puptastic! February 2005 Archives

February 26, 2005

interview with irene dogmatic, part 1

Paintings by Irene Dogmatic

Puptastic is proud to bring you an interview with the amazing Irene Dogmatic. Ms. Dogmatic has been a punk rocker, a photographer, a cartoonist, a painter-- and for most of her life she's been drawing and painting dogs. She kindly agreed to an interview, and we'll be sharing her answers over the next few days.

You've been making art under the name Irene Dogmatic for decades! How did it all start? Which came first, the dogs or the name?

I started calling myself Irene Dogmatic when I wrote a letter (partly in jest) to a cake mix company asking questions about food additives. It was a silly letter, but I did wonder what was in that cake. There was a magazine around in Toronto around then called File Mag. which had lists of mail artists in the back, and articles on mail art, etc in the front. They had a food editor. I sent copies of my letter to several mail art people, and one to the food editor of File, to send to General Mills Foods. General Mills only responded to the editor at File, which figures. I can't recall what I said in the letter except it started out, "Dear General, how are you and the boys at the mill doing?"

That name stuck, and some friends started calling me that and it became my exclusive mail art name. I had experimented with names before that, Eye, Inc., and Nannette Doggerel were my favorites before Irene Dogmatic became "IT". I got into an article in Esquire Magazine in the summer of 1974 with some other mail and correspondence artists, it was called "Their Arts belong to Dada". I was pictured wearing a leopardskin jumpsuit and a dog mask, holding my dog wearing a devil mask, in front of a painting I did of dog angels (called the Adoration of the Doggie). So, the dogs came before the name. I have been doing dog art almost as long as I have been painting. Got into painting paintings of dogs in about 1970 in Grad school, and have been doing it ever since, although I got commercial with the dogs (I sell dog portraits to clients) in the late 70's. By then my actual paintings for me were of dogs with people's bodies, and all sorts of other subject matter. The use of dogs and other animals with people's bodies has continued, but I paint all sorts of other things as well.

How did you get involved in Mail Art? Or did it find you?

I used to do a great deal of mail art. I got into that in the early 70's thru a friend who is an artist. He sent me mail which included instructions to send on to other people. File Mag also helped by listing mail artists. This was in the early '70's, about 72 if I remember right.

Besides your visual art, you've been in bands and worked with The Residents...

I actually met the Residents thru Mail Art, and ended up being their neighbor on Sycamore Alley in SF for a few yrs. I did a special edition silk screen for their 3rd Reich and Roll LP. , and spent many hours over there visiting, watching TV, listening to music, and watching them film their infamous video. (They were going to go from video to a movie format--curious idea.....) I can't remember what they called it, or if they ever finished it. I think they got onto other projects.

I was in three bands, one called SST , which was an early punk band--we actually had an EP on Rough trade!!! It was always sort of white noise with vocals. I parted company with the band mainly because of a disagreement with one of the members, but also because I wrote the lyrics and sang and you could never hear me. I did enjoy dressing up in weird costumes though, and thinking up strange routines to go with the songs. At one event in LA I wore a smock and slit it at one point and spilled out a rubber doll at the audience, as if I was giving birth! Some girl got the doll, and was thrilled. It was a concert on mother's day! I was in another group, my favorite, called The Beautykillers. Those guys were good musicians, and I am still friends with two of them. After that I was in a loose venture called The Kahunas, with 4 guys and 4 girls. We had some fun, but it didn't last very long. One girl played metal trash can..... We also experimented with sound effects on tape--one girl and I taped ourselves breaking bottles in a vacant lot at one point to go behind the music....! I found this music sort of akin to performance art....

What other kinds of creative endeavors have you gotten yourself into?

I also have dabbled with black and white photography, and video (years ago) and also acted in some short plays a friend of mine wrote. He called them "skits", and is now more into doing actual plays and screenplays in NY. (Not bigtime, still freelance, but he has made at least one full-length movie. One of my dogs had a small role in it, a Bassett Hound named Rufus.) Another thing I have done is computer art, using mostly Photoshop. I was playing with this form 10 years ago, when it was fairly new.

Do you feel that there's a connection or theme between different kinds of artistic efforts, or are they separate spheres? (And is there any way we can get dogs into this connection?)

