I am taking Cup of Dog a little bit highbrow this evening! What many of you don’t know about me is that my degree is in art history…and now I work with dogs. Glad I spent all that time in school…Anyway, one of contemporary art’s most venerable players has been making dog themed art for quite some time and I have to say, dogs have always been my favorite theme for some good art.

Jeff Koons, who actually attended my alma mater, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago makes a damn good piece of dog art. (He also attended the Maryland Institute College of Art, where I took classes as a kid. I am totally a stalker.) Many use terms like ‘kitsch’ when describing his artwork, but I say ‘Ruff’!

His work Balloon Dog (mixed media sculpture, produced in editioned series) fizzles with color and free spirited fun. These dogs come in all sizes and are made of high chromium stainless steel with a transparent color coating.

What can I say? I love it! My next favorite Koons would have to be Puppy, a forty-three foot tall topiary sculpture of a West Highland White Terrier puppy executed in a variety of flowers on a steel armature, done in 1992 for an exhibit in Germany. In 1995 Puppy was dismantled and rebuilt for permanent exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Harbour. The new one includes an internal irrigation system. How cool is that?

In 1997, Puppy was purchased by the Guggenheim Foundation and installed at their Bilbao location. Puppy is also privately owned by model Stephanie Seymour and her husband. It is installed on their Connecticut property.

While there are other dog themed works, one of pertinent interest is going to be included in Sotheby’s Contemporary Art sale, scheduled for July 1, 2008 in London. Koon’s Yorkshire Terriers sculpture hits the auction block with a hefty estimate of $1.5 million - $2 million dollars. The piece is made of polychromed wood and for those interested in bidding, head over to the Sotheby’s website. Happy bidding!

Here are some more images to enjoy from the same series as the Yorkshire Terriers.

Poodle, 1991

Bob-Tail, 1991

White Terrier, 1991

Three Puppies, 1991

By the way, I also make my own dog themed art and have been since studying at Jeff Koon’s place of education…Leave a comment if you think your dog should be my next subject!

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A New Cup of Dog Series!

Getting a new puppy is so exciting. While trolling the internet, its easy to find countless sellers, breeders and sites all touting the health and registries of their furballs. Pet stores abound with fuzzy faces, big paws and oversize eyes that beg you to love them forever (or at least 15-20 years).

Chat sites are filled with people awaiting their new arrival. It seems to me more people are chatting about puppies then what my internet pals refer to as ’skin kids.’ I could be looking in the wrong places and of course, my interests are canine-centric, so thats what I read.

Given that its coming up on one year since my baby boy Louis Reginald joined our family and we unexpectedly got ourselves a second furbaby in the past year, I have some thoughts on the whole ‘new puppy’ thing.

Choose Your Choice!

Do not do as I did, do as I say. Do not bring a puppy home on a whim. Ella Bean was unplanned, last minute and she didn’t go over so well with the family at first. Avoid my mistake and include everyone in the puppy decision. Our first pup, Louis, the doe eyed black and tan Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was planned well in advance. Like for years. On one of our first dates, my husband told me that he initiated his family getting his childhood dog, Coco, the Shih Tzu (may he rest in peace). It was in that moment, I knew I could be with Ryan forever. Some people discuss children and financial goals, I talked dog. From the moment we got serious I started planning for our first puppy. The way some people have mobiles and newborn clothes stashed away for the future, I had dog toys. I researched, and planned on getting every single breed in the AKC registry, at some point over the years.

I can’t emphasize enough that being realistic about your lifestyle is the first step to ensuring successful dog parenthood. If you like to run five miles a day, please don’t get a Bulldog, he wont be up for your marathons. Same thing goes the other way, if you are a couch potato, don’t get yourself a big Spaniel who needs to run to be content.

If you fall somewhere in the middle, make sure the grooming, exercise and feed requirements are manageable for you and your family. Some dogs are deceptive in their looks. For instance, Chihuahuas are notoriously difficult to train, so what they lack in size and exercise requirements, they make up for in pee pee stains. Great Danes are gentle giants and in spite of their large size, they aren’t meant for being a running buddy. Their large bones are tremendously stressed as they grow, leaving them more vulnerable to joint and muscle injury then their size might appear.

