Merry Christmas from my friend Jeanne Haight and her sweet Poodles Morgen and Cole! Wishing all of my Poodle friends a lovely Christmas and a very Happy New Year! Melanie

Some time ago I subscribed to the free emails from Wysong entitled "Wysong's 100 Pet Truths". Wysong was the first pet food manufacturing company, many years ago, that started publishing information about the myth that dog food manufacturers constantly marketed concerning "complete and balanced". Dr. Randy Wysong published a video and numerous written materials about the importance of feeding fresh food, not just commercial pet food, to our animals. As the years have passed, my confidence in this company has increased. Recently I asked, and was granted, permission to reprint these "pet truths" so from time to time I have shared them on my Knowing Dogs blog . Today's post from Wysong contained such great information that I decided to share it with my Poodle friends. If you would like to receive free informational emails like this from Wysong, visit their website: www.wysong.net . TRUTH 47: AAFCO FEEDING TRIALS DO NOT PROVE WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ...

I was thrilled when Charlene Dunlap of Canine Horizons agreed to let me introduce her new addition to her Poodle family. If you have followed the blog, you have seen journal entries from in the past from the handsome and talented Joey (Kitsue's Calypso Kid). The adorable young red and white boy is Joey's new little brother Scotty (Kitsue's Calypso Kid). Congratulations Charlene and thanks for sharing these photos with my readers! As you can see, Scotty is already learning to pose for photos, both outdoors and inside in the training building where he is already training for future movie shots! For more information about the incredible training Charlene does with her dogs, including movie work, or more information about the history of parti-colored Poodles, please visit her website, www.caninehorizons.com. If you would like to just enjoy the adventures and training of the Parti boys, you can enjoy this on the second Canine Horizons website by clicking here: Canine H...

I could write a ten page article about why no therapy in the world is quite as good as Poodle therapy, but I think this photo of Rick Miles with his Poodle Houdini says it all! Have you ever rocked a human baby until it fell asleep on your chest? It feels a lot like that, except softer and curlier!

Just as I was posting the "mid-air" photos of Jeanne's Poodle group at the dog park, she was sending me this photo taken today at the park. The dark brindle pup is Jeanne's boy "Cole". Jeanne says: "Here is a photo of an intense Cole and his friend, Beamish, who also loves to chase tennis balls. My friend, Dorothy (whom Beamish owns) makes them sit before she sends a tennis ball flying from the "chuckit." Usually, Cole will sit and then start to scoot backwards to get a head start, but this time I caught him being good! We had 16 Poos this morning. Life is good with a Poo! The 16 Poodles this morning is about average for us.........we've had 32 (I think is the correct number) on a day I wasn't able to make it. But it's not uncommon to have between 15 and 25 Poodles join us on The Poodle Walk at the Park. *G* You are so right Jeanne, life is good with a Poo! Sure wish we had a well run dog park in our area, with ...

I admit...I've never been a fan of dog parks, at least not the unsupervised kind where anyone can come and let their dog run off-leash. When you've been a dog trainer as long as I have, you've heard about a few dog park nightmares (in fact I even SAW a few back when I lived in North Carolina, in a dog park at a city park, which was totally unsupervised. So my Standard Poodle girl, as much as I know she would like to give it a whirl, has never been to a dog park. She has however, had a lot of fun playing with those of her own kind at Poodle parties!) But.. back to dog parks, if you find a good one, where you can SAFELY allow your dog to interact with other friendly dogs, it can provide extreme fun for your Poodles, especially the Standard sized ones. My Poodle fancier friend Jeanne Haight takes her two Standards to a safe dog park every week, and she is fortunate enough to have a close friend who lives nearby and brings her Poodles as well, so the whole "Poodle crew...

Remember the song, "Don't Worry, Be Happy".....don't worry be happy now! This song started playing in my mind when I saw the big grin on the Poodle boy in this photo that my friend Chris L'Abbe shared with me. As we get older, cold weather can tempt us to just stay inside and hibernate as much as possible until Spring. But most Poodles don't feel this way at all. Think about how many times you have seen a Poodle with the "zoomies"--running huge laps around the yard when the weather starts to cool off. Isn't it funny too how if we have a pile of leaves that we raked, Poodles will, just like kids, make sure they head right for them while they are zooming! One thing that has always interested me is that I often see my older dogs zooming around the yard as the leaves begin to fall, even though it is inevitable that many of them are experiencing more arthritis pain due to weather changes but still, even though they may not be able to "zoo...