I think there is definitely a connection between different kinds of artistic endeavor. They all keep the creative juices flowing, and can easily feed into one another. When I was doing the mail art, I did a series of small booklets with cartoons of dogs and slogans. Illustrating ideas. Like song titles, " I left my dog in SF", or sayings, "Barking up the wrong tree", etc. These booklets were similar in theme to paintings, small ones, I did at that time. One was called "the death of dracudog" and of course it was a dog (dracudog with long fangs) in a coffin!!!

When I did performance, I made myself a dog costume out of fake fur which I once wore at an event Anna Banana sponsored in SF. The costume had brown and white fake fur, and little pink button tits on the stomach and a fake fur leopardskin fringe tail held up with a coathanger inside.

What are you up to these days? Do dogs still play a part in your personal work?

I am still painting--the large canvas I am doing now has no dogs in it, but it does have a man with a chimp's head..... I have done a couple of dog portraits(pretty straightforward) for clients in the past few months. One dog was a lovely Bull Terrier named Macho (apt name). Another was a black poodle named Chocolate(!)--when they got him, he hadn't been clipped and his fur had faded to brown. Oops.

Do you live with a dog or dogs yourself?

I definitely live with a dog--he is a black and white spotted Border Collie mix called Jack, and I found him thru a Pet Rescue in 2001. He is a charmer and a brat--very smart, definitely would do well to have some sheep to chase--sometimes chases other dogs at the dog run... He is the only dog I have ever had with black spots in his mouth and on his tongue. It looks like he drank some ink or something!

Before him I had a wonderful Bassett who I mentioned above named Rufus. He was comic and noble, and loved people (his audience) and loved to toss and catch orange peels (thought they were alive) and he had a fine bass voice, loved to howl.

Thankyou very much, Irene!

Coming next week: part 2 of our interview with Irene Dogmatic, and how you can commission your very own Dogmatic painting of your pet!

posted by ranjit at 09:56 PM
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February 25, 2005

ikea for pets

I have a great appreciation for IKEA's cheap pretty furniture (I'm typing this from the Queen-sized Malm bed I purchased from them last year) but I have a special place in my heart for their pet section. It's not very big but they do have really nice things for pets and their owners for really low prices.

I regret not picking up this whimsical dog butt wall hook the last time I was there, it's a steal at $1.99 and it would've been the perfect thing to hang Jarvis's retractable leash and collar off of near our front door!

This stainless steel dog bowl for $7.99 is well-priced and attractive. If you're lucky enough to have a yard it would be perfect for keeping it outdoors; even the most rambunctious dog is unlikely to find munching on a stainless steel bowl fun, never mind trying to toss it around like a frisbee.

If you've ever been in an upscale pet store (I realize most call themselves "boutiques", but whatever) you know that dog bedding can cost an insane amount of money, far more than people beds even! IKEA's pet bedding options are all cute and straight-forward, but my absolute favorite thing has got to be that their cushion for dogs takes the form of a squished cat:

Too funny!

If you also have a cat, their cushion for kitties is a squished mouse! I guess if they had a mouse line, the corresponding cushion would be squished cheese.

Lovely as all these things are unfortunately you can't buy them online just yet -- only in person at an IKEA store. So make a note for the next time you go, or ask a friend to pick them up for you!

posted by lia at 11:26 PM
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February 22, 2005

puptastic loves chachi

I think my friend Yimay's dog Chachi is the most stylish chihuahua I've ever seen -- I mean, check out his little striped mohawk! Williamsburg hipsters wish they were half as cool as he is, but they probably never will be.

You can see more of Chachi on Flickr or his very own website, chachiversace.com.

posted by lia at 01:16 PM
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dean koontz, dog owner & trixie koontz, author

I should be brushing Jarvis every single day and I've been slacking for a while. I've been doing better recently but as I'm a) not obsessive compulsive and b) a bit of a slob, I doubt I'll ever get to the dog grooming level of writer Dean Koontz:

Koontz is a neat freak whose canine companion, Trixie, is walked for exactly one hour every morning and then brushed for precisely 45 minutes (by Koontz or his wife, Gerda; they alternate days) and then brushed again for 10 minutes every night — all possibly an effort to prevent even one of her golden hairs from being shed in the spotless Koontz house.

That's almost an hour of brushing every day! I'm lucky if I even give my own hair a cursory combing every other day!

Trixie Koontz, who paid her dues in her former life as a service dog, has a book of her own out, Life is Good!: Lessons in Joyful Living.

