over-ridden.  This instinct is not set in stone, and depending on the puppy, could be either fragile (1 mistake does the trick) or tenacious (multiple messes and puppy is reliable).  Puppy mill dogs tend to come with this puppy instinct either broken or not developed because of how they are brought up, so bear this margin of error in mind if you feel that you may end up making mistakes or forgetting the time too often.

All of the above points basically point to crate training being nearly impossible for a dog owner working full time, unless you're working full time in the sort of company that gives you maternity cover when you get a new puppy.  I've read in a number of magazines that it's generally a very good idea to take vacation to spend the first 2 weeks with the puppy to settle the pup into the house.  I've found this generally makes house training go much smoother and quicker, and that the 2 week investment is well worth the time spent!

Housing Your Puppy for the First Year

While this sounds simple at first glance, thinking through this deeper, it's not as easy as it seems. For one, no site seems to tell you exactly how much space to give your dog so that you're neither being cruel to the pet, nor giving it the equivalent of a playboy mansion when you take it home. For another, a recent search showed that many sites favoured crate training, and demonstrated how to pick the right size for a crate, but not the puppy's play area/territory.

I came up with an easy rule of thumb that worked for me.

• Imagine a rectangle area, simple length (L) x width (W) on the ground.
• Find out the length of your puppy as an adult dog. Look up websites or ask the breeder if you're not sure how large typical dogs of the breed grow to.  For mixed breeds, assume the larger of the mix until you can be sure. (Editor's note that typically, websites tend to tell you the height of the dog, and not the length. I'm no da Vinci but I reckon that a dog can't be more than 3 times longer than it is tall, so went with the proportions of height multiplied by 3.)
• L = length of your adult dog multiplied by 3, and W = length of your adult dog multiplied by 2.
• For most people with a medium sized dog, this would be the space of a large bathroom or a small kitchen.

The first impression you may have is that this space isn't all that big. You're right, but this isn't going to be the place that your dog gets free run of in the house for the rest of it's life - that would be cruel. This is the place where your puppy will spend any unsupervised time, and should therefore (by calculations above) be large enough to hold a bed, water and food bowls, toilet facilities and toys.

Once the decision is made, ensure that you have easy access to it, and that it's puppy proof (nothing chewable, toxic, dangerous, sharp, swallowable and otherwise unsuitable for a young dog). Also, if possible, ensure that puppy is able to walk into it by himself, rather than you needing to carry him into it all the time (helps tons with training later on). Finally, make sure puppy doesn't get the ability to wander from this designated zone once he's in it. This is where puppy pens, baby gates and other makeshift fencing that makes your house look like a miniature version of the Israeli-Palestinian border come in. Stick with it though, this will be puppy's home for the next few months until he's old enough to be trusted on his own around the house (usually when he's 8 months to 1 year old).

One thing I didn't mention was physical height. Assume puppy's going to jump, at least at the onset, and have Height = Length of adult dog. This is to account for dogs leaning on gate while standing on hind legs, jumping dogs, dogs that take a flying leap etc etc. I'm fortunate for my Westies that a baby gate that came up to the height of my waist sufficed, but then again, Westies don't grow that tall. This is another reason why it makes sense to have an arrangement where the puppy can walk in by himself. Suddenly picking up 8 month old German Shepherd isn't quite so easy anymore...

Puppy's Feeding Schedule

This decision is by far the hardest one, and also the one most fraught with advice from all corners. Puppies from 8 - 12 weeks typically need 3 meals a day, progressing from 12 weeks to adulthood on 2 meals per day with bigger portions.

The most important consideration is that what goes in, must come out - and that said, would be preferred not to come out at the odd hours of the morning. What they don't tell you is that when your puppy eats, aside from the obvious, also determines your puppy's waking (playful) hours. In the first few weeks, I scheduled a 24 hours divided by 3 = once every 8 hour routine. Big, big mistake. Bailey ended up being bouncy and playful starting at 1am in the morning, resulting in a bedside siege every morning in the hours of 1am-3am by a 1.5kg white furball.

