Mom got ME some new toys since Poncho won't EVER let me play with his Buddy. Now he's trying to take my new toys away as well. I don't think so. I re-taught him who is boss when it came to the little teddy bear. I love her so much!! Plus doean't he know that pink is for girls? How dumb is he??

Mom said she got meet our new neighbor Jasmine (Jazzy) the other day. Hopefully we'll have some pictures of her up soon. Mom said she's adorable but she says that about Poncho too so who really knows?

Speaking of adorable, take a look at this picture:

These are some friends that are no longer with us. Seven, Aggie and Bella Donna. I should have some more pictures of their family soon. And some good stories.

They did it again............

Well the big dogs broke out of the back yard again yesterday morning. I don't know why they do it unless it's to get away from Gwenny (she's still too much like a puppy for the others to handle). Then when Mom was trying to get them back in the house, I slipped out the front door and ran off with Boomer (he's my hero). By the time Mom got me back in, Poncho got out and this time he was in for a surprise. Gwenny was the only one still outside and she kept rolling him on the wet grass. I guess he didn't like it because he actually ran straight to Mom when she called him. Ha! He doesn't realize it's all about attitude with Gwenny. I don't care if she is 10 times bigger than me. I growl at her and she leaves me alone. Poor Special Ed. He was soaking wet and traumatized. I almost felt sorry for him.

Mom and my doctor finally figured out what is wrong with my tummy. I have hook worms. Gross. Like totally gross! I don't know why I'm the only one who has such a bad reaction to them. Dr. knox says the bigger dogs can throw them off on their own. But Poncho isn't much bigger than I am amd he never has the same problem. So I had to take medicine twice and use a special apllication of medicine to keep them out. Not fair. Not fair at all.

On a side note, Mom had a laundry basket on the floor in plain sight and when she threw Poncho's buddy for him to chase he ran right into it. You should have seen the look on his face. I guess all is right in the world....

Buddy!

Look what Mom got us! It's a Buddy - Poncho's favorite toy! He's already hogging it and won't share. I don't know why he likes it so much. It has a pretty ugly face. He stands there like an idiot making it squeak non-stop until somebody gets within 5 feet of him. Then he runs to his bed and guards it. Mom's gonna have to make him share or I'm gonna get real mad.

See what I mean? He won't let me near it. Oh well, I don't really care. I'll just grab it when he's not looking. He's so dumb he doesn't even realize that his bed has a Santa Claus on it which means it's totally out of fashion right now. Mine is blue and can be used at any time of the year. I know how to keep up with the times.

Oh yeah, some of the big dogs got out this morning (in the rain no less). Mom caught 2 of them so they're inside now but Kenz hurt her hips so she can't hardly move. Personally, I think it's ploy to get on the couch. I mean, seriously, look at that face. She's hammimg it up for Mom just to get Mom to lift her up.

Stylish Boomer

Now look, Boomer may look dashing in his new cap but he still can't beat me when it comes to stylish looks (see entry further below).Although I have to admit, he does look handsome. Dad brought this new hat home for him to try on last night. Boom seems to like it but you never can tell with him. He's one of those dogs that says "Oh thank you! It's just what I wanted!" even when he doesn't like it (he's so polite).

On another note, Mom told me that me and Poncho will have to have our teeth cleaned sometime soon. She said something about Poncho having "death breath" even though he's only 1 year old. I don't know what teeth cleaning is but it can't be good since Mom avoids it whenever she can. She said the vet told her that smaller dogs have bigger teeth (proportionately) so they have to have it done sooner and more often than the big dogs. That's another thing I don't understand. The big dogs have much bigger teeth than I do. It's a fact. I have a proposition for Mom - I'll do it when she does it. How does that sound Mom?

Here's Poncho's latest find. He already ate Mom's cell phone. What dog in his right mind tries to eat a battery? Guess that's why Dad calls him "Special".

We've had nothing but rain here for weeks. Blah. Sometimes I don't think the sun will ever come back out. I tink it's Rae Rae's fault. She must have been doing her rain dance last week. Mom needs to call her and tell her to stop. It's boring not being able to go for walks. Thank goodness Kiki keeps looking in the window. Otherwise we wouldn't have anything to bark at!