All the proceeds go to Canine Companions for Independence, the organization that trained her. Now that's a good dog!

posted by lia at 12:54 PM
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san francisco dog court

I love dogs and I love Law & Order, so I really loved Luke O'Brien's recent piece for SF Weekly about San Francisco Dog Court, written L&O-style with the responsibilities of law (Police Officer John Denny and Capt Vicky Guldbech of Animal Care and Control, who enforce the regulations) and order (Sgt Bill Herndon, who presides over Dog Court and decides what to do with the animals and their owners) clearly delineated and explained. Here's an explanation of what Dog Court is all about:

Yeah, it can get wacky in here, and at first glance, that's what Dog Court looks like -- a wacky legal outgrowth on the far liberal end of the political spectrum, where San Francisco's natural absurdities congregate. But the court is decidedly prosaic in its purpose: to safeguard the community and to protect a person from the seizure of property -- a dog -- without due process. Over the last decade, the laws of Dog Court have been tweaked, but only to give the hearing officer more flexibility in his rulings. The court remains an institution that aims to safeguard individual rights and dispense individual blame. Herndon's idea of justice coincides with this aim. Whenever possible, he hammers home the point that the court is less about dogs than people. "It's about re-educating the person," he says. "It's about individual responsibility."
But Dog Court is also, of course, about the animals, and it reflects a fundamental ideological shift in how San Franciscans, in general, have come to look at their pets. Under the law, San Franciscans who keep dogs are no longer just dog owners. They're guardians. San Franciscans no longer take a bad dog behind the woodshed and shoot him. They listen to his story and then shoot him. Or not, depending. (...)
At one time, it came down to a choice between destroying an animal and letting it live. Now, there are other possibilities, from a number of levels of obedience classes to restrictions that require a dog to be, for example, muzzled, or kept on a leash, with violations of the restrictions constituting misdemeanor crimes punishable by six months in jail or a $1,000 fine. A new ordinance passed last month allows Herndon to prohibit a person from owning dogs for up to three years. This is a big step forward for Dog Court. In the past, Herndon would seize someone's dog on a Monday and see the same guy with a new dog on Tuesday. "Now we can put a leash on the person," Herndon says.

Excellent! I've always felt strongly that more people should have dogs but also just as strongly that some people shouldn't have them at all. Dog Court is a big step in the right direction, and I can only hope more cities follow San Francisco's lead.

You can see Capt Guldbech and Lt Michael Scott of Animal Care and Control on the Animal Planet show Animal Cops: San Francisco.

Thanks to Derek Powazek for sending in the link to this story! Photo above is by Nicki Ishmael.

posted by lia at 12:23 PM
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February 21, 2005

corrugated dog

I wish my house looked like this.

How come New Zealand gets all the cool architecture?

photo by Tanya's Tabloid on flickr

posted by ranjit at 05:10 PM
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February 17, 2005

the doggy woggy photo blog

Shelly and eo over at the Doggy Woggy Photo Blog take cute photos of the pups at their local dog park, talk about dogs, and probably dream about dogs all night. Our kind of people!

Some of my favorites from their photo album: go! go! go! ...ok, stop.

Photo by Shelly, who just got a new camera!

posted by ranjit at 01:53 PM
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chihuahua races!

Roy Hamric, Desert-Mountain Times

The Second Annual Desert Chihuahua Challenge is taking place in Terlingua, Texas next Saturday the 26th of February. Interestingly, they have a category for yorkies as well. If you're having trouble deciding whether to go, it seems like it was a big success last year.

But if you're busy that weekend (it better be something really important), there's another chihuahua race May 7th in Chandler, Arizona, as part of the Cinco de Mayo Festival.

Puptastic would be pleased to receive reports and photos from our southwestern readers who flock to these events.

posted by ranjit at 01:11 PM

dogs in the news, 2/17/05

Toads turning dogs into junkies
Australian dogs are licking cane toads for the buzz-- and getting addicted.
Central Park "Gates" Worker Rescues Dogs
When two dogs fell through the ice, Michael Dickey waded into the freezing water and used his gate-untangling pole to rescue them.
Dog couture all the rage in Taiwan
Also, according to this article, the word in Chinese for a pet owner is "host!"
Dog in Cat Chase Rescued from Drain Pipe
Said the owner of Dennis, a Jack Russell Terrier: "They chased it down a pipe and I think the cat managed to come out the other end. Because it is tapered, Dennis is quite portly and got wedged but the other one came out."
Too good a retriever?
"As the officer was checking for outstanding warrants, J.D. waded into a nearby creek and emerged with a plastic bag filled with pot."

posted by ranjit at 12:58 PM
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February 16, 2005

pet er

Poor Pedro Williams! We at Puptastic HQ wish him the speediest of recoveries.