More research later, I decided on a 3 meal schedule as follows...

• 8am: Breakfast with the dogs, feed Bailey as Beanie got breakfast.
• 1pm: Lunch for Bailey while Beanie got a treat to avoid jealousy.
• 7pm: Dinner with the dogs, feed Bailey while Beanie got dinner.

The tip of removing water and treats 3-4 hours before bed time also worked wonders in ensuring that puppy didn't wake up in the middle of the night to do their jobs, hence allowing me to let the puppy sleep through the night without waking me up for a night time play time.

Puppy's First Night

I got Beanie, my first dog a lot older than Bailey, who was 7.5 weeks when I took her home, so I'd expected Bailey to adjust as well as Beanie could, not knowing better. I'd left Bailey on the first night downstairs with Beanie, in separate crates so Beanie didn't have to cuddle up next to some stranger.

Well, it was an hour in the car from Buckinghamshire in the middle of winter for Bailey, and must have felt like being abducted by well meaning aliens into outer space in a weird space ship, landing in what seemed like an eternity later on an alien home planet. Bailey slept all the way through, tired out by the experience, but the first night, realised the permanence of her alien abduction situation after seeing another fellow doggy in captivity from an earlier abduction, imagined the worst and whined and cried herself to sleep.

Points for making sure Beanie didn't get disturbed by a stranger: FAIL.Points for making sure Bailey had a good experience at home: FAIL.
Points for attempting not to create a clingy dog who clearly felt abandoned and didn't trust humans: FAIL.

Next night, upstairs next to my bed. The following week, I gradually increased the distance of her sleeping crate to my bed, and the following week, further away, until finally she was reassured that I was still going to be around the next morning and she'd get fed, same time, same channel. Some websites talk about ignoring your puppy when they whine and cry for attention, believing that if this attention was paid any mind, that this develops a clingy, attention seeking dog. Suspend that for the first few days I think now.

Contrary to paranoid behaviouralists, your puppy simply won't know enough about how you're going to behave in the first week to manipulate your behaviour by whining. As it is, you know little enough about your puppy to manipulate its behaviour, much less the other way around. After your puppy settles in (a week or two later, perhaps), continuing this treatment may give rise to attention seeking, which will quickly die down with ignorance.I'd thought to let my puppy learn that making a noise won't ever get me to turn up, by way of hoping that when the puppy is young without a developed bark, it is far preferable that the puppy never learnt to bark at all. Little did I know anyway that a puppy's bark, despite all best intentions, develop anyway, and sound very different from a whine and a cry!

Top 10 Money-Saving Tips for Dog Owners

Because it is a truth universally acknowledged that the owner of a pet must spend a lot of money, pet stores frequently try to persuade pet owners into parting with their cash in the name of love.  Since I have more principles than I have money, here are ten money-saving tips I use every day:

1. Use dog kibble as treats.  Despite dog kibble being marketed in large quantities as food, they taste and look like small, bite sized treats to dogs.  Some dogs are fussy about variety, namely they don't like eating something that tastes the same day in and day out.  To these dogs, kibble aren't treats because they're boring.  But other brands and flavours of kibble still are!  If you have a dog like this at home, pick up tester packs from dog magazines, vets and pet stores and use them as treats.  Buy a small pack of kibble (maybe the posher kind if you like) and use them only as treats to your dog.  As an added benefit, they are one treat that can be eaten by puppies as soon as they are weaned, since many manufacturers tend to avoid making treats that are tolerated by very young puppies.
2. Find out your dog's toy texture preference so you can pick toys that he'll like.  Different ages of puppies and dogs have different texture preferences.  For example, Beanie likes hard, almost wood like, or plasticky textures that she can crunch into.  She also prefers chicken flavoured toys to bacon flavoured ones.  Bailey likes string, rope and cloth textures.  Neither of them like soft rubber very much and both love shredding paper and cardboard.  My winning combination of cheap toys are: a towel or rope soaked in gravy, braided then air dried; used water bottles, the harder the plastic the better.  Boxes or toilet rolls (subject to supervision).
3. Use your old discarded pillows as dog beds.  Obviously there's a size constraint to this one, but it should work up to a medium size dog.  There are several benefits: 1) there isn't really a difference between an old pillow and a specially made, dog friendly, flat bed.  Except the price.  2) Your scent on the pillow would make a world of difference to your dog.  It would be reassuring and demonstrate your presence to a puppy, and even an adult dog will be able to sniff 'you' on it.  3) Because you were throwing it out anyway, the obvious damage your dog may do to it is limited to being suddenly far less naughty.
4. Newspapers can be pee'd on just fine.  This is one of those things that I keep telling myself: what did people use to use before pee pads were invented?  There are special solutions out there that attract your puppy to pee on newspapers, in case they aren't used to the texture or smell of it.  These do work.  If you're not parting with your penny buying eau de toilet, take a tissue sample of real puppy pee from one of the accident clean-up sessions and smear it on the newspapers.  They trick the puppy into thinking they did it right in the first place, which sets off a positive spiral.
5. Buy life-time products only once... in a lifetime.  There are some things you only need one of, regardless how many dogs you have.  These are: nail clippers, slicker brush, a round ended pair of scissors, a doggy first aid kit (if you do get those).  With these items, especially if you are planning to DIY for most of the grooming, it's worthwhile investing a fair bit of money and getting a good set, especially one that you protect from the kids and well meaning in-laws, so that you can learn to use them and use them well, for the rest of your or your dog's life.
6. Human things frequently cost much less than doggy things.  Especially, grooming scissors, shampoo and conditioner, food/treats, vitamins, towels and fleeces.  Increasingly, good and relatively inexpensive human stores have also cleverly branched out to selling doggy things.  See my other post for Favourite Doggy Things to Buy from Human Stores.
7. Gain economies of scale with more than one dog.  Buy certain non-perishables in bulk.  Unless there are special medical reasons for doing so, my dogs are on the same shampoo and conditioner, the same brand of worming tablets, the same flea and tick treatment, the same food, obviously they use the same pooh bags, towels, cleaning up stuff and have different coloured leads.  They also share the same treats and chews, in general.  It's the stuff you end up buying and using infrequently that add to the cost of doggy ownership, not necessarily the things you think about - food and water and shelter - that a dog relies on every day.
8. The simple solutions are the best solutions.  One of the things I've noticed with pretty much all pet stores is the increasing number of pet-keeping/managing/grooming/training gadgets there are out there in the market.  No doubt the burgeoning dog owning population is one of the most untapped and profitable markets out there, but you gotta wonder how people had dogs that were well trained before all these inventions came about, and why homeless people have the best behaved dogs.  Decide for yourself what the bare essentials are for you and your dog, and resist the urge to get another gadget that promises to save you xx minutes of your time.  Dogs are creatures of habit, chances are all the time you'd save doing things a new and easier way would be outweighed by the learning curve you and your dog have to go through anyway.
9. Human food can cost significantly less than specialized dog food.  It's a sad time of our lives when the food we eat cost significantly less than the food our dogs eat.  Either our dogs are eating particularly well (which I doubt) or we are eating particularly poorly as a civilization.  One dual-dog owning friend of mine switched recently to cooking simple recipes for her dogs with food and meat obtained from the supermarket.  Not only are they far less processed and therefore healthier for the dog, they're also much more economical to run in bulk.  Just remember that if you're taking on cooking all of your pet's food that you're consulting appropriate recipes to ensure a healthy and balanced diet (that's the one thing kibble takes care of!).  More recipes can be found at My Dog Eats Better than my Husband.
10. Stop paying for the gym membership and use your best friend.  Odd as I thought it would be, doggy owning friends of mine complain about needing to walk their dogs 3 times a day, and yet find the time to go to the gym to work out at least 3 times a week after work, not including those classes offered by the gym to help one stay healthy.  Two most frequently quoted reasons were: 1) my gym instructor is a hard nut and would kill me if I quit, so I need the persuasion to work out.  And 2) You get a balance of cardio and weights at the gym which you won't get at home. #1 makes me laugh - for one, there isn't a human I know that is more persuasive than my dog, and despite getting me to brave all sorts of weather to walk with him, I can still never get mad at my dog (or stay mad for long).  And as for #2 - dog walking and spending time with your dog isn't only about a slow, long, leisurely walk, which is the frequent impression most people have.  Build in sprints and games to vary the pace for a good cardio workout, play tug games with your dog, or practice lifting/carrying them around the house for endurance/weight training (overweight retrievers please apply!).

