The Poodle (and Dog) Blog

But wait...we have a world's tallest dog controversy

Arizona realtor Dave Nasser is contesting the World’s Biggest Dog title announced this week by Guinness. [See previous post]

He insists that George, his Great Dane, towers over Titan by a fraction of an inch as shown in this picture. However he and George’s entourage apparently didn’t get to the veterinarian for an official measurement before the deadline.

"It's just bad timing. I can't say anything bad about Guinness," said Nasser.

"We sent the paperwork to them Tuesday and they got it Thursday. The winner had a plaque in hand Thursday. … we were just late to the game."

Nasser said he wasn't aware of a deadline, or that Nov. 12 was Guinness World Record Day.

After Gibson, the previous record holder, died, Guinness was besieged with applicants claiming the title. It could take months to verify  evidence and come to a decision. Titan was verified as tallest dog three months after the evidence was submitted.

Meanwhile expect a little rivalry between Titan, the record holder, and George, the contender.

Or rather their owners. The dogs, of course, couldn't care less. More of the controversy

It’s official—Titan named world’s tallest dog

Named by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s tallest dog is Titan, a 4-year old white Great Dane from San Diego.

Titan is blind, deaf, and suffers from epilepsy. According to his owner Diana Taylor he has acupuncture treatments and chiropractic adjustments every three weeks.

Titan’s official height is a little over 3 ½ feet from shoulder to the floor. Include his head and he’s another eight inches tall. He weighs 190 pounds. It isn’t good for him to stand on his hind legs but he would stand 6 feet 6-8 inches if he did.

The previous record holder was Gibson, also a Great Dane, who died of bone cancer earlier this year.

Taylor was living in Atlanta when she adopted Titan as a puppy from the Middle Tennessee Great Dane Rescue. When he could see out of one eye, she taught him sign language. As he went blind, they learned to communicate by touch.

Among 30 new records, Guinness also announced the world’s largest gingerbread man, the biggest group hug, the most nationalities in a sauna and the world’s longest paper clip chain. But Titan was the only animal to make the book this time. Source

Today’s post is about fingers

No, not that finger.  (This picture has been around the internet for years and I’ve always wanted an excuse to use it.)

Three loosely connected points about fingers

1. My little finger has pretty much healed, but it is still a little tender. My paranoia about a dog conspiracy has abated. Somewhat.

2. In case you ever injure your finger, Martina, owner of gorgeous Poodles Gordy and Georgia, sent a great suggestion from her doctor:

Ice the finger for a bit, dry it off, then buddy tape it (not too tight) to the ring finger which will act as a splint. If the pain lasts longer than a couple of days, you might want to have it x-rayed.

Or you might not. My experience is that the only thing doctors can do for things like sprained ankles, cracked ribs, and broken toes is to x-ray and prescribe pain pills.

Vicoden, however, rocks.

3. I’m fascinated with the TV cameras that can zoom in on a baseball in the pitcher’s fingers so that you can see how he is holding the ball, you can count the stitches, and read the brand.

However, I remember one time that I didn’t find the technology so fascinating.

The sideline camera showed a player coming off the football field. He held the hand out to the trainer. The hand was parallel to the ground and the finger was pointing to the sky. Ew. The hand filled the screen, searing the image onto my retina.

Then the trainer did something to the finger while my eyes were closed and the player was back for the next play.

Of course the booth guys had to go into clinical detail about what had happened, assuring us that this was quite common on the football field. Back in the day, real men would just pop the finger back themselves and not miss a play.

Some of us are definitely whinier than others.

Change of command of Marine Mascot

United States Marines first formed on November 10, 1775

Veterans’ Day- November 11

Molly the Bulldog has retired as mascot at Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego to be replaced by Pvt. Belleau Wood, a 7-month old puppy.

After seven years of faithful service, Molly (right) will live with a Marine officer in Texas in her retirement. She achieved celebrity status when she played a role on the military themed TV show “Mail Call.”

The new puppy is named after a World War I battle in France and according to her handler she already has some of the Marine Corps grit.

“She’s really hardheaded on certain stuff,” said Cpl. Shawn Dickens, her Marine handler. For instance, “sit” is solid. “Stay,” well, that’s another tale.

Cpl. Dickens keeps Belleau in his barracks and like many other humans he shares his bed with her.

The Marine depot’s tradition of keeping dog mascots goes back to the 1930’s. Source

One of the most famous Marine Corps mascots to reside aboard the base was, a sad-eyed multi breed canine with two hashmarks, “Sgt Soochow.” Soochow started out as the mascot of B Company, 1st Bn, 4th Regiment stationed in Shanghai in 1937.

By the time the regiment shipped out to the Philippines in 1941, shortly before the start of World War II, Soochow had been claimed as mascot by the entire regiment. Soochow hit the foxholes with the other Marines during the siege of Corregidor, and fought alongside his buddies, snarling and snapping at the Japanese.

He [was] captured when the island surrendered on 6 May 1942. Soochow spent nearly three years in various prisoner of war camps. During his internment, his serviceman’s record book was hidden, but it was later recovered. He and 17 Marines were liberated by American Rangers in February 1945.