This photo is from casualsoul's brief but poignant Pet ER set. All the photographs were taken within a few hours in the evening at their local ER vet practice.

posted by lia at 04:49 PM
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dogs in the news, 2/16/05

A dog is man's best friend, and a friend in need is a friend indeed.
Five firefighters honored for rushing into a burning house to save Boo the 13 year-old lab pitbull mix.
Man's best friend blamed for starting house fire
"According to the fire report, [Keith] Powell's dog apparently jumped on the stove to eat food left in a skillet, turning on a burner in the process."
Dog Owners Face Fines for Fouling
As the saying goes: if you can't pick up after your dog, you don't deserve to own one.
SPCA says too many dogs being left in locked cars
"Dog owners are putting their animals' lives at risk by leaving them locked in vehicles or chained up without shade."

posted by lia at 03:01 PM
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german shorthaired pointer takes best in show

Congratulations to Carlee, a.k.a Ch. Kan-Point's VJK Autumn Roses, for being named Best in Show yesterday at the Westminster Kennel Club's 129th Annual Dog Show! Carlee is only the second German Shorthaired Pointer to ever win at Westminster and is a direct descendant of the dog that took Best in Show in 1974.

She was handled by Michelle Ostermiller, who was also the handler of last year's big winner, Josh the Newfoundland. Josh is now retired from show dog life, although he works both as a stud and a certified therapy dog helping children and seniors. From USA Today's interview with his owner Dave Helming:

How's Josh?
He's doing very well. He's happily retired, lounging in the living room and enjoying a good life.
What's a typical day for him now?
He lives in our house with two other Newfoundlands and a couple of Portuguese Water Dogs. He gets two square meals a day, a lot of exercise in our front field and a lot of attention from whoever comes in the house, so he's in seventh heaven.

A good life for a good dog! We should all be so lucky.

The New York Times has a fantastic multimedia slideshow of Westminster highlights, as well as this great roundup by Richard Sandomir. Sandomir points out that "if the two-day coverage on USA was not enough, NBC will carry a one-hour highlights show on Sunday at 5 p.m."

Photo above by Frank Franklin II/AP of Carlee during competition.

posted by lia at 02:26 PM
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February 15, 2005

$590,400

"Waterloo" and "A Bold Bluff" by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge sold at auction today for $590,400. Finally, dogs playing poker get the respect they deserve.

Here's a brief bio of Coolidge, who painted the notorious dogs in the 1920s. If your den, garage, or casino needs sprucing up, you can buy posters at amazon.

posted by ranjit at 08:21 PM
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beloved dog reincarnated in a tree

via ananova, more coverage from Manchester Online.

Let the "bark" jokes begin.

posted by ranjit at 02:26 PM
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betty the chocolate lab puppy

Don't you just want to give Betty a cookie? Look at her beautiful eyes!

Photo by Kenny Ferguson.

posted by lia at 02:09 PM
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willie's westminster op-ed

willie

Seattle Post-Intelligencer guest columnist Willie is more than a little ticked off that golden retrievers like himself have never once taken Best in Show at the Westminster Dog Show. From Will they ever throw a golden a bone?:

I could even stomach a terrier. But a rat-dog? A worthless yipster, reigning as champion of the dog world? It's possible, Frei saying the toy group is the toughest group.
Among the rat-dog contenders -- a world-class poodle and Pekingese, and a Pomeranian co-owned by Bill Cosby. The poodle is trained by Tim Brazier of Mill Creek.
[USA color commentator Dave] Frei also mentioned a long-coat Chihuahua, and the thought of these one-bite happy meals winning makes me so sick that I plan to eat grass during the telecasts.
Even dogs from the hound group have a better record than goldens. How can a drooling, stinky Basset Hound win, or a baying, annoying Beagle?
Then you've got those damn Dachshunds. At this year's show, there will be three varieties and 64 in all. That's what I want to see, 64 wiener dogs on my master's TV, some no doubt sponsored by Oscar Mayer.

