Thursday, January 29, 2009

Thursday thoughts- book review

I finished reading "Congratulations! It's a Dog", D. Caroline Coile (2005).

It was an easy read, pretty short at 181 pages, and arranged into 12 neat chapters. I got the book as I was looking for training advise for my 6-month old Pug, wanting to start teaching her a few more tricks beyond Sit, Stay, Leave etc.
I guess the title and cover of the book should have given a clue that it was more for brand-new puppies, and as such I found the first six chapters (up until "Just Rewards") a bit irrelevant to me nowadays.
However when it hits the section on rewards & learning, "what makes your dog tick" I found I don't really care about the pros & cons of different Pay Schedules...
In the chapter where it does give information on 'tricks' for your dog it covers
- Attention! (eg. look at me!)
- Sit!
- Stay!
- Down! and Come!
but then goes onto talk about all the different types of collar available... ? !
The last three chapters: Parenting challenges, Fears & Phobias, and Dealing with aggression made me glad that Pepe doesn't have any of these issues to deal with, but again they were all covered so briefly that if you required help for any of these, well you'd be better getting a book specifically aimed at these areas.

Overall I would advise this for someone either just thinking about getting a dog, or someone in preparation to welcome a new addition to their home & family. At the back there is a list of Resources for further reading so maybe one of these titles will be more helpful !

Monday, January 26, 2009

Man-kitten Monday


(JJ: Yes, two Man-kitten posts in a row!)
Here is Jesse James in a typical daredevil stunt. Thank goodness cats have nine lives :)

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Easy like Sunday morning

Here is Jesse James with some of his favourite books:

- Wild Swans
- The Wind-up Bird Chronicle and
- A Wild Sheep Chase, arf!

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Sartorial Saturday


Been a while huh?

Anyway, last Saturday we went to a party, and unfortunately a guy there was wearing one of these t-shirts:
which of course I went bananas over, because as far as I'm concerned it's a picture of a Pug! I think I spent all night there showing anyone who'd look pics of Pepe on my 'phone :D

It's merchandise for a band called Polytechnic, and sad to say, the description of the t-shirt on their site is 'sloth'.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Wordy Wednesday -book review



I got a couple of dog training books out of the library, and am currently reading
"Congratulations It's a dog", by D.Caroline Coile

It's okay, so far a bit more for people who are considering getting a dog, rather than existing owners. And it keeps on going on about how dogs are one step removed from wolves... I admit I find it hard to think of my Pug as an ex-wolf :P
To me I think she's more like a little demon- like baby Hellboy, or maybe I mean 'daemon' like in the His Dark Materials books: a manifestation of a (my) soul ?
She also reminds me a bit of Ryuk from the Deathnote manga - the eyes, LOL