Go to the library or invest in a book on dog breeds. Actually, buying or loaning it isn’t enough - crack that bad boy open and give it a looksie. Some breeds will appeal more to you, physically and there is nothing wrong with that. Just make sure you or someone you pay, can take care of him. And if you pay someone else to do the dirty work, don’t expect Fido to curl up next to you at night. He who cleans dog poo shall reap the rewards of canine loyalty. Credit goes where credit is due and to your dog, credit equals walks, discipline, love and most important - food. If only the rest of life were this simple.

So you want a mixed breed from a shelter? It is great to rescue and often, if your really have your heart set on a purebred, you are still a candidate for adopting. Breed rescues exist all over the country and while you usually can’t view them all at a shelter, you can discuss your future companion with a foster family who has taken the pup in and most likely potty trained the hairball for you! Mixed breeds usually show one predominant breed and you can use that as your guide. Pay attention to what the shelter staff has to say about the dog’s personality. Don’t take on a serious case of aggression, shyness or any other bad trait unless you are a professional or you plan on employing one. It usually won’t work out and you’ll end up having to relinquish your pet.

My mixed breed, Ella Bean was listed at the shelter as a ‘Yorkie mix’. I have neighbors who swear she is part poodle, part Chinese Crested, part Chihuahua and more. I could have her DNA evaluated, and put the issue to rest, but I’d rather spend the money on treats and toys then know her exact lineage. Mixed breeds are often less prone to genetic disease then their purebred counterparts and are often all around, a bit sturdier. My family and I joke that Ella is a thousand times smarter then Louis, but in reality, she’s got a larger gene pool to pull from, so who knows what she is or isn’t…they are both dogs and love to walk, play, crap and eat.

Back to planning. I am going to assume you are aware of puppy mills. If not, do a Google search and I am certain you will come across gruesome photos of abused, caged dogs and you’ll have a good idea where the pet store puppy comes from. Some people condemn those who buy from these stores and say that this is what perpetuates and industry of farming puppies like a crop. I don’t judge. People meet their soul-pups in unexpected places and while I don’t recommend the pet store as a first choice place to find a puppy, if it so happens you buy from a pet shop, just make sure you are in it for the long haul. With all the abuse these animals suffer, the least we can do is invite them into our homes for keeps.

If you decide to go the breeder route, expect a lot of legwork. The AKC is a great place to start. They recommend listed breeders by state and while most ethical breeders don’t produce more then 1 or 2 litters per year, they almost always know someone who is another ethical breeder that is planning a litter. Some people wait years to get the gender/temperament/coloring they desire. It sounds nuts, but it can be worth it. Choosing an ethical breeder means you will have a guide through puppy parenthood. You’ll send them photos of your dog romping through the years, know what genetic conditions lurk in the breed’s DNA and have someone to call for advice throughout the puppy’s life. Also, these great breeders often will take the puppy back - no questions asked, if you need to relinquish the dog at any point. This is a lot less cruel then anonymously dumping your pet at the pound.

So, you and your family have all decided what type of dog you want and where he or she is going to come from. Now what?

I’ll cover that next week! Keep reading!

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Summer is almost here and with it, some of our favorite summertime doggie events. My personal fave, on Friday, June 20, its Take Your Dog to Work Day!

Promoted by Pet Sitters International, TYDWD was created to celebrate the awesomeness the dogs bestow upon our lives. Not just a self serving day of fun (who doesn’t love the notion of Fido snoozing quietly at your feet, under the desk?) the day is also meant to promote pet adoption, click here to get involved.

There is a photo contest, so be sure to bring your camera along with your pal and get some great snapshots of him at the office.

First celebrated in 1999, Take Your Dog to Work Day continues to grow and more and more offices are participating! Encourage your office to participate and give your trusty dog walker a much needed summer vacation!