Fun Fun Fun!

What an exciting day! I got to ride in the car twice and Poncho got to go outside and run down to Jan's house and back (he slipped out the front door). My rides were legitimate - I had to go see my doctor. The doctor's not really all that bad (except for when they put that thing in your butt!). I'll tell you what, when Dr. Knox came in I walked my butt right up the wall (keeping my eyes on her the whole time) until I was only standing on my front feet. When Mom pulled me down I walked my butt right up her stomach. Mom thought this was funny for some reason. Dr. Knox explained that it's because I'm afraid she was going to put that stick up my butt. She laughed too. Human's have a strange sense of humor. I don't laugh at Mom when she complains about the OB/GYN. Maybe from now on I will.

Anyway, I didn't know it at the time but Dr. Knox didn't need a sample and she even gave me a cuddle to make me feel better about all the laughing (she's a good doctor). Now I get to eat the good canned food from the vet for at least 6 weeks. That's got to be at least 9 months in dog years. Yea!!!!!!

Poncho got out the front door this afternoon. Mom swears she let him out on purpose but I don't believe her. That would be unfair to me and I'm the princess of the house. He got to go with Mom down to Jan's house which is about 2 miles away (Kenz tells me it's actually closer to 200 feet but she's a giant compared to me). Mom thinks he runs like a greyhound (yeah right - more like an italian greyhound) but she's right about one thing, he does love to run. I love running too you know but Mom says the difference about Poncho is that he comes back when she calls and I don't so I have to be on a leash at all times. WHATEVER. Like I said, I'm the princess around here.

Dirty Dog

This is what Kenz looks like when she gets back from breaking out of the yard. Muddy and lame. She ends up having to be helped up onto the couch 'cause her hip hurts so bad. I wonder why she keeps doing it if it hurts her so bad. Maybe she's faking it. I know I would if I wasn't allowed on the couch when I'm dirty. Of course I never get dirty so I don't have to fake anything.

Y'all are not going to believe this. One of the pointers that jumped on Poncho yesterday has gone missing. Talk about instant doggie karma. That's got to be what it is. Mom keeps telling me I'm being small minded (hello - I only weigh 5 lbs. so that's kind of a given) and petty. She actually went with the dog's owner to search the ranch behind us. Traitor. I've said it many times before - I'll never understand humans. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth! Raise a paw if you agree with me.

I knew I could count on Kenz. She's half Border Collie (which means she's smart). She's the one who taught me how to perform that doggie-hex last night. OOPS. Did I just let the dog out of the bag? Mom's gonna kill me when she reads this post. I better go work on looking cute so I don't get in too much trouble...............

So Scared

Mom took me and Poncho for a walk today. We walked down the street like we usually do and 3 dogs came running towards us. 2 big pointers and a boston terrier. Mom tried to grab both of us but she couldn't get a hold of Poncho because he was already running. Needless to say, I wanted to kill those dogs but Poncho was scared (and I don't blame him). They all attacked him and Mom had a hard time trying to get a hold of him while she was holding me. Poncho is fast but there were 3 of them! One of the last things Mom remembers is seeing one of the pointers pick Poncho up by his middle. She really got scared then. Finally, the owners of the dogs showed up and helped us get Poncho out of there. He was so scared and upset. Amazingly, Mom is the only one who got hurt. Someone bit her hand. What surprised me was that the owners of the other dogs didn't really seem too upset. They said their dogs were just being "territorial". What about fences and leashes? I know I'm not allowed outside without a leash. And my backyard has a fence for all of us. I really wish Kenz and Boomer were with us this time. They would have kicked some pointer butt.

Now humans will KNOW how smart we are

I found this info very interesting although I'm not even going to tell you where they ranked my breed. Apparently Kenz (1/2 Border Collie) and Boomer (1/2 Doberman) and Ruthie (Labrador) can all claim to be smarter than me. I'm not sure I'm buying it. Maybe in Poncho's case (aka Special Ed).


The canine IQ test results are in:
Even the average dog has the mental abilities of a 2-year-old child. The finding is based on a language development test, revealing average dogs can learn 165 words (similar to a 2-year-old child), including signals and gestures, and dogs in the top 20 percent in intelligence can learn 250 words.

