Happy Birthday Bella

Hello Furiends,

It's my birthday month.  We are celebrating big.  I've just hit double digits.  I am 10 years old.  Don't be fooled because I can assure you with all confidence that 10 is still very much puppy like.

 What do you get a doggie that already has a couple toys.  What's that Mom?  Ok, Ok, so I may have more like a zillion toys.  But you can never have too many right? 

I love these toys made my Hartz they are launchers.  We call them sling chickens because they have a rubber tubing that allows you to launch them like a sling shot.  It's crazy fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then I got this cute little love bug with lots of appendages to rip off.  Uhhhhh, I mean play with :)

Anyone notice one antennae is already missing?

Because I am the  Princess.  I got some new bling.

So for anyone that is wondering 10 is not old.  I've kept Mom hopping all weekend playing with me almost non stop.  We've played fetch and tug and tug and fetch and interactive puzzle games.

I'm pretty sure this is still the face of a young pup.

I think they should rename this age group from Geriatric to Gergogogo.

Licks and Wags,
Bella
 
PeeS:  Sweet Pea says not to worry she was not left out of the festivities. 

 

Book Review ~ Through a Dog's Eyes

Hi Furiends,

This is a first time ever for us here at It's a Wonderful Dog's Life.  We have never attempted to do a book review before.  We don't usually let our Mom have full rein of the blog.  She does the typing for us, but she can be very long winded so we try not to allow her full access to our blog.  We don't want to put our furiends to sleep ;)

Mom has been following Mango's Great Adventures and then Dexter the Wonder Dog along with, Honey the Great Dane, Urban Hounds, Dog is God in Reverse, and they have all done book reviews and inspired Mom in many ways.  So she thought she wanted to give it a try.

Here we go...............................................Green font will equal Mom.

I have bookshelves full of unread dog books and thought what better way to get the motivation flowing than to write a review for each one.  I have a difficult time sitting down to read a book as it feels like I'm "wasting" time.  I usually feel guilty I've set there and read when there were other things I could have been doing.  Miss Bella is nudging me to get on with the topic so without further delay here is a review for  Through a Dog's Eyes by Jennifer Arnold.

Mom:  The book was an easy read.  It was a nice enjoyable book. The book is written by the owner of Canine Assistants.  She interlaces her own personal story, her dogs, and the story of recipients dogs into the book.  They train and provide service dogs to those that need them.  The only thing I didn't like was that they breed dogs for the program and only rescue a small few.  I wish all dogs for these programs would come from shelters to help save more lives. I feel that Labs and Golden Retrievers have been unfairly labeled as the "perfect" dog and therefore may be underestimated and put into too many unfortunate situations because the naive dog owner may not recognize the need to still be responsible and cautious in the situations they leave these breeds of dogs in.

Bella:  Mom, stay on topic.  Remember....the book review?

Mom: Bella, I'm sorry and apologize.  I will try to stay on topic here.  There are many, many more positives to this book.  I do like how they realized the error and cruelty in harsh force based training techniques and revised their program and strategy to include only positive training techniques which are still used today.

She spends a lot of time on how dogs may think and see the world.  I like the real life stories that support these thoughts.  I like the idea that dogs think in pictures instead of words since they lack vocabulary.  She suggests you read Temple Grandin's book Animals in Translation.  Which is on my shelf awaiting the pages to be turned.

I like that they debunk the whole dogs should be treated as wolves and the dominance hype.  The author points this out w/ an alpha wolf feeding his pack family.  He feeds the female with pups first, the teenage and older pups second, the alpha female and then the male ate.

I enjoyed the explanations of  how dogs see, hear and smell with related stories from the authors own dog and a recipients dog.  This really makes you want to try harder to see the world through your dog's senses to help make their world more comfortable and enjoyable.  It also made me a little envious of their supreme abilities.  To hear and smell like they do.

The author briefly discusses the marvelous ability  of dogs to be pre-cognitive and foretell future events like seizures which appear up to an hour after the alert and before any brain activity can be detected by modern medicine.  As well as telepathy and ESP with a story to back up this idea.

The author discusses the emotions dogs experience and how they experience them more strongly than humans.  The example being grief and grieving to death over a loss.  We can console ourselves, but dogs feel emotion without the tempering filter of higher thought.  That is really an eye opener and a huge thought to absorb and process.  

It's amazing how acute a dog's ability is to read body language.  With some of the recipients these dogs go to they have to be able to follow instructions from just eye movements.  Dogs are masters at reading body language.  

One of my favorite parts of the book are the Dogisms on page 168-172.  I was going to write them out here , but decided I will just let you all read them and see which ones you like best.

I would highly recommend this book.   I think most dog lovers will really enjoy it.

Bella: Whew, I finally got my blog back.  I hope everyone will enjoy our first book review and as long as it doesn't interfere with any of my walkies, play time, Mom snuggles or food then I hope Mom will continue to read more books and share them with us. 

Licks & Wags,
Bella & Sweet Pea  

 

Where in the World is Bella & Sweet Pea ~ Part 3

Hello Furiends,

We have had some very good guesses. We are delighted everyone is having fun trying to solve our puzzle.  We are going to give you a few more hints. 

Hint #15

Let me help you with that toe jam

Hint #16

Squirrel?

Hint #17

Are  you sure there is no bear?

Licks & Wags,
Bella & Sweet Pea

Where in the World is Bella & Sweet Pea? - Part 2

Hello Furiends,

We have had some good guesses on our whereabouts.  Those that guessed mountains are correct, but we are looking for something a little more specific.  Greyhounds Can Sit is correct we are not in New Zealand :)  If we were we would most definitely stop by for a visit and give Beryl and Frankie a giant hug.  You would have to keep an eye on our mom I'm certain she would try and sneak Frankie home with her.  Ever see that episode of  I Love Lucy where Lucy is sneaking a big chunk of cheese home disguised as a baby? Now picture that cheese as Frankie, BOL

Here are some more hints of our wanderings and galavantings arounds.