Everyone here at Puptastic HQ is a great fan of Willie and we all hope he never gets trapped on a desert island or a frozen mountain top with those scheming wiener dogs.

posted by lia at 01:36 PM
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February 14, 2005

the 2005 westminster dog show, day one

i believe i can fly the long-haired chihuahua at westminster

Valentine's, shmalentine's -- today is the first day of The Westminster Kennel Club's 129th Annual Dog Show at New York's own Madison Square Garden. There are 2,500 dogs competing, 165 breeds and varieties competing in seven different groups, all of them aiming for the ultimate prize: being named Best In Show. Three breeds are in the show for the very first time, the Glen of Imaal Terrier, the Black Russian Terrier, and the Neapolitan Mastiff!

You can catch USA Network's Westminster coverage tonight and tomorrow night from 8 to 11 p.m. ET. Group and Best in Show competitions only, but if your internet access is fast and you're dedicated enough you might want to consider watching
Breed competition highlights online, via the miracle of streaming video.

If you're in New York and don't have cable, or you'd rather watch Best in Show in the company of other dog lovers, head on down to the LES tomorrow night for Dog Show Party 2005, "a fast-paced multi-media and performance event that runs concurrently with the last night of judging at the Westminster Dog Show. As the actual dog show takes place at Madison Square Garden, a live telecast is projected onto a huge screen at Tonic. DSP performers add to the electric energy of the night with expert commentary, live music, dance performances, games and contests. All party attendees need to bring is their love of K-9's and the absurd."

update: Gothamist has a nice post about the dog show, New York City Goes to the Dogs!.

The photo above is by Mary Altaffer/AP of I Believe I Can Fly the Long-haired Chihuahua during judging. IBICF looks resigned to being manhandled, doesn't he?

posted by lia at 06:23 PM
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dog wars: spears vs. hilton

Britney Spears claims her dogs are better than Paris Hilton's. Or as MegaStar puts it, "The sausage-calved super-chavette says her dogs are more stylish than the once-awol canine chum of the giraffe-limbed squillion-heiress." Well said.

One of Britney's pups, straining for Tinkerbell's throat Paris' Tinkerbell, feigning a lack of concern

There's only one way to settle this, of course: the Thunderdome. Britney may believe that her three dogs (Lucky, Bit-Bit, and Lacy Loo) give her an advantage. However, she may not be aware that Paris recently adopted a rottweiler from a shelter.

posted by ranjit at 03:35 PM
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triumph not triumphant

Okay, so Triumph the Insult Comic Dog's comedy album Come Poop With Me lost the Grammy yesterday to Jon Stewart and his Daily Show gang (for America (The Book) on cd), but how many Rottweiler puppets do you know who get interviewed in the New York Times? From Funny Bones by Deborah Solomon:

Many people know you from Conan O'Brien's show, and I trust you enjoy your frequent guest appearances.
It's O.K. I get to insult all sorts of talented people, and also John Tesh.
Are you referring to Tesh the man or Tesh the New Age musician?
Yes.

posted by lia at 03:17 PM
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happy valentine's day!

happy valentine's day

hobodogblog put up some lovely canine valentines in haiku form, they're all great but here are my three favorites:

Today I sniffed
Many dog behinds-I celebrate
By kissing your face.
How do I love thee?
The ways are numberless as
My hairs on the rug
I am your best friend,
Now, always, and especially
When you are eating.

If you've got a lot of love in your heart and no pup in your life to share it with, why not visit your local shelter or check out Petfinder? There are literally hundreds of thousands of animals out there waiting to find a good home, and one of them could be the one you've been waiting all your life to meet, even if you don't know it yet.