And the smartest?
Border collies, poodles, and German shepherds, in that order, says Stanley Coren, a canine expert and professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia. Those breeds have been created recently compared with other dog breeds and may be smarter in part because we've trained and bred them to be so, Coren said. The dogs at the top of the pack are on par with a 2.5-year-old.

Better at math and socializing
While dogs ranked with the 2-year-olds in language, they would trump a 3- or 4-year-old in basic arithmetic, Coren found. In terms of social smarts, our drooling furballs fare even better.
"The social life of dogs is much more complex, much more like human teenagers at that stage, interested in who is moving up in the pack and who is sleeping with who and that sort of thing," Coren told LiveScience.

Coren, who has written more than a half-dozen books on dogs and dog behavior, will present an overview of various studies on dog smarts at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting in Toronto. "We all want insight into how our furry companions think, and we want to understand the silly, quirky and apparently irrational behaviors [that] Lassie or Rover demonstrate," Coren said. "Their stunning flashes of brilliance and creativity are reminders that they may not be Einsteins but are sure closer to humans than we thought."

Math test
To get inside the noggin of man's best friend, scientists are modifying tests for dogs that were originally developed to measure skills in children. Here's one: In an arithmetic test, dogs watch as one treat and then another treat are lowered down behind a screen. When the screen gets lifted, the dogs, if they get arithmetic (1+1=2), will expect to see two treats. (For toddlers, other objects would be used.) But say the scientist swipes one of the treats, or adds another so the end result is one, or three treats, respectively. "Now we're giving him the wrong equation which is 1+1=1, or 1+1=3," Coren said. Sure enough, studies show the dogs get it. "The dog acts surprised and stares at it for a longer period of time, just like a human kid would," he said. These studies suggest dogs have a basic understanding of arithmetic, and they can count to four or five.

Basic emotions
Other studies Coren notes have found that dogs show spatial problem-solving skills. For instance, they can locate valued items, such as treats, find better routes in the environment, such as the fastest way to a favorite chair, and figure out how to operate latches and simple machines.
Like human toddlers, dogs also show some basic emotions, such as happiness, anger and disgust. But more complex emotions, such as guilt, are not in a dog's toolbox. (What humans once thought was guilt was found to be doggy fear, Coren noted.) And while dogs know whether they're being treated fairly, they don't grasp the concept of equity. Coren recalls a study in which dogs get a treat for "giving a paw." When one dog gets a treat and the other doesn't, the unrewarded dog stops performing the trick and avoids making eye contact with the trainer. But if one dog, say, gets rewarded with a juicy steak while the other snags a measly piece of bread, on average the dogs don't care about the inequality of the treats.

Top dogs
To find out which dogs had the top school smarts, Coren collected data from more than 200 dog obedience judges from the United States and Canada. He found the top dogs, in order of their doggy IQ are:

Border collies
Poodles
German shepherds
Golden retrievers
Dobermans
Shetland sheepdogs
Labrador retrievers

At the bottom of the intelligence barrel, Coren would include many of the hounds, such as the bassett hound and the Afghan hound, along with the bulldog, beagle and basenji (a hunting dog).
"It's important to note that these breeds which don't do as well tend to be considerably older breeds," he said. "They were developed when the task of a hound was to find something by smell or sight." These dogs might fare better on tests of so-called instinctive intelligence, which measure how well dogs do what they are bred to do.

We asked some pet experts to give us the lowdown on what’s true and what’s not when it comes to dog and cat behavior and care.

"The dogs that are the brightest dogs in terms of school learning ability tend to be the dogs that are much more recently developed," Coren said. He added that there's a "high probability that we've been breeding dogs so they're more responsive to human beings and human signals." So the most recently bred dogs would be more human-friendly and rank higher on school smarts.
Many of these smarty-pants are also the most popular pets. "We like dogs that understand us," Coren said.