He was taken to the Marine Base in San Diego where he lived the remainder of his life in luxury as the Recruit Depot’s mascot.

Soochow held the Philippine Campaign, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign, Good Conduct, WW II Victory and American Defense Medals and ribbons.

Soochow may have been the only mascot to have a parade in his honor. On 29 October 1946, the entire Recruit Depot turned out en masse to take part in and witness a parade in honor of Soochow’s ninth birthday. He passed away on 21 April 1947. Source

Semper Fi, Soochow, Molly, and Belleau

“UP” the DVD: a review

One of the fun perks of this blog is that I get advance copies of DVD’s to review.

My fellow film critic, Damon, age 9, and I reviewed “UP” the DVD which will be available for sale today (Tuesday). “UP” is the 10th feature length film by Pixar.

We both gave it an A, two thumbs up and all the stars we could find.

Pixar continues to delight audiences and critics with simple, engaging stories and breathtaking art and special effects.

The unlikely central character of this video is a grouchy 78-year-old retired balloon salesman, Carl Fredericksen, who is living out a lonely life in his home, as progress and high rise buildings are going up all around him.

The video starts when the very young Carl meets Ellie, a spirited girl who will become the love of his life. In a short interlude, we see them grow up, get married and grow old together, all the while dreaming of going off on a great adventure to South America. But time passes, life happens, and sadly Ellie dies before they can have their adventure.

Carl retreats to his house and memories of Ellie until the world will no longer allow him to keep his privacy and independence.

Then Carl comes up with the perfect plan to preserve his house and go off on his grand adventure. He rigs thousands of helium balloons to his house and lifts off. He has even devised a way of steering it.

But what Carl doesn’t know is that Russell, a would-be helpful, but mostly pesky, 8-year-old Boy Scout, was on the porch when the house lifted off. With no way of letting Russell down, the odd couple travel to South America together.

What follows is a lot of action, comedy, pathos, a villain, an exotic bird, a dog guard pack, several plot twists and a cute friendly dog named Dug, who deserves (and gets) a feature of his own.

Through their adventures, without heavy handed moralizing by the filmmakers, Carl and Russell develop an unlikely friendship as they find out together what is important in life.

If you think you might feel self conscious watching an animated film with no child in the room, you need to know that “UP” was the movie that opened the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Pixar studios has won twenty-two Academy Awards.

“UP” the video is now available at wherever you buy videos.

Don't talk to my parrot

I haven’t posted a joke for a long time, but thanks to Vickie for this one. Some of you will appreciate it more than others will.

Wanda's dishwasher quit working so she called in a repairman. Since she had to go to work the next day, she told the repairman, "I'll leave the key under the mat. Fix the dishwasher, leave the bill on the counter, and I'll mail you a check.

"Oh, by the way don't worry about my dog Spike. He won't bother you.

"But, whatever you do, do NOT, under ANY circumstances, talk to my parrot!

"I MUST STRESS TO YOU: DO NOT TALK TO MY PARROT!!!"

When the repairman arrived at Wanda's apartment the following day, he discovered the biggest, meanest looking dog he had ever seen. But as she had said, the dog just lay there on the carpet watching the repairman go about his work.

The parrot, however, drove him nuts the whole time with his incessant yelling, cursing and name calling.

Finally the repairman couldn't contain himself any longer and yelled, "Shut up, you stupid, ugly bird!" To which the parrot replied,

"Get him Spike!"

See - Men just don't listen!

Atlanta man becomes an accidental animal shelter

When Gary DeNicola rescued a stray dog running through a busy intersection one Sunday in September, he had no idea that he would soon become a one person animal shelter.

He planned to take the dog to a shelter the next day. Not wanting to expose his 12-year-old Cairn Terrier, Tiger, to a dog with an unknown history, he fed the little stray dog and let her rest in his back yard.

But that evening she gave birth to nine puppies.

DeNicola called area shelters and discovered that rescue groups in the Atlanta area were at capacity and one shelter wouldn’t take newborn pups until they were vaccinated. And newborn pups are too young to vaccinate.

That’s when he realized—“they are mine.”

He built a special pen for the dogs in his basement away from Tiger who is quite perplexed about the strange sounds and scents coming from below.

Now five weeks old, the puppies will go to the vet next week for first shots and check ups and then he will start looking for qualified homes. He already has found a home for the mother when the time comes. He thinks she might have been abandoned when she turned up pregnant.

Although he doesn’t plan to keep any of the puppies, he has already named two of them.

Let’s hope with the world the way it is today that some bureaucrat doesn’t get wind of the situation and cite DeNicola for running an animal shelter without a license.

More of the story

Marmaduke: funny cartoon or a one trick pony?

 Marmaduke, an outsize Great Dane comic panel, was created by Brad Anderson in 1954 and remains popular today—although people mostly either love him or hate him.

A dog as big as Marmaduke causes many funny things to happen around him. (Mostly they are funny because they happen to other people.)

