Unnamed Great Dane

unnamed Great Dane

It's not often I see a Great Dane up for adoption at Toronto Animal Services South. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a Great Dane up for adoption at TAS South. This girl came in with someone who claimed her mother found the dog. When asked for the mom's phone number, the woman said she didn't know it. When asked for her mom's address, the woman said she didn't know it. When asked for the woman's own phone number, the woman said she didn't know it, that it was on her cell phone which was back at her car.

I'm not sure if this is a purebred Dane or not. She's big enough - about the same height as Stella but skinnier.

She's also very timid. And she unfortunately growls when stangers approach her. That can be pretty disconcerting coming from a dog her size but Stella can sometimes be the same way so I know what that's about. She just wants the introductions to slow down.

It took a few minutes of leash walking and slow and gentle attention to gain her trust and then she was lovely.

She was probably a backyard dog. No leash manners (but not bad on a leash nevertheless), filthy, insecure around people and other dogs (she hid behind my legs when a Cocker Spaniel walked by). She's going to require some work and by someone who's hopefully familiar with the breed. This all means she might be difficult to adopt out but with time and dedication, I'm sure her inner shine will come bursting through.

Back, finally

It must have been a bittersweet return to work for Toronto Animal Services staff. It probably felt good to be earning a pay cheque again but, on the other hand, it seemed as soon as the doors opened, people were lining up to leave behind animals.

The first dog that was brought in was for an owner requested euthanasia. The JRT was old and had been seizuring all night. It was time to say goodbye. Glad I wasn't there for that.

Shortly after that, Bach was brought back from his stay up at TAS north (more on him tomorrow).

The rest of the animals were dumped by their owners. Nine cats and three dogs today, I think, was the count. Some of the dumpers were crying. Why? Were they really expecting sympathy for tossing their pet so they could go move into a new condo?

Oh what a hard decision. Oh boo hoo. A new trendy downtown condo or kick out my dog? Oh boo hoo. It's just that the condo's got rules against dogs and it's such a beautiful condo. Overpriced just right and really trendy - not that I'm a follower of trends, but you know how it is. My friends will just gush when I invite them over for cocktails. I know. It's too bad, you don't fit the new condo weight requirements. I'm sure you would've had a great life there too. No hard feelings, right? It's hard on me, also, you know. Boo hoo hoo. I hope you don't get euthanized. Sniff, sniff. Oh look. Time to go. Gotta pick out some new curtains. I want sheer, really sheer. So sexy that way.

Phury, too big for the new condo:


Smokey, too expensive:


Smokey's a beautiful dog with a rich black coat. We're guessing he's a Doberman/Great Dane mix. He's come in with such a bad ear infection that his right ear is completely swollen shut internally.



You can see how scared he was in the video at having been abandoned. He was owner searching the whole time I had him out, peering at everyone in the far distance to see if his owner had come back for him and looking away disappointed and anxious every time. Yep, it was heartbreaking but hopefully he'll come around in a few days.

As for the dogs at Hamilton/Burlingon SPCA and other private fosters, they will be be brought back to TAS South over the next few days. There really wasn't much anyone could do today in that regard because city council didn't ratify the workers' contract until late in the day. It would have really sucked to have brought all the animals back in only to have to ship them out again if council hadn't approved the contract.

Update 2 on Daisy

Before you scroll down to look at the photos, take a look at Daisy, the Great Dane, when she was first transported here from Montreal in this video. You may remember that her foster was surprised to find that super skinny Daisy was actually pregnant at the time and eventually gave birth to six puppies.

Well, most of the puppies have now been adopted and Daisy herself has blossomed into a truly majestic dog. Amazing work done by her foster mom, Rita.

Hi Fred, how are you, I'm fine but very busy, I moved to a bigger house because of the dogs, LOL Daisy is doing real good she looks in perfect health and weights 125lbs now, she is finished with the babies so I will be getting her spayed in the next week or so.

The babies are big. I've enclosed pics of Sam and Bambi, the two I still have, when they were 7 weeks. I want to keep Sam but Bambi is still available for adoption. I had a hard time adopting the babies out because I wanted to keep them all.