Also in June, the 18th annual World’s Ugliest Dog Contest. Not my favorite competition, as I like to think all dogs are beautiful, but nontheless, this popular contest continues at Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma, California. The winner gets $1,000 bucks and a super cool trophy.

Last years winner, Elwood, a Chinese Crested/Chihuahua mix, does challenge the ‘all dogs are beautiful’ concept, but so long as the contestants are well loved, a little friendly competition never hurt anybody!

Also this summer, the Petco 4th Annual National Chihuahua Race, which promises to be super cute and fun. Check out some of the regional winners in Cup of Dog’s previous Chihuahua Race coverage. The big race isn’t until August, so stay tuned.

Finally, check out meetup.com and find a local group of dog lovers who are planning fun activities like trips to dog friendly beaches, kayaking with pooches, hikes and more.

Remember, a tired dog is a happy dog and a happy dog means you can watch TV in peace and quiet!

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Over the last week, my two and four legged family moved from our one bedroom apartment on a busy street to a much larger space. The biggest bonus from our pooch’s perspective, is that our new neighborhood boasts grassy hills to sniff and pee on and best of all, a dog park - right across the street!

Moving with dogs adds a whole other component to the basic stress of packing, unpacking and settling into new digs. Here is a short list of advice on how to move with dogs and make it as stress free as possible to all parties involved.

• Start far in advance. Start your packing slowly, start boxing up belongings well in advance of the move so as not to shock or disrupt your dog’s surroundings, as much as possible.
• Make sure to get a new ID tag, in advance! Get new tags for your dogs with your new address and telephone number that you can attach to their collars on the day you get into your new home. An unfamiliar neighborhood can cause a dog who gets loose to get really, really lost. He doesn’t know where home is! Make sure you have a recent photo in case you need to make posters to find a lost pet. An accurate ID tag can save you a lot of heartache.
• Plan to safely confine your pet both during the moving out of your old home and into your new one. He doesn’t need to be barking at the movers or running around your feet while you try and get everything into its new place. You will get stressed out and so will he. Ensuring that he is located in one safe area, like a crate or room will keep your pet from wandering out of open doors while you may be distracted with the move.
• Prepare your new home. Make sure your dogs necessities are easily accessible and unpacked immediately. Food and water bowls, food, toys, dog bed, crates and anything else that your dog is used to having around will help  both him and you relax. Stick as closely as possible to his normal feeding/ walking schedule.
• Once you are in the new home, the stress of moving may cause some potty training to be undone. Don’t get mad! Instead, get into a walking routine as quickly as possible, including extra potty trips for the first week until your pet settles in. Have an enzymatic pet odor cleaning solution on hand to clean any accidents. You don’t want Fido to have scent marked an area in your new home and continue to use it!
• Make time for playtime. De-stress your pet by giving him a little extra attention. Make sure you are observing him and keep him close by. He doesn’t know where he is. By having him near you, he can see your routine and start to settle in.

Remember, dogs are creatures of habit. A big move disrupts a dog’s sense of security and routine! The quicker you can reestablish routine, the sooner he will feel secure and at home.

As for us, we are mostly settled and have been making daily trips to the dog park! Our walks are more frequent and longer then usual. Louis and Ella Bean are handling the move like champs!

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The adorable doggie nose. It sniffs, snuffs and snores. It contains forty times the scent receptors then the human nose. This incredible sense is how our pups learn much about the world we have them live in. You and I learn about our world visually, we see, we react to what we see and take it from there.

Our dogs, on the other hand, learn as much as we learn through sight by the use of their extraordinary sense of smell. The part of our pup’s brains that processes these smells is also highly developed. According to research, it seems that dogs can differentiate between two major types of scents when tracking a smell;  a smell in the air from something or someone that has recently been in the area and scents in the ground, which remain trackable for a longer period of time.