According to a survey of over 3000 dog owners in the UK conducted by a pet insurance company, the Great Dane is the most destructive dog. Repair bills over a lifetime averaged $1420. A full grown Great Dane can weigh up to 200-pounds and stand on its hind legs at over 7-feet tall!

Marmaduke is elegant but clumsy. His friendly tail wag can cause havoc. He is cute and sweet, always loyal and protective of his family who suffer through the inevitable problems of living with a very large house dog.

One minute Marmaduke can be an energetic imposing canine and the next a cuddly lap dog. His facial expressions and body language are often more human than dog.

Marmaduke lives with the Winslow family, Phil, the father; Dottie, a stay at home mom; and the children, Barbie and Billy. Throughout all the misadventures, the love between Marmaduke and his family is always at the forefront.

Marmaduke, the comic strip, is one that people seem to either love or hate. There is a Facebook group, “Marmaduke Sucks,” made up of people who think it is a one joke strip and a waste of ink and paper. Comments are along these lines:

“I love dogs but hate Marmaduke. I'm sorry but how many different versions of ‘Oh, he's on the couch. How funny.’ must we endure?”

“They've been the same old thing since '74.”

On the other hand there are those who have threatened to cancel their subscription to the newspaper unless they put Marmaduke back in.

If it was just a one gag panel, it probably wouldn’t have drawn so many devoted fans. Anderson, the creator, described the theme like this:

When you express so-called human emotions in an animal, you're getting into the real character of the dog. When you get into the character itself, you go a step beyond the cartoon and into life. Source 

And now Marmaduke is going to be made into a movie mixing CGI and live-action. Owen Wilson will be doing the voice of CG Marmaduke. Marmaduke doesn’t speak in the comic strip (or even express himself in thought bubbles), but maybe Owen learned dogspeak from all the dogs who played Marley in Marley and Me.

It might seem strange to turn a one panel cartoon into a full length feature, but Marmaduke has name recognition and many fans. Marmaduke the movie is scheduled to open in June 2010.

Is this a movie you would like to see or would you rather join the “Marmaduke sucks” group on Facebook?

The strange case of the animal control officer who stole a lost dog

As terrible as it is to have a beloved dog run away, it is even worse when the person who is supposed to return the dog instead gives her away and lies about it.

The saga all started when Janet Torren’s 4-year-old Yorkshire Terrier Shai wiggled out of a sliding glass door while she was visiting her son in Stoughton, Massachusetts.

Shai was found and taken to the town shelter that day.

But for the next 12 days Torren called the shelter many times and was told they did not have her dog. She knocked on doors, made phone calls, and did everything she could to locate Shai.

“I was frantic,’’ she said. “Our children are grown, and Shai is a baby to us; we treat her as our little princess. She’s a family member. She’s absolutely loving...I felt like I was trying to get the dog back, and no one was helping me, and the people supposed to help me weren’t.’’

Since Shai had a microchip implanted, she called one company and was told they had received no reports. Then she called another company and found that the chip had been scanned by the town shelter on the same day Shai had gone missing.

So again she called Kristin Bousquet, the town’s animal control officer, who again denied any knowledge of the missing dog, saying that someone else must have scanned the dog.

“It was a continuing change of the story,’’ Torren said. “There was nothing solid to what she was saying. If I asked her a question, she changed the answer. It was one lie after another.’’

Finally Torren met with Thomas Murphy, the Chief of Police. After talking for a few minutes he walked out and came back carrying Shai.

After a brief investigation he had found that Bousquet had given the dog to a police officer’s girl friend who was planning to move to Florida with Shai. Neither the officer nor the girl friend knew that the dog belonged to someone.

Bousquet, who has worked as animal control officer for 7 years, refused to take calls from the media, but admitted in an email that she had not been “100 percent truthful’’ about the incident.

She was fired from her job and hopefully will never again work with animals or humans. Source

Dog accused of identity theft in credit card caper

While Greg Stroke was asleep, $62.50 was charged to his credit card. Since there was no sign of a break in, suspicion immediately fell on the dog. The dog?

It seems that Stroke had saved his credit card information on his remote control so it would be easy to buy video games using Microsoft Xbox points. His dog had purchased 5000 Xbox points during the night.

Although there were no witnesses, the forensic evidence was overwhelming: teeth marks and slobbers on the remote.

Dogs doing Yoga

As talented as Poodles are, both of these positions are anatomically impossible for dogs to assume.

These are photos for a clever 2010 Yoga Dogs calendar using popular dog breeds and computer wizardry, created by Dan and Alejandra Borris, a couple from Texas. The dogs get as close as dogs can to the yoga positions and Photoshop does the rest. Dan explains:

“There is no forcing the animal to do anything. We will get the dog in a general position but each dog that I photograph is well looked after.” Relying on his wife Alejandra's skills with man's best friend, Dan gets her to hold and coax the dogs into certain positions.

“Alejandra is a former yoga teacher and works with animals for a living,” says Dan. “She works with the dogs while I am setting up lights and she gets them as close as she can to the poses.”

Alejandra is photoshopped out of the pictures and more touches are added.

The story and more Yoga Dogs.