I wouldn't make a good breeder. When I adopted out Daisy's babies, my daughter and I cried for hours for each one. So I'm in no rush to adopt out Bambi, maybe then I can keep her too LOL.

The two fawn pups are Sam and Bambi (not sure which is which)

Pet Expo - part 2

Some more pictures from last weekend's All About Pets show in Toronto.

There was also a flyball competition at the show with some super high energy dogs. It was lots of fun to watch but rather loud. If you want to get a sense of it, put a big pot over your head and get a dozen or so people to bang on it with wooden spoons.

Update on Daisy

This beautiful Great Dane, Daisy, was one of the French Connection dogs rescued from a Montreal puppy mill by Companion Animal Adoption Centers of Quebec and sent to a private rescue (not TAS) who adopted her out to a Dane experienced home in Toronto. Daisy was only 96 pounds at the time and looking very skinny for a Dane and so it was a surprise for everyone when it was found out that she was pregnant and about to give birth any day.

That's exactly what happened a few days ago and the results are two fawn and four brindle puppies.

From Rita, Daisy's new owner:

Hi Fred, good news Daisy had her babies yesterday the 1st one was born at 5 am and finished at 11:30. She had 6 in total, 2 fawns and 4 brindles. Daisy and her babies are doing well, here are some pics they are less then 10 min old. aren't they beautiful. Rita





The pups will likely be adopted out privately and probably won't last long as requests have already been coming in.

Continued here.

Pickup and delivery

That's a long drive. Eva and her mother left Montreal SPCA at 8:15 in the morning with 15 dogs in the back of the van. That's 15 dogs that had to be crated and packed and secured inside the van so I'm guessing they started at least 2 hours earlier. They're transporting the latest shipment of shelter dogs from Quebec to Ontario where the dogs will hopefully find new and better homes. Toronto Animal Services South is the transfer point this afternoon where various rescues will come by and bring back with them the dogs they've arranged to foster.

Eva and her mother arrive at Toronto Animal Services at 2:00 p.m. and the unloading begins. We start with the two biggest dogs, a beautiful but very underweight female brindle Great Dane. She looks a little dazed coming out of the van but maybe she just woke up (it usually takes my Dane, Stella, three to four hours to wake up and then she's tired again from all that effort). She's going to make someone a very proud owner.

Next is a German Shepherd cross who is quite happy to be out and stretching his legs. Both these dogs are taken by Pawsitive Praise dog rescue located in Chippawa near Niagara Falls.

I help out with the uncrating of the rest of the dogs and they all look to be in average to good shape except for two. One is a Shitzu with a back leg that won't bend. At first I think its knee is locked or something and then realize that this particular leg is actually shorter than the rest. Maybe it's a birth defect, maybe something worse, I don't know. The little guy falls over a lot when it gets excited, bumping and playing with the other dogs.

The other is a poodle who looks like a stick. It had been found in a cage with dry urine saturated hair which had to be all carefully shaved off revealing the skin and bones underneath. Nevertheless, it's a happy dog and its tail constantly whips back and forth. He's one of the guys I'll be transporting.

It looks like there's a mix of puppy mill dogs and "regular" pound dogs here but I can't be sure. It was supposed to be all mill dogs but something got a bit messed up and substitutions were made. Not important, though, as long as all the dogs eventually find homes.

Cathy from the Owen Sound Animal Shelter shows up next and we sort out which of the 5 dogs she'll be taking. At first it looks like there may be a poodle gone missing but it's found buried deep in the crates and Cathy's got her full house.

In this shipment, TAS only has one dog, a little fatty of a Wirehaired Fox Terrier and judging from its temperament and cuteness profile, won't last long on the adoption floor.

That leaves just four dogs unclaimed as I load up my three into the car to take to Leaside Animal Clinic. Dr. Ruth Weintrop is taking in these three little ones to put up for adoption at her clinic. She's getting two Shitzus along with the skinny Poodle. The Shitzus both seem relatively healthy.

