This Dog's New Year's Resolutions

Hello there.  I know, I haven’t been good at keeping up with the blog. I apologize. It’s been crazy busy this Holiday Season.  I helped Mom while she was making all the gift baskets.  Keeping DixieLee from getting under foot was a full time job.

Now that things have slowed down I can get back to writing regularly.

As a matter of fact, that is one of my New Year’s Resolutions.  I love all of my on line friends and I love keeping in touch with you, sharing ideas and hearing about your lives.  This blog lets me do that. It’s also a way to discuss things that are important to dogs.

New Year’s Resolutions are more of a peoples thing but I think it is important that we pets reflect on our lives and see where we can make them better.

Lots of peoples make resolutions to get more exercise and eat better. I think that is a great resolution and I am going to help Mom and Dad keep that one, even if it’s not one they choose.  I am going to make sure that they get out and take big walks every day.  We may have to wait until the weather gets warmer, but I will make sure it happens.

I will also make sure they eat better.  That’s also an easy one.  Whenever they start eating stuff that isn’t “healthy” like potato chips, I will stare and stare until they feel guilty and put the bag away.

I explained New Year’s Resolutions to DixieLee and she is making resolutions to stop stealing socks and to stop eating paper towels.  Stealing her socks is a good way to get Mom moving in the morning but we decided that throwing a toy works good too.  

As far as eating paper towels, I have tried to tell her that it is bad, bad, bad for her tummy and stealing them off of the counter makes Mom not happy.  She said she was going to try really, really hard to do better.

Have you decided to make a New Year’s Resolution?  Let us know what it is so we can share what is important to the health and well being of our friends.

Wishing you a happy and healthy 2019.

Love,

Zeva

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Don't Be A Dope

Mom keeps the television on for us all day to keep us entertained. We watch lots of news. Stories about making it okay for peoples to have marijuana seems to be getting lots of attention as more and more places say it is okay.

There are stories about making it okay for people who are sick to use marijuana and other stories about recreational use.

We understand that marijuana is good for helping peoples who have nerve pain or bad diseases like cancer. We were wondering what would happen if a dog got curious and ate some of their human’s marijuana or if they smelled some when their human was smoking it.

Like most questions, the answer is, it depends. The size of the dog and how much they ate or smelled is important. A dog that got some marijuana COULD be in real trouble. Marijuana could lower their heart rate and blood pressure and could make them go into a coma or have seizures.

Veterinarians know how to treat dogs for marijuana that eat too much and get poisoned.

Dogs can get high too. Getting high can be a very scary experience because they wouldn’t know what was happening to them. They might stumble around and be scared by sudden noises.

If the marijuana they eat is baked into a yummy treat it can be really bad. Dogs love to eat so they may eat way too much and if it has chocolate baked in, it is really, really bad. We all know that chocolate is poison to dogs all by itself.

Can medical marijuana be good for dogs? Doctors and scientists are checking into it. Medical marijuana would be really helpful for dogs who get cancer but since dogs react differently than humans, there needs to be more checking about how much would be safe.

This subject is way too much for my brain to figure right now and besides,  North Woods Law New Hampshire is coming on the television. It’s one of our favorite programs. They show how Animal Police help humans and undomesticated animals live together better.

If I can get Mom to give us a cookie, we’ll be all set.

Stay healthy,

Love

Zeva

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Snoopy, Toto, Lassie, Benji.... What's Your Name?

You all know my name is Zeva but you may not know how I got my name.

When my Mom and Dad first met me, they thought I was very pretty and very smart.  A very pretty actress named Cote dePablo played a character named Ziva David, on TV.  Ziva was a very smart NCIS agent.  So, I got named after her.... only we spell my name differently.

My sister's name is DixieLee.  She got her name because she is a Dixie Dog. A Dixie Dog is a dog that is rescued from high kill shelters in the South and brought North.  She was originally named just plain Dixie but she didn't like that name.  First of all it was "just plain" and Dixie is a place, not a name.

We thought about it and decided that DixieLee was a much prettier name and gave her more of a connection to her Southern heritage.

My friends Bumo and Miu are both from the Himalayan mountain regions of Tibet so their Mom gave them Tibetian names.  Bumo means girl and Miu means doll.  Their names fit them well.

Our friend Beauregard is a very special dog so his Mom named him after her very first dog who was also very special.

There are lots and lots of ways to choose a name for a pet.

Lots of pets have people names or people nicknames.  Some of the most popular dog names are Max, Buddy and Charlie for boys and Bella, Lucy and Molly for girls.

Some favorite cat names are Tigger, Lucy and Molly.  Lots of cats are given names that reflect their appearance or personality.  Names like Shadow, Smoky and Midnight or Comet and Dash.

There are some things that might help people choose a good name.  First, pets respond better to names that have one or two syllables.  Some dogs, especially championship dogs, have really long names.  Their papers may say their name is His Royal Highness Reginald III, his humans probably call him Reggie.

Also it should be a nice name.  How embarrassing it would be to be playing at dog park with a bunch of new firends and have your human yell out "Come here Dog Breath"!  I would run away for sure.
People should choose a name that will grow with their pet.  Even if the puppy is the smallest of the litter, Tiny is not such a good name for a Great Dane or Newfoundland.

Let us know what your name is and how your humans chose it for you.

Love,

Your friend,

Zeva

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Are You Talking to Me?!?

I don't know why peoples think that dogs don't talk. We talk all the time. We talk with our ears and our eyes and our tails, not just with our mouths. But unless you know what to listen for, we could have a big communication problem.

Take for example my tail. Just because it is wagging does not mean I am happy. It could mean I am afraid and there is a big difference between happy and afraid. Dogs don't have so hard a time understanding what another dog means when she wags her tail but peoples can get confused.

My sister DixieLee is very clear in letting you know if she is happy or afraid.  When she is afraid, she wags her tail.  When she is happy, she wags her tail so hard and fast, her whole butt wags.  Me, I'm a little more subtle.  If I am wagging my tail because I am afraid, you shouldn't just walk over and try to pet me. It could be a bad move for both of us.

We dogs talk with our voices. We bark, whimper, whine, growl and howl. We don't have as many words as humans, but we don't seem to need as many to get our point across. 

I use my very soft voice when I want Dad to wake up and feed us breakfast or when I need to go out and pee. I use my very big voice when I am warning my pack that someone is coming into our yard. Dogs often combine voices with movements like when I use my little voice and do a little dance when we are getting ready to go for a walk. Going for walks are such fun, I want Mom to know I appreciate them.

I use my eyes a lot to talk. Every dog should master the art of using puppy eyes. Puppy eyes are good for getting you out of trouble. The stare is another good way to communicate. Using the stare is good when you want something. I stare very hard until Mom gets the message that it's time for a cookie. If I ask for cookies too much in one night, Mom tells me a stern no and I turn my head away so she knows I'm sorry. Okay, some times I do push it, but you won't get anywhere if don't try.

Like with a tail wag, humans need to be careful when interpreting a hard stare. Sometimes it means we just want you to pay attention to us but sometimes it's a warning to back off.

Another way we dogs get attention is to just walk over and put our heads under your hand or nudge you with our noses.  We can be pretty clear and insistent when we want to be petted.  But we don't like hugs, so back off on the hugs.

One of the most effective communication methods a dog can use is the head tilt. The head tilt is guaranteed to melt the heart of almost any human.

It takes time and patience for different creatures to communicate but it's well worth the effort.

Happy tail wags,

Your friend,
Zeva

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