The Music Challenge: The Beautiful South

The Challenge: Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think.

Name of Artist: Beautiful South (who'd have thought!)

• Are you male or female: Girlfriend
• Describe yourself: You Keep It All In
• How do you feel about yourself: We Are Each Other
• Describe where you currently live: Alone
• If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Rotterdam (Or Anywhere)
• Your favorite form of transportation: I'll Sail this Ship Alone
• Your best friend is: From Under the Covers
  Your favorite color is: Little Blue
• What's the weather like: Bell Bottomed Tear
• Favorite time of day: Perfect 10
• If your life was a TV show, what would it be called: Don't Marry Her
• What is life to you: My Book
• What is the best advice you have to give: Let Go With the Flow
• If you could change your name, what would it be: Song for Whoever
• Your favorite food is: Good as Gold (Stupid as Mud)
• Thought for the Day: Baby Please Go
• How I would like to die: Straight in at 37

Language or the Kiss Reprise

As I navigate through the honey of her voice, I finally realise what she was talking about (doh!). And I don't know why but that dichotomy did not strike me until now. I've always seen language as expression, without thinking that the kiss expressed differently from language. But my mind was so blocked I never got it why there would be a choice between the two - my poetry being different from your dance.

Between the language or the kiss
I know I choose to think, to speak, to watch,
To learn, to philosophize, to dream, to envy.
And I'd wish, for you, if I could choose,
To do. To act, to move, to declare, to not
lose
The chances you would miss:
"Unforgiving the choice still is,
The language or the kiss".

Our choices make our choices. I know this now as well as I did then, and yet, knowing what I know, I would still end up gravitating towards making the choices I knew I would make. If we knew we wouldn't choose anything different, and our choices make our choices, do we really have a choice?

Pink and Glitter

Definitely my song for this winter... this must be the only song that Tori's ever done in jazzy, big band style which isn't really her, but I'm loving it! It's soft, it's feminine, it's pink, it's big band, it's jazzy, it's coy, it's cute, it's coquettish... what's there not to like?



Having a little girl really mellowed and added a new dimension to her views on being a woman. At the same time, I must be getting old.

Tori Amos - Pink and Glitter

"Darn Roses", that is what you call all the girls in the world, even the
thorns
You’re surrounded by an army of two who adore you

Our joy isn’t about a present or a grown up motor toy
And little boys all get an honorable mention from me
But this year I’m thinking
Shower the world
Shower the world
Shower the world with pink if you please
Shower the world
Shower the world
Shower the world... with pink.

Black satin, is what I wore
That, and our hearts left on the floor
How was I in that marshmallow snow, to know?
My life would change that night?

In pink, we will paint the town
Champagne never looked so divine
On his lips the sweetest words “Love, you’ve given me quite a ride.”