As I pull out of the TAS parking lot, the last rescue driver shows up so the remaining four dogs should be well on their way. Once those dogs are off, Eva and her mother will be making the long drive back to Montreal.

My much easier drive up to Leaside Animal Clinic is quick but not quick enough for the cow patch coloured Shitzu in the passenger seat beside me. Every few minutes, he looks over and quietly barks for attention. I didn't know dogs could do quiet barks but there you go. A finger scratching his nose satisfies him and he settles down for a few minutes. The two in the back don't make a peep.

At the clinic, I'm greeted by Joanne who helped arrange this first time adoption try-out between Dr. Weintrop and CAACQ in Quebec. She helps me bring the three refugees inside and they're promptly examined by the vet. A couple of the dogs need some teeth cleaning and the Poodle, aside from needing to gain a substantial amount of weight, has a bad case of ear mites. All fixable. Dr. Weintrop's only concern is the kennel cough symptoms a couple of the dogs may be displaying. If they've got kennel cough, they'll have to be quarantined until they're better which means quite a bit more work for the staff and adoptions may be delayed. Still, it's all doable.

I'll be keeping track of how these guys come along over the next few weeks. When the adoption information for any of the dogs comes up, I'll provide the links and we can keep track of them together.

Update on Great Dane here.

Great Dane Sunday

Oliver's owners wrote to say they were going to be in town for a Great Dane meetup at Petopia on Sunday so I decided to pop out there and see how they were all doing and get some pictures.


Oliver looked well even though he had bloated just a few weeks and had to undergo a major surgery. He had gained some weight after the initial adoption, then lost it again post surgery but now it's coming back on. He was one of the smaller Danes there but didn't mind telling the bigger ones his opinions on things.

And there were a lot of other Danes to talk to indeed - over 40 running loose in the snow covered, fenced-in lot beside the Petopia building. It made for a thrilling afternoon trying not to get caught in many of the mini-stampedes as packs of dogs, each one well over a 100 pounds, with a couple getting close to 200 pounds, ran happily helter skelter into people's knees.

A few scuffles broke out but they were quickly controlled. Scuffle maybe too strong a word. If they had been between two smaller dogs, no one would've given it a second thought but when it's between a couple of human sized dogs, it's better to err on the side of caution and separate the two just in case it becomes something more serious than just adolescent rough housing.










For the most part, it was a gorgeous afternoon to be spending outside with a few dozen giants as long as you managed to stay on your feet.

Great Dane at home in Oshawa - 2

Look how far Ned, now Oliver, the Great Dane from Montreal has come in just a few short weeks.

From Oliver's foster parents:

Hi Fred, Oliver is doing just fine, he now is allowed out of his room during the day, when we are not home, with Luka, He is learning really fast with "leave it" sit and stay. The best is when we feed him. He is learning that he has to lay down away from his bowl until I say "OK". He is improving with leash walks, and this weekend we are going to try off leash at a private lot used just for off leash walks. We will be introducing him to the group of danes we walk with on the weekends. I still can't understand why rescues did not want to take a chance on him, as he is loveable, cuddly, as really smart. He is a puppy at heart and loves to play with toys. He and Luka are doing great. He is still not strong enough for all out dane play but he is quick, and deeks Luka when he needs to. The cat has now accepted that there is another dog in the house and realizes that this one does not care about her and won't chase her like Luka does.

There is no sign of separation anxiety, no chewing, or destruction of anything. But does like the garbage. He is a big goof, who just wants to play and be loved. He is gaining weight, and his ribs are starting to get some coverage, his hind legs are getting stronger, his sores have healed. He is still underweight but that takes time.

I hope to remember to bring my camera this weekend to Dogwood to take pics of him with the other danes we will be with. And I will send you pics of him with, I hope, his new friends.

And then a few days later:

Well, our first off leash with Oliver went amazing, He showed wonderful dog manners, and stayed with the pack. We walked with 11 dogs and 7 humans at a nearby farm. Most of the dogs we were with are rescues. Great dane rescues and other rescues. He was bouncy and seemed to be smiling as he ran through the bush, chasing and being chased. He looked so free... relaxed.... and carefree. A good time was had by all.