In spite of their innate ability to smell things, doing it as a job is actually very taxing for dogs. Dogs who are bred for this purpose, scent hounds for instance, have an even more highly developed sniffer, originally used for hunting purposes. We are used to seeing dogs trained to sniff out contraband in airports, border control and in crime investigation. These pups are trained to recognize specific scents such as narcotics, firearms, or agriculture products and are familiarized with the circumstances and situations under which they will work.

Even with all of their natural talent, only 1 out of every 10 dogs that is submitted to Canada’s Detector Dog Services Unit for training will be accepted into the training program to become a certified Detector Dog.

Search and Rescue dogs use airscenting, tracking and trailing as a primary means of assisting authorities in missing persons scenarios or crime solving cases. Countries around the world work with dogs for this purpose. Their routine success ensures that the mighty few who pass rigorous training live out their lives working hard with plenty of rewards, playtime and affection to keep them motivated.

Bearing all of that in mind, its no wonder that our pups spend a great deal of time sniffing, even if it isn’t professional! They can tell on their walk who has been there before, four or two-legged, if a dog was male or female, neutered or natural and they can smell a bitch in heat for miles away!
That is how they understand the world, that is how they know us, their pack. It is why they are underfoot or trying to climb all over us while we eat or cook something tasty.

For such a highly developed organ, the nose requires relatively little care from our end. Usually, it is cool and moist, the mucous secretion from inside the nose coats it and makes it more sensitive to odors (i.e. the scent ’sticks’ to the wetness).

When sleeping, the doggie nose is often warm and dry and perfect for kissing. Given that this is how our dogs experience the world, it is important to give scent a great deal of thought in our interaction with them.

I always like to think of Trusty, the old Bloodhound who has lost his sense of smell from Lady and the Tramp when thinking of a dog’s nose. He always tries to share tidbits from his “Grandpappy, Old Reliable,” a first rate tracker, but Trusty can’t quite recollect if he has mentioned Old Reliable, or what Old Reliable used to say!

When it counts, Trusty’s sense of smell saves Tramp’s life.

The truth is, any of our dogs would do the same for us.

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Through my pals over at Woof Patrol, I learned about this very, very important cause, Citizens for Pets in Condos. I realize this isn’t a pressing issue on most people’s minds, but it is an important problem, and one that citizens can influence Florida legislation on.

In my recent post True Love, I talked about the positive impact pets have on our lives. In spite of a pup’s capability to truly save lives, many people are denied this right because of irrational housing regulations. It is all too common that apartments, condos, homeowner’s associations, co-ops and senior housing deny their tenants the right to have a pet in their own home.

Responsible pet owners clean up after their pets, keep their pets clean and flea free, and train them to be positive members of their communities. Housing associations would be more efficient if they were to focus on individual complaints about those few irresponsible owners then to place a ban on pets altogether.

Organizations such as Woof Patrol and Citizens for Pets in Condos put the emphasis on the owner’s role in where our pets can and should be welcomed. That is where the emphasis belongs.

Responsible pet ownership is vital and includes training, cleaning up after your pets, high quality nutrition and well thought out medical care as well as love and affection. The reason many people feel their pets are their ‘fur babies’ is not out of foolish sentiment. It is because they recognize that the weight of responsibility in having a canine companion is accepting that they, the pet parent, are responsible for everything to do with their living, breathing companion. The majority of pet owners agree with this mentality. We shouldn’t be penalized for the irresponsibility of selfish pet owners.

Please take a moment and sign the petition to make this an obsolete issue. Too many pets are euthanized because they do not have homes or are removed from of a loving home because they are not allowed on the homeowner’s premises. The more homes that can legally house pets, the better shot these innocent pets have at a long, happy life.

Please take a moment, sign the petition and visit this worthy organization’s site at www.petsincondos.org

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I have now been sick for three weeks and counting. (See the post Sick as a Dog.) After seeing numerous specialists and staring at the possibility of some pretty unpleasant diagnoses, I still feel in good spirits about the whole thing.

Why? When I come home from a doctor’s offices, arms bruised from having vials of blood drawn, when I wake up from a nap with chills and fevers, my Louis is there to give me slobbery kisses, comfort me, snuggle with me and generally just be a warm body next to me.