Welcoming Home New Puppy: Part Two - the other dog

Well, I have Beanie, don't I?  Beanie is an absolutely darling, and in hindsight, the vet who inspected Bailey was absolutely right when he said, "You were lucky with Beanie.  Think your luck ran out with this one (Bailey)."

Beanie is sweet natured, submissive, loves humans and is playful.  She's even taught herself to tolerate and play with kids on her own, despite having had very little exposure to children growing up.  I'd wanted another puppy to keep her company, after falling in love with the sight of two Westies walking side by side on the street, tails wagging in unison.  Selfishly, as Beanie got on in years, it would also take the edge off not having a dog at all should the untoward one day happen, as it inevitably would (so I thought).

Increasingly, more dog magazines dish out advice on how to introduce two dogs, or a puppy to an older, existing dog.  The majority of them say:

• Introduce your pets on neutral territory like a park or public place.  Easy to say when you've got two full-grown dogs, not so easy to do when you've got an unvaccinated puppy that should not be exposed to where other dogs might have been, so the park is out of the question.  It's still a good idea though, premise being that dogs are territorial, and a direct introduction of newbie in oldie's territory would seem too much like an incursion.  Friend's houses (who have no pets) or the car are appropriate alternative places.
• Keep the younger dog in a crate away from harm until you know your older dog is used to the puppy.  Again, very wise, and would work if not for Beanie pawing through the crate trying to reach the puppy like a toy... and vice versa.
• Put something with the puppy's scent on it (eg. puppy's bed, pillow or towels) near the older dog, preferably days before you bring pup home, so older dog gets used to pup's scent.  If older dog moves away or is otherwise averse, do it gradually to socialize the older dog.  Hmm... wish I could do this.  Beanie promptly went to Bailey's bed and fell asleep when I placed it on the ground.  Without much ado, Bailey clambered all over Beanie's bed and used her indoor toilet tray without invitation or prior training.
• Keep loads of toys and beds and anything dogs may like all around, act like there is too much of goodness to go around to avoid jealousy and fighting over toys.  Beanie doesn't like toys at all unless there are treats in them, so having Bailey snatch all toys for a quick nibble didn't seem to bother her that much.
• Give your older dog attention when your newcomer is around, to avoid your older dog feeling left out or replaced.  This actually worked!  I did also, schemingly, in the weeks leading up to Bailey's arrival, pay Beanie less attention and made less of a fuss, so the transition from all to nothing (just kidding) didn't seem quite as large.  Works with frogs and boiling water, sure works with dogs.

What they don't tell you:

• It's incredibly difficult training a puppy with an older, incredibly treat motivated, dog around, as Beanie goes through everything she knows how to do for 4 years now, and expects a treat for examplary behaviour.  It must be because she's such a show-off, but did work in my favour as Bailey figured out copying what Beanie was doing was the quickest way to get her a treat, resulting in the ability to teach complex behaviours in a shorter period of time.  Note to Self: If you feel you are being far, don't worry about not giving your older dog a treat all the time they demonstrate what needs to be done.  It's not like they will stop doing it with a failed attempt, it actually means they try harder next time.
• Puppy playing with older dog intensely tends to result in house-training accidents.  Beanie has no concept that Bailey needed the loo and wasn't just trying to get away to incite a chase.  This necessitated teaching them both that gravitation towards the toilet zone meant that the toilet zone was out of bounds.  It also necessitated watching puppy like a hawk and limiting play zones to a smaller area that Bailey could manage and gradually increasing the area as her control got better.
• Your puppy becomes your dog's greatest fan and longs to be her sidekick.  Sometimes annoyingly so.  Beanie being rather submissive isn't inclined to tell Bailey off (by growling) unless she's really ticked off, but has a long fuse.  It's normally a good thing in a dog, but does require some intervention, which is the hardest thing for new duo-dog owners to figure out.
• Dogs have to fight to get used to each other (OK they do tell you that part), but it's nearly impossible to know when the right time is to intervene, if there is such a time.