Great Dane at home in Oshawa

Ned, the lighter coloured merlequin Great Dane from Montreal, is resting in his new home with Luka the fostering family's own Great Dane. It turns out that Ned is a bit of a humper but it looks like the situation is well under control and the two dogs will be happy housemates in no time.

Great Dane at risk in Montreal - 5

Continued from here.

I've been putting up notices about this dog on one of the Great Dane boards I'm on and various people have expressed concern and offered to help. One of those people has pulled through in a big way and has decided to drive to Montreal to rescue the dog and foster it. She contacted Johanne Tasse who contacted me this morning and told me the fantastic news.

Tomorrow, the Great Dane, will be receiving his getting-out-of-the-pound bath and then will be driven west a few hundred kilometers to his new home in Oshawa. He leaves behind several other dogs with very uncertain futures but, still, I can't help but be glad at least this one life is saved. Johanne said even the pound owners are enthusiastically happy the Dane has found a safe harbour.

The sudden generosity of people sometimes surprises me. It's like a gift that falls out of the sky.

Great Dane at risk in Montreal - 4

Continued from here.

Yesterday from Johanne Tasse:

Good afternoon. Just came back with a woman who adopted a Dobie from me last year. She has had 2 Danes in the past. She currently is the guardian of an Irish Wolfhound and Lancelot the Dobie. As per Michelle "there is nothing wrong with this dog". Would not win ribbons but who cares.

25 lbs underweight
1 blue eye 1 green eye
29 inches at the top of his hips
Ears are clean
Friendly
Did not hump anything
Wants to please !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We feel he is about 12 months old + -

We advised the pound to feed him
3 cups am
2 cups lunch
2 cups pm

Michelle would like to see him on cottage cheese and cooked ground beef...
Anyhow he is wonderfull I have no concerns about him.

I like him - one big goof.

A woman in Vaudreuil has called [to enquire about the Dane] for her sister who lives in Oshawa.

Continued here.

Great Dane at Risk in Montreal - 3

Continued from here.

Johanne Tasse, of caacQ, has talked to the pound owners and convinced them to keep the Dane indoors. That's very good news because a big concern would be the dog freezing to death as the temperature starts dipping below zero. Combine that with the wet ground surface and a Dane won't last long having very little in the way of fur or body fat, especially this one.

Various people have been contacted in the Montreal area to see if anyone can accommodate a Dane foster. Great Dane Rescue Inc., in Toronto, has also been contacted so now it's wait and see if anyone responds.

Continued here.

Great Dane at Risk in Montreal - 2

Continued from here.

A second person has just come back from seeing the Dane. She said that it was fine with the handling of its ears, paws, belly, etc. It's very thin, about 20 pounds underweight. Untrained, but friendly. There may be something wrong with its right hind leg but it is being kept outdoors on cold, wet cement so that may have something to do with it. She also thinks the dog is over a year old, not 7 months as previously mentioned but she is not sure as she is not familiar with Danes. She said she thought the dog was a good dog and would really like to see it indoors somewhere as the temperatures will be hitting zero soon. The pound is okay with keeping the dog alive if a rescue can be arranged. No deadline was specified.

Continued here.

Great Dane at risk in Montreal - 1

In my conversation with Johanne Tasse last night, she mentioned that there is a Great Dane at one of the Montreal pounds right now. We don't often get Great Danes at Toronto Animal Services, in fact none have ever gone up for adoption in the time I've been there - though one did stop by TAS for a few days until it was picked up to be fostered by Great Dane Rescue Inc.

I've got a soft spot for Danes so I made some inquiries about the Montreal one.

He's a 7 month old merlequin Dane, reportedly friendly with people and dogs, but untrained and wants to hump other dogs.




The rescue person who saw him had this to say:

"I think he is good looking, I whistled & he responded immediately. We did not take him out of the enclosure. He just wanted to be super friendly, but he would have bowled me over out of excitement in no time flat. Kisses through the cage. The situation is not good healthwise for these dogs living in these pens they are on wet, cold, cement 24 /7."