The healing power of pets is not a new concept. According to statistics, a study of 92 patients hospitalized in coronary care units for angina or heart attack found that those who owned pets were more likely to be alive a year later then those who did not. The study found that only 6 percent of patients who owned pets died within one year compared with 28 percent of those who did not own pets (info from holisticonline.com).

Our interactions with other people, even those we love, can often aid in stress reduction. However, human interaction is complex and peppered with expectations and unpredictable outcomes.

Pet therapy is becoming increasingly popular amongst senior citizens, the mentally ill and terminally ill patients. With animals, interaction is simple. They coax out of us mutual nurturing feelings and with our pets, there is no judgement. We can let go of our own hangups as we are unconditionally accepted by our animal friends, resulting in a reduction of loneliness. Anyone who has had the flu or even a minute bout with depression can attest to the lonesome feelings that arise within us when we are suffering. Compare that to those who suffer from serious and chronic health issues!

Pets also induce relaxation. By negating negative emotions, our pets truly have the power to help us heal, as even in the most dire of circumstances, positivity is a proven pathway to wellness.

Technically referred to as Animal Assisted Therapy, dogs can become certified as Therapy Dogs, trained to provide attention and comfort while working in a variety of different environments with people who can benefit.

Dogs can:

• lower blood pressue
• elevate moods
• supply social interaction
• owners of dogs get more exercise then their non dog-owning counterparts

The merit of pet ownership is tremendous, but interaction in a therapeutic setting is also enough to warrant what has become an integral part of many therapeutic programs across the country.

The dogs themselves also benefit! Our furry pals serve a variety of functions in our society, as seeing eye dogs, police dogs, bomb or drug sniffing dogs, herding, search and rescue and more. Working stimulates a dog’s senses and helps to fufill their original and primary function as working human companions.

Dogs are meant to work, by giving them a job, even if its more along the lines of obedience training, agility competition, playing vigorous games of fetch or whatever seems to suit your dog’s personality and breed, enables the dog to fulfill this instinct, resulting in a calmer and more balanced pet.

If your dog’s temperament is suited to being a therapy dog, check out the following links below and don’t hesitate to volunteer.

Everybody wins!

Valentine’s dog toy available at www.sassydog.com

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Welcome to the new “CupOFdog.com” website (formerly “The Canine Bark“).

If you love dogs you’ll love CupOFdog!

Enjoy

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Mordecai Siegal

You can’t choose your family - except for your dog!!! Animal Planet has a really cute dog breed selector where you can enter in all of the attributes that are important to you as a pet owner and it will list a number of breeds that match your criteria.It is important to choose the right dog that going to be the best fit for your family and lifestyle in order to maximize the full potential of the human-canine bond.

I took the test and was found I have a compatibility of 99% with a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Phew, Louis lucked out on that one!

Take the quiz by clicking here and post a comment to let us know what your results are!

This doesn’t always mean a purebred is the only way to find a great companion for your family! On Petfinder, you can look at local dogs up for adoption, see what each pets dominant breeds are and research those to get an idea of what to expect. In addition, many of the dogs available on Petfinder have been living in loving foster homes and the caretakers will be able to tell you a lot about the dog’s personality and needs.

Happy searching!

Mordecai Siegal, quoted above, is the award-winning author of twenty-five books about dogs and other animals. He is president of the Dog Writers Association of America and is often consulted as an expert in the pet industry. You can visit his website by clicking here.

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Today is a sad day for me and Louis. One of our favorite online sites, Dig & Scratch, posted their final post today. Dig & Scratch has been operating online for the past year, providing a cheeky, urban take on pet ownership.

Dave Baker, the editor and publisher sent me a really kind email last night letting me know in advance and I was SO sad to find out that the online canine community was losing this fantastically funny site.Make sure you enjoy their clever archives and keep visiting Dig & Scratch - maybe we can beg until they bark again!

Dig & Scratch’s logo via digandscratch.com.

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