 Hint #8

I think I know why Mom and Dad have had sick tummies ;)

Hint #9

We needed steady/blinky bling collars for night walks

and blinky/steady clip on buttons for visibility

Hint #10

That's a very large and weird looking doggie.

Hint #11

This odd spinning thing that lights up has mom mesmerized.  It is really pretty when it's  dark outside, but then the photo would have been all blurry.

Hint #12

Are all those pressies for me?

Hint #13

Elevation 6,643  I'm not so  good with numbers, but that's really, really high.

Hint #14

Any ideas Where in the World Bella & Sweet Pea are?

Wags and Licks,
Bella & Sweet Pea

Where in the World are Bella & Sweet Pea?

Hello Furiends,

Would you like to play a game with us?

We are on an amazing adventure and we thought it would be fun to see if any of our furiends can guess where we are.

Where in the World are we?

Hint #1

I just wanna howl "Where the rest of the world's
Like a little bitty spot
I ain't comin' down, no, never I'm not
High on a mountain top
High on a mountain top"

 Hint #2

Hint #3

Check it out.  Two drools and two leaves.  Talented!

Hint #4

Ice Cream! Ice Cream! I want Ice Cream!!!

Hint #5

I like to move it, move it :)

 Hint #6

Hint #7

Wags and Licks,
Bella & Sweet Pea

Michigan Adventure

Hello Furiends,

Over the Labor Day Holiday we went hiking in Michigan.  We discovered that Motel 6 is not the only pet friendly chain.  Red Roof Inn allows dogs to spend the night too.  We tried out the one in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  It was very nice and clean.  We would definitely stay with them again. 

We were going to go to the beach, but quickly learned the beach is not the place to go on the "last" summer holiday.  We gladly found much less crowded pet friendly options.  Which were places we had on our to do list anyway.  We are so very happy with the parks we explored and did not miss going to the beach.

First stop was the Park County Dog Park.  It was fun and we had the whole place to ourselves.  Really, who wouldn't love to go enjoy a local dog park on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon?  We enjoyed it and had an off leash opportunity to take care of business after our car ride.

Next stop Stu Visser Trails.  There was really green thick water here, but the trails were really nice and covered so we didn't get any bugs which makes Mom and Dad happy.

 

Time to head toward our hotel in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  On the way we found a Big Boy restaurant where Mom and Dad pigged out on burgers and milkshakes.  Of course, we got burgers too.

Time to get a good nights sleep so we can hike, sniff, pee, sniff, pee and pee all day tomorrow.

 Our walkies were delayed while Mom and Dad piged out again, but this time it was breakfast at Denny's.  We got eggs and bacon, yumm!

Today promises lots of new explorations like Millennium Park in Grand Rapids.  It even has a beach area for humans.  I'm still unsure why anyone would get enjoyment out of willingly jumping into water, but then again humans do some silly things.  This park has paved trails around pounds and the lake.  

 It has a bridge that goes over a road and you can watch the cars drive by underneath your feet.  On that bridge is where I met a new little teeny tiny furiend.

 He was very friendly and allowed me to gently say hello to him.  I call him Wooly Worm.  Mom says as a child she was told by her parents and grandparents you can tell what the winter is going to be like by the color of the wooly worm.  She thinks this color means a mild winter. 

Next park is Hemlock Crossing.  This park has natural trails and was very peaceful and has a lot of trails to choose from.  We really liked this park.  Dirt and leaves beneath your toes is much more comfortable than cement or gravel.

 Lets go this way

 Time for a little rest to take in the beautiful scenery and quiet peacefulness of the woods.

 After all the hype we had heard about Holland, Michigan's Dutch Village we had to stop and sniff around.

 No worries we did NOT go sniff around the chocolate shop.  All kinds and any kinds of chocolate is a NO, NO for all doggies.

There were some really pretty flowers that offered a great photo shoot opportunity.

Who's the most beautiful Queen in the land?...........................ME! Who else?  :)

The Dutch Village wasn't very appealing to us so we decided to wonder on before we lost too much more day light and take in another park.

Our feetsies loved this park too.  Riley Trails is another park with natural wooded dirt path trails.

And lots of peemail.

 That must have been a very tall doggie.  They left an interesting message.  Mom made me leave before I got to the end of the story.  That was just rude.  I would never interrupt her ;)  OK so maybe I do, but only when I want to eat, go potty, play, cuddle. You know all the important things.

Whenever there is a surface of just about any kind I can do my "table" command I show Mom I still know what it means.  I learned "table" during our agility classes.  Mom thinks it's fun to get pictures of me atop different objects.

After an exhausting day of hiking and posing for photos we stopped at this cute little apple orchard and restaurant, Crane's Pie Pantry Restaurant and Bakery.  We did not have a meal there, but Mom and Dad tried a slice of pie, a sundae, apple butter gelato, and apple cider donuts.  Here's a link to their menu if anyone would like to view it.





We got to try something very special that we had never ever tasted before.....Gelato.  It's amazing and so very yummy.  It got all paws up from both of us.

I think this was a pawsome adventure and would gladly go again if Mom and Dad ever wants to take us back there. 

Licks & Wags,
Bella

5 Things I'm Thankful For Friday

5 Things I'm Thankful For

Pretties (flowers)

Walks

Sling Balls

Stuffies

Blankies

Wiggles & Licks,

Bella