Unfortunately, the rescues in Montreal aren't experienced with Danes and I'm not so sure they'll put this guy on their list to take out of the pound. Also, it appears the dog's size is somewhat intimidating to them so I'd say he's going to be stuck in his cage for a while or until he gets euthanized - which may be sooner than later given the city's high kill rates.

I'm hoping that someone familiar with Danes and who is near Montreal or is going to Montreal, can do a proper assessment of the dog as it would be really helpful as a first step to getting him either adopted or fostered.

I'll keep posting on the situation as it progresses.

Continued here.

Some people say they make great pets - part 2

It's a long night not because we're washing the dogs or anything like that - no, we decide to leave that for the morning as it's already past 2 a.m. and we've both had a long day. It's a long night because the even though we've wiped the dogs down and relegated them to the kitchen in the back of the house and left all the windows and doors open, the smell is so bad that it actually keeps me up. Elizabeth manages to fall asleep but even for her, who's typically a very sound sleeper, the smell penetrates into her dreams and sporadically wakes her up.

The next morning, neither of us want to go downstairs. Elizabeth, who usually heads down to the kitchen pronto after waking to make a cup of coffee is this morning lingering around the bedroom window looking out at the neighbourhood. I stick my face into my pillow, trying to find some temporary escape from the wafting odors but even that doesn't help. There's no more delaying it. I get up.

Downstairs, Stella and Rocky don't understand why they've been gated in the kitchen all night and they're pining to come say hello to me in the living room. Not a chance. I go into the kitchen and scoot them both outside where it smells refreshingly skunk free, I guess because my two furballs managed to bring most of the scent inside.

You know how when you go from one environment into another, the differences in odors are sometimes magnified? Having slept through the night in amongst the stenchfest, I'd actually built up a bit of a tolerance for it. Now that I had stepped outside and the green mist in my nasal cavity had cleared out, when I step back into the house, it's like being hit in the face with a baseball bat made of stink. There would be no breakfast for me.

And thus was my downfall.

The plan of attack is for me to wash the dogs in hydrogen peroxide (1 liter), baking soda (1/4 cup) and liquid soap (1 tablespoon) while Elizabeth strips everything down in the living room and starts on the laundry, then the mopping. We don't have any hydrogen peroxide so I go to the store to pick some up. And because I haven't eaten, I buy a couple of chocolate bars and eat those.

By the time I get back, Elizabeth has most of the furniture declothed and is just starting to mop. With the dogs out of the house and the front door open, the place is beginning to smell, well certainly not pleasant but not as offensively odiferous.

Stella and Rocky, as is typical for dogs, don't particulary like getting a bath but they don't put up too much fuss and just stand there in sullen silence as I shampoo them. They try to guilt me with their sad faces but I don't fall for it. I've read the manuals, I've done the training and I've taken the vitamins and I'm totally impervious to their "why oh why do you treat me this way?" expressions.

I must say, that deskunking shampoo mixture works wonders. Stella comes out of it completely non-skunk scented and Rocky, who was much worse hit, comes out with just one little patch of stink right between the eyes where I couldn't apply much of the slightly stinging shampoo without getting it into his eyes.

So the dogs are scrubbed clean and now it's onto the rest of the house and it's like it doesn't end. The seat covers, the cushions, the bedding, the carpets, the rubber mats, the floors, the increasing mound of towels. We work at it until 5 p.m. when I decide that maybe the last thing that needs to get scrubbed is the outside patio. I get out the hose, water gun and scrub mop and start at it.

By this point, I'm tired. The only thing I've had all day has been those chocolate bars and a can of Dr. Pepper (no I'm usually not this bad with my diet but exceptional circumstances call for exceptional actions) and now I'm starting to experience a sugar crash. I think I can push through it. I'm woozy but I'm on the final rinse so I keep at it.

I need to retrieve the hose which is at the bottom of the steps off the patio into the yard. I step down to the first step. It's covered in soap and I think to myself that I need to be careful. Unfortunately, my head isn't connected properly to the rest of me at this point and my foot slips out from beneath me. My ass hits the first step, thumps down to the next one, my head snaps back on the impact and I feel something go twang in the back of my neck.