The great illustration above is by youyesyou.net. You can buy it on cards!

posted by lia at 02:54 PM
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February 13, 2005

dogs in the news, 2/13/05

Dogs make good diet buddies
People who partnered with their pups in diet and exercise, researchers say, lost more weight and kept it off.
Iambs introduces condiments for dogs
I've never met a dog who refused his food for lack of canine ketchup.
Pet dog to be chief bridesmaid
She has a custom-designed dress and everything. And there's a picture!
Lost dogs reunited with their owner
They ran off in the night, climbed a mountain in subzero temperatures, and were finally lured to safety by the ski patrol's meatloaf and provolone sandwich.

posted by ranjit at 11:11 PM
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February 12, 2005

dogs in the news, 2/12/05

Python-Tracking Puppy Trains to Patrol Everglades
Pete the Beagle is being trained "to track down snakes and bark after they have been sighted, enabling park officials to capture and remove the huge pythons."
Puppy survives cliff fall and Channel swim
Toby the six month-old Jack Russell puppy got scared by gunfire, jumped off a 70-foot cliff and swam a mile across the Channel from Devon to Cornwall. If he could only ride a bicycle he'd be set to do a triathlon!
Trucker's lost dog on the road again
Kentucky truck driver Carl White's been reunited with his miniature Pomeranian Judy, after losing her while pulled over at a truck stop.
Ten-year ban for neglect of dog
Wendy Callan of Birmingham "had not groomed or cut the 10-year-old shitzu, Gizmo, for more than two years... [he] had to have an eye removed as it had been permanently closed for so long." Shame on you, Wendy Callan!
School adopts an assistance puppy
Principal Dr. Jory Westberry of Tommie Barfield Elementary is bringing Opal the black lab puppy to work with her to help Opal socialize with kids, and to teach the kids about assistance dogs and respect the disabled.
New dog is helping Carthage woman regain her independence
Spirit the golden retriever is Lynda Purdy's new guide dog, taking over from Douce, her late companion of twelve years.

posted by lia at 12:50 PM
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britney, like, totally hearts von dutch dog

In Britney Spears's latest letter to her fans, she says, "I'm so excited, my dogs are stylin' and profilin' because Von Dutch just sent them the coolest little clothes!"

Now I don't think we should be taking any fashion advice from someone who willingly leaves her house dressed like this, but here are two samples from Von Dutch's dog clothing line anyway:

von dutch dog hoodie von dutch dog mesh tank

The mesh tank on the right is $46 and the hoodie on the left is $58, so if you're in touch with your inner Mrs Federline you can get them and many other Von Dutch dog pieces at GlamourDog.

posted by lia at 12:33 PM
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be worried about more than just nipping at your ankles

According to Fiona of Adventures in Medical School, the dog most likely to eat you when you're dead is...

barkley the wiener dog

The unassuming little wiener dog!

Yes, that tiny, elongated, vaguely comical dog will eat out your eyes if you die. "They are burrowing dogs," Tracy the future medical examiner said, "Don't ever die naked around a dachshund." They will eat into your soft bits and dig themselves into your body. Medical fact. She has seen it.

I don't think I believe this, or at least I'd really like not to. Having said that, last night in the dog run, after reading Fiona's post for the first time, there was a cute little dachsund in a coat that I'd never seen before and I have to admit that I stepped back a bit when he came up to greet me!

(Previously, like any good fan of The X-Files, I thought of pomeranians as the people-eatin' type because of the third season episode Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose.)

Photo above is of Barkley from wienerdogs.org. I'm sure he'd never eat anybody!

posted by lia at 02:12 AM
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belka and strelka

Everyone knows about Laika, the first dog to go to space. But have you heard of Belka and Strelka, the first dogs who came back? They were sent into space on Sputnik V in 1960, and brought back the next day alive and safe after seventeen orbits. Read more about them at spacedog and spacedoc.

posted by ranjit at 12:14 AM
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February 11, 2005

people who look like their dogs

The Economist put an article from their print edition up online yesterday, Love me, love my dog, about the paper published by Christina Payne and Klaus Jaffe (of Venezuela's Simón Bolívar University) in the Journal of Ethology a while back.

Payne and Jaffe went to a dog show, photographed 36 purebred dogs and their owners (separately), and then had volunteers guess which dogs belonged to which dog. The volunteers sorted out the right answer more often than chance, just like in a previous study by other researchers which found that human couples tend to look alike. The phenomenon Payne and Jaffe are studying is associated mating characterized as "self seeking like", in which people prefer faces that resemble their own.