We also love the beagle, which made it to the top 10 list of most popular dog breeds in 2008 by the American Kennel Club. That's because they are so sweet and sociable, Coren said. "Sometimes people love the dumb blonde," Coren said. And sometimes the dim-wits make better pets. While a smart dog will figure out everything you want it to know, your super pet will also learn everything it can get away with, Coren warns.

Friends

Our good friend Jan came to see us today!

And Jan always lets us climb all over her (which is accepted protocol if we know you well enough).

Plus, she got Mom to heat some sheets in the dryer for us while she was here. Always appreciated!

Roast Beef Anyone?

You tell me, which would you rather have? A bowl of dry kibble? Or a roast beef sandwich with a sliced boiled egg, mayo, cheddar cheese and brown mustard on toasted honeywheat bread? Mom left the room for about 15 seconds to get some more water and acted surprised when she came back and found me and Poncho eating her sandwich. Doesn't she know that 15 seconds is like 15 minutes in dog years? No self-respecting dog is going to pass up a roast beef sandwich for more than 5 minutes (dog years). Come on! I really don't get humans sometimes.

What's wrong with this picture?

Besides my big fat head barging in, can you guess what's wrong with this picture? Poncho has this funny habit of throwing his toys on the ground behind Mom when he wants to get her attention. Well this morning she wouldn't pay attention to him so he went and got a different toy to throw on the ground. When she finally turned around to see what it was she was sooooo surprised! She thought he was playing with his little tennis ball (it sounds exactly the same as when he was throwing the shoe down). Wrong! Now he's in trouble. I guess for some pups it's true that ANY attention is good attention. This was Mom's last pair of flip flops.............

Sick Again

I'm sick again so I'll be in Mom's lap whenever I can today. I sure wish Mom and my doctor could figure out what makes me feel this way. It's miserable. Maybe Mom should put me back on the prescription food like last time. It seemed to help. Oh I hate this. And I know it worries Mom. She hates it when I cry.

Bo and Bella

Finally got Rae Rae to get me some pictures of my cousins Bo and Bella. Here they are...... Bella is the one on top. She's the most laid back Chihuahua I've ever met. I don't think she knows that she IS a Chihuahua. Bo, on the other hand, definitely knows what he is - special! And he does not hesitate to let you know when you've annoyed him in some way. He used to get so mad at me when I would nibble on his tail (it was the only way I could get him to run).

I Feeeel Goood (da na na na na na nuh). I Knew That I Would (da na na na na na nuh).

Mom just got done expressing my anal glands for the first time ever. I don't think she expected quite so much to come out. I feel great! But Mom looks like she's feeling a little sick. Maybe she should have hers done.

Soul Sister

Looks like Elle is a girl after my own heart. I wonder if she likes her blankets straight out of the dryer too.........

Looks Like she even likes the same colors as me - what are the odds?

As you can see, I love pink. It compliments my coloring perfectly.

Uh Oh.........

I think I may have some competition in the cuteness department. My cousins that live across the river got Aunt Lisa to send some pictures to put on the blog. My Mom keeps telling me not to be jealous but she's never bought me such fancy outfits so I don't think she understands. Take a look:

The reindeer is my cousin Elle and Santa Claus is my cousin Charlie. I wonder how they convinced their Mom to get such fancy outfits. All I have are a couple of sweaters. I think I'm feeling underappreciated at the moment. Sigh.

sketches

Mom found some sketches of some of us and a friend.This is Reilly. He's not with us anymore (actually, I never got to dazzle this handsome boy - he was gone a long time before I was born). Mom still talks about him though. He must have been special.

Now here's an acrobatic daredevil that I absolutely love! Guess who? Boomer! I'd like to think I've dazzled him a time or two........

And here's one of yours truly. Notice my golden aura surrounded by fiery orange. I'm not sure what it means but I bet it's good........

And this is Sadie. She stays with us when her parents go away. I still can't figure out why anyone would leave their kids. My mom said it's because they're going to someplace called Finland. Huh? I guess dogs are not allowed in Finland. Weird.

Yuck!

It's apparent now that Poncho ate more bad stuff yesterday than any of the rest of us. He's been tooting all night and it's enough to clear the room. Even the big dogs weren't that bad! Mom made him sleep in his own bed and he was not happy! Poor Special Ed!!