You know how sometimes when you've had an accident, say you dropped a hammer on your toe or conked your head on a low hanging beam, there's that moment just before the pain hits and it's like the calm in the eye of the storm. Everything's very quiet. And then everything's very loud.

"FUUUUUUUCK!!" I scream, although I only scream this inside my head because I don't want to disturb the nice neighbours. My ass feels like it's been kicked by a sledgehammer and my neck feels like it's Charlie horsing. Meanwhile, Stella and Rocky are staring at me, giving me their "Suck it up buddy, you had that coming after that bath you gave us," look.

Elizabeth sticks her head out through the patio doors and asks me if I would like a bagel.

"Yes, that would be good," I say.

"The house still smells," she says.

"Mm, hmm," I say.

Some people say they make great pets - part 1

I was going to write something about the 3 dogs we transported from the airport to Toronto Animal Services yesterday but instead, because I'm sitting here tired, stinky and waiting for the Advil to kick in, I'm going to write about what happened later in the evening. It's got nothing much to do with rescue volunteering other than it concerns the two monster numbskulls I rescued who now occupy my house and who nearly drove me out of it last night. But hey, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Every night before I go to sleep I rouse Stella and Rocky from their comfy, multi-layer, princess and the pea approved dog beds and make them go outside for a final goodnight pee in the backyard. Rocky's always up for a quick dash to the backyard but Stella groans and moans like it's the most inconvenient thing in the world I'm asking her to do. Usually, I have to resort to shoving her ass out of bed before she'll even acknowledge I'm talking to her.

Rocky's already outside while Stella slowly rises, stretches, shakes her floppy ears as if to clear her floppy head and slowly trundles to the open patio doors and goes out. That's the nightly routine.

I stand in the kitchen doing a few dishes while I wait for them to finish their business. A minute later Rocky scurries back in, a little quicker than usual but I think it's because he wants to beat Stella to the prime bed (yes, they race each other for the best bed) because now here comes Stella running up the stairs as well. But then she stops. Instead of coming in, she starts to rub her face on the towel covering the doggie bed outside on the patio. She's snorting and sneezing and I'm thinking she's breathed in some dust or dandelion seeds or something. Twenty seconds later she's still rubbing her face. Now that's odd and I'm getting a little concerned so I go to the patio door and check up on her. As soon as I step out, I smell something, not overwhelming, but definitely not part of the normal neighbouthood night scents. It's like someone's burning chemical waste in the vicinity.

I walk over to Stella. She's still snarfling with the towel and there's a lot of drool coming out of her mouth. I'm suddenly panicked thinking that maybe someone's thrown some solvent or something into my backyard and Stella's gotten into it but through my panic, even as I'm trying to wipe off whatever it is on Stella's face, I'm thinking it might be something else. And now I notice that the smell is getting really strong.

I run upstairs and wake Elizabeth up. By now, the scent is in the house.

"Can you smell that?" I ask.

She nods.

"Is it skunk? It doesn't smell like skunk," I say.

"No, that's skunk." Elizabeth would know. Her dog once got sprayed and she had to drive home with him afterwards in a snowstorm. With the windows rolled up. "That's the way it smells."

"It's like some chemical."

"Yeah, that's the way it smells at first. Tomorrow, it'll smell like skunk."

I'm actually relieved because it's not solvent; skunk juice isn't going to do any huge damage.

Then I remember Rocky - how he ran past me when I was in the kitchen standing over a bunch of sudsy dishes that smelled like melon scented dishwashing liquid, how that fruity chemical scent may have covered up another chemical scent that had just rushed past.

I run downstairs. Rocky is blinking like mad, drooling and rubbing himself over every piece of furniture and carpeting in the living room. He looks up at me with watery, crazy eyes and dives down again, plowing his muzzle into the sofa cushions.

And now Stella comes charging in. She nose dives into the prime doggie bed, plows it over, nose dives into the second doggie bed, rubs her muzzle along it until she hits the wooden floor, keeps rubbing.