I got Jarvis as a present, he was picked out of a litter by a friend of my mom so we don't look anything alike, although I do know many people who definitely resemble their dogs. I bet Payne and Jaffe would get a good laugh out of the winners of the Cesar Select Dinners I Look Like My Dog contest, like these two fellows:

posted by lia at 01:16 PM
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dogs in the news, 2/11/05

Dog park to be named for a pooch
Boca Raton's new dog park, its first permanent one, will be named in honor of a retired police or fire department dog.
Candidate does more than wag the dog for city
Candidate for Sixth Ward alderman of Evanston Mark Tendam takes his dog out on long walks to help him introduce himself to voters. Great idea.
Margarita's husband demands access to dog
The estranged husband of a Dutch princess is suing her for "parental access" to his dog Paco or a fine of €500 (about $650) a day she keeps Paco away. (The average monthly salary in the Netherlands is around €2500.)
Dog survives 150ft fall
Hugo the English Setter suffered only a cut tongue after falling off a cliff onto a beach in New Yorkshire while chasing a seagull.

posted by lia at 12:44 PM
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February 10, 2005

welcome to the dog house!

This has been over a year in the making, but hello and welcome to Puptastic! My name is Lia (you may or may not know me from my four year-old blog, cheesedip.com) and along with my friend Ranjit (whom you may or may not know from his decade-old site moonmilk), we'll be sharing my favorite dog-related links, stories, photos and other things here for your enjoyment.

A few years before we even met, both our dogs were featured in super duper cool San Francisco illustrator Michael Wertz' Dog Blog project, in which he drew 100 dogs in just about as many days; my pup Jarvis is #67 and Ranjit's Tikko is #94! Both pictures went on to win American Illustration prizes, but guess which one is on the front page of Wertz's portfolio site Wertzateria and also available as an ecard?

Not that we're competing or anything...

Um.

Oh and many thanks to the amazing Judith Zissman for introducing us and coming up with the name Puptastic, and to the fabulous Heather Champ for the encouragement!

posted by lia at 11:07 PM
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dogs are a plus, not a minus!

I got a kick out of reading last week's Ask Dog Lady column, and I suspect anyone who's ever dated a rabidly non-dog person will too. Here's an excerpt from Micca's letter:

I've been dating a guy for a year now that is so crazy about his dog. His office at work has the dog's pictures all over and in every corner. He also has the dog's portrait hanging on the wall of his house, framed pictures on many tables and he carries a snapshot in his wallet. He spends hours walking his dog on weekdays regardless how busy he is at work. And he gives more time walking the dog on weekends when he's off from work. Sometimes even though he's already been with the dog the whole day, he will still go back to his house after we have a dinner date just to walk the dog (again) before he can stay at my place.
He also makes comments how important that dog is to his life. I think all this is too much. Is there any chance his unusual love and attachment to his dog can be changed?

And here's a bit from Dog Lady's reply:

Micca, your aversion to dogs is an insurmountable boundary preventing you from having an intimate relationship with any dog-keeping guy. It doesn't make you a bad person, just a woman who prefers not weaving dog fur into the daily routines. People who have dogs love their animals and want to include them in the warp and woof of their social lives. Your boyfriend must wish you could effortlessly join him and the dog on their epic walks, or allow his pet to spend a night over at your place.

I think Dog Lady's first sentence is right on the money, not a surprise when you consider my first rule of dating is "love me, love my dog". I don't think I'd ever want to spend a great deal of my time with someone who was only willing to have me without Jarvis around -- we're a package deal.

Have you ever dated someone afraid of dogs or someone who hated dogs? And how did that go? Share your story in the comments!

P.S. There are a bunch of dating sites specifically targeted at pet owners, I can't speak from experience but DateMyPet.com is the one I've heard bandied about the most. Basic membership is free and paid is $9.95 a month.

posted by lia at 10:54 PM
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February 09, 2005

dog show party 2005

The 2005 Westminster Dog Show is next week, February 14 and 15 here in New York. Tickets to the show are more than a little expensive so I've never even thought of going. I've gotten used to watching the finals on tv at home on my couch, but this year I think I might just head down to the Lower East Side for Dog Show Party:

From their website: "Dog Show Party is a fast-paced multi-media and performance event that runs concurrently with the last night of judging at the Westminster Dog Show. As the actual dog show takes place at Madison Square Garden, a live telecast is projected onto a huge screen at Tonic. DSP performers add to the electric energy of the night with expert commentary, live music, dance performances, games and contests. All party attendees need to bring is their love of K-9's and the absurd."

Dog Show Party
Tuesday, Feb 15
7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
Tonic, 107 Norfolk (between Delancey & Rivington)
$10.00

posted by lia at 07:07 PM
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February 08, 2005

animal planet's puppy bowl

As always, I spent this past Super Bowl Sunday at a friend's apartment, clearly there for the free food and socializing and not for the football. Would that I'd known about Animal Planet's stroke of genius counterprogramming, The Puppy Bowl:

Three hours of cute puppies (are there any other kind?) playing with toys in a little stadium, set to soft music! And with the noble goal of getting viewers to adopt animals from shelters, even.

I hope Animal Planet does Puppy Bowl II next year, but if you can't wait that long you can preorder The Puppy Bowl on DVD from their online store for $9.95, it ships March 15th.

posted by lia at 07:01 PM
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February 04, 2005

can dogs think?

Natural History Magazine this month contains a review of a couple of new books: How Dogs Think: Understanding the Canine Mind by Stanley Coren, and If Dogs Could Talk: Exploring the Canine Mind by Vilmos Csányi. It's an interesting article, even if it doesn't answer the question any more than the books do. Can dogs think? Who knows?

The philosopher Daniel Dennett speculated about animal minds and the evolution of consciousness in his book Kinds of Minds: Towards an Understanding of Consciousness. I liked his idea that consciousness isn't something that you either have or not. Instead, there are different kinds and degrees of consciousness. It seems reasonable to say that a dog is sort of conscious and a little bit intelligent. Even if he eats poop.

posted by ranjit at 12:59 AM
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February 03, 2005

sky dogs!

Exploring the skydog tag on flickr.

posted by ranjit at 11:39 PM
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February 02, 2005

musher's secret

One thing that always surprises me about winter in New York is how many dogs are perfectly happy to wear booties out in the snow, like my pal Ego the Great Pyrenees:

I tried putting Jarvis in booties twice our first year here: both times it took me 45 minutes to get them all on him at the same time, another fifteen to convince him it was ok to even try to move his feet, and just five for him to permanently lose one in a snow bank! He loves to go on long walks when it's cold out but the nasty chemicals people use to keep the sidewalks from icing up burn his feet, so for our first few snowy weeks in the city I pretty much had to carry him to and from the dog run. And then someone told me about this stuff:

Musher's Secret is "an extremely dense wax-based invisible barrier cream to protect paws" that is non-toxic, non-allergenic and non-staining. All you have to do is slick a bit of it onto your pup's pads, and voila! Your dog can walk all she wants in the winter without you ever have to worry about chemicals stinging her paws or painful balls of ice forming between her pads. You can even use it in the summer when the concrete is boiling to protect her feet from blistering or cracking!

JB Pet offers the 60g jar on Amazon for just $9.95, the perfect size and price to try out this miracle product. Jarvis approves of it and we're sure your dog will too!

posted by lia at 11:47 PM
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derek powazek is dog crazy

If you've been noodling around the web for any length of time chances are you've already run across one of Derek Powazek's many projects, like Fray, the magazine of true stories he's been running since 1996, or his photoblog Ephemera.

All of his work on there is beautiful, of course, but I find his dog portraits to be especially arresting, each one just bursting with the individual personality of the pup. I love this one of usually sassy Chieka Chiquita Banana Champ, caught unawares:

Ephemera has a special section called Dog Crazy, where you can purchase lovely full color calendars and even a book of his dog photos. If you live in or around San Francisco, he's available to shoot custom portraits of your four-legged friend.

posted by lia at 04:23 PM
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February 01, 2005

a call to arms

Something in Daniel Terdiman's recent Wired piece, "Folksonomies Tap People Power", really bugs me and if you're reading this I suspect it might get you too:

If the photo-sharing site Flickr is any indication, the world of digital photographers is dominated by cat people.
Dog owners would probably object. But because of Flickr's tagging system, which allows the photographers or other users to assign identifying tags to most photos on the service, we know that Flickr hosts 23,081 images tagged with "cat" or "cats" and only 17,463 with "dog" or "dogs."

As both the dog person and avid Flickr user that I am, these numbers make me feel sad, perhaps even sadder than Jarvis in a t-shirt:

Clearly, Flickr's system was not set up to motivate a feline-canine supremacy contest.

Excuse me, but I beg to disagree.

Fellow dog-loving Flickrers, this is a call to arms! Take, upload and tag as many photos of dogs as you can! At least one a day if that's possible, but more is always better. We might've lost the battles so far, but together we will win the war.

[ via Waxy.org ]

posted by lia at 05:08 PM
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