"STELLAAAA GEEEEET OOOOUT!!!!" I scream.

Stella must be thinking I'm screaming at her friend the invisible Stella who often comes to visit whenever the real Stella gets in trouble because she pays no heed to me and heads for the armchair. Meanwhile, Rocky's finished plowing along the length of the thick plush runner and is starting to get intimate with the love seat.

"NOOOOOOOOO!!!" I scream.

It was going to be a long night.

To be continued ...

It's because you're afraid someone else is stealing all your air

When Stella yawns, Rocky yawns. When Rocky yawns, Stella yawns. When I yawn, Rocky yawns and then Stella yawns. Just writing the word "yawn" so many times makes me want to yawn.

It's funny that this deeply rooted, unsolved mystery of human behaviour - contagious yawning - extends to dogs. Chimps experience contagious yawning as well but that's more understandable as they aren't that genetically different from us. But dogs?

From The Independent, "Why do we yawn?"
By Steve Connor, Science Editor, Thursday, 16 August 2007

"The latest study, however, pinpoints the fact that contagious yawning appears to involve the very human trait of emotional empathy. Humans, uniquely, are able to imagine what someone else is thinking or feeling. This is at the heart of empathy, and it is a trait that autistic children unfortunately lack - and so may explain why they are immune to the infectiousness of yawning."

If this hypothesis is correct, contagious yawning is a sign of empathy. That would go a long way to proving that there is an instinctual, emotional bond between humans and dogs and that dogs are able to imagine what their humans are feeling.

So the next time you need a shoulder to cry on, your dog might be your best bet.

Happy Canada Day

Play dammit!

I got Rocky a year ago when he was 8 years old after his previous owner left him at the pound.

I discovered after I brought him home that Rocky had apparently not been properly socialized with other dogs. At least that's the doggie psychoanalytical reason. He may also just have been a lunkhead.

One social grace he lacked was that he had no idea what it was to play. Whenever Stella tried to play with him, he would either freeze or he would take it as aggression and bark and run away. It probably didn't help that Stella's idea of play was to smack him on the back of his head with her paw or whack him with a big stick.

Now Stella's not the most subtle nor brightest girl around but she is persistent and over the course of the year, has finally succeeded in teaching Rocky how to play, at least on her terms. This morning they played for a good 15 minutes which compared to past play sessions was like a marathon.

You can see how when Stella first tried to get Rocky to play tug with the stick, he was still a little uncertain and mouthed her throat a couple of times like he was about to vampire bite her but then he clued in and the tug of war began.

After they finished, Stella celebrated her hard work and achievement with Rocky's social development by taking a break to eat the stick. Like I said, she's not the brightest girl.

Originality

This morning, as I was walking Stella, my Great Dane, to the park, someone stopped and pointed and said:

"Hey, you got a saddle for that yet? Har, har, har."

Dane owners get that a lot, probably even more than actual horse owners. Here are some other great lines:

"Is that a dog or a horse? Ha, ha, ha."

"You ever ride that thing? Heh, heh, heh."

"How much for a pony ride? Huyuck, huyuck, huyuck."

And then it kind of repeats itself.

"Where's the saddle? Snort, snort, snort."

"Nice horse you got there. Teehee, teehee, teehee."

"Can my kid get a ride on that? Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck."

So, let's see. I hear that about once a week and Stella's been with me about 5 and half years so that's 5.5 * 52 = 286 times now.

I got Stella when she was 6 months old. Elizabeth told me that there was a great dane pup being housed at a kennel by a woman who was in hiding from her husband. Apparently, this happens a lot: an abused woman finds herself in a situation where she can hardly look after herself let alone any dependent pets (Safe Pet and other organizations can help out). I was dogless at the time and had no intentions of getting a dog but, what the hell, a quick peek at a Great Dane pup wasn't going to hurt.

Later, at the kennel, there she was: six months old and already 85 pounds. All gangly legs, long neck and big ears.

"Hey, she looks just like a horse!" I said. "I'll have to get a saddle for her."

And that, folks, is how you get suckered in.