Many friends from a Poodle email list have written this morning, to express their sympathy on the loss of my Dad. It is so amazing that people I have never even met care enough to drop a line of kindness...Poodle people are, like their dogs, very special. A special thank you to photographer Rick Miles (a/k/a the Poodle Joy photographer)for sending me this bouquet of flowers...am posting them here in memory of my Dad, Charles Farrell Travis, who loved me despite my dog related addictions. We found a Standard Poodle when I was in the 3rd grade, he was with us just a few weeks, but I think he is the reason I fell in love with the breed. Daddy named him "de Gaulle" after the famous Frenchman and Daddy would let him ride to the post office with us on Saturday mornings. Dad worked constantly, but whenever he was in town, he would take me with him often on weekend errands. Dad bought my younger half-sisters a Standard Poodle when they were little, "Mooshka" lived to be...

It has been 4 years now, since we lost our lovely Lizzie...she was the sweetest girl EVER. Here she is when we were playing "foot up" for a photo shoot years ago: Several of my friends have lost dogs recently, so I wanted to share a link to an article I wrote about my experience after I lost Lizze: Losing Special Friends Love and sympathy to all of you are missing a special friend tonight (Julie, this is especially for you, re your sweet Ginger--I have owned precious mixed breeds that were just as priceless to me as my Lizzie. I know your Golden mix Ginger was one of these gems).

Raggedy Andy is just six months old, but he has a heart condition that will greatly limit the length of his life. His breeder is in Northern New Hampshire and would like to simply give this special boy to someone who can love him for whatever time he has left. It would be wonderful if someone had the funds to take him to a veterinary specialist school, to see if there is something more that could be done for him, but his regular vet says that sweet Andy was just born with a "bad ticker" so he may simply have only a short time to live and be loved. This boy is still young, birthdate in March of 2011. He is a Moyen sized Poodle, which is a smaller sized Standard Poodle. If you can help by offering him a forever home, please email me at knowingdogs@yahoo.com and I will send you contact information for his breeder. If you love Poodles but cannot add another to your family, yet you still want to help Andy--perhaps you could donate to help get him to a veterinary school just...

I have been under the weather so am behind on posting Joey's journal but wanted to take the time to share this lovely photo that his Mom Charlene Dunlap sent me today--what a gorgeous pup! Joey has been very busy recently training for his movie career, hope to share more with you soon. ps to Charlene, Joey's Mom---your grooming is so lovely, as always!

Joey's Journal - August 27, 2011 Hello Everybody ~~ hope y'all (Southern dog-talk) are doing well. Well, all we're getting from "Irene" is light rain and a little bit of wind. Grandmama Sue had told me about "hurry-canes" and I knew just what to do -- yesterday, I hurried and hurried and chased her away. Mom says I'm a hero. Dad sold his BIG truck yesterday and Mom and we dogs waited in the van to take him home. Mom took this picture thru the window just before the rain started. (Dad is the one in the green shirt and wearing a baseball cap.) Goodbye BIG truck. Today, when it stops raining, we're going to go get some carpet to use for my next chroma-key shots. (Dad hopes it will work better than the painted room.) In order for me to look my best, Mom says I have to have my feet and face shaved this weekend and then a bath on Monday. What we actors must do for our craft!! Next time, Mom, can I play a scruffy character? Lov...

Joey's Journal - August 26, 2011 Hi Everyone ~~ did you miss me? All day yesterday, Dad was with people who were interested in buying his big truck -- so all day Mom and we Poodles just "waited". Well, Dad sold the truck and this morning we went to a notary where Mom and Dad signed the truck title over to the new owner. Now, Dad can devote ALL of his time and attention to ME. Here I am in the office - "waiting" Here I am on Mom's office desk "waiting" with Sydney. And here's Jyah in the office "waiting" . . . (I tried to get in this picture too but Mom said "Enough is enough" - whatever that means). I heard on the news that a BIG "her a cane" is supposed to come by here tomorrow. So, depending on how big she is and how much damage she causes, I may not be writing for awhile. Hope everyone is safe where you are ~~ Love, Joey ps from Melanie---Joey, hope you and yours are kept safe through the ...

Joey's Journal - August 24, 2011 Bark, bark ~~ It's still really hot here doing the day so we usually do our active stuff in the morning andhe evening after the sun goes down. Here I am last evening waiting for Dad to get the Mule ready so we can go for a ride in the woods. Notice that I'm riding in the back with Jyah and Sydney. That lasted most of the ride. Mom is letting me decide when I want to finally ride back there. After dinner last evening, we played a scenting game and I was REALLY GREAT at it!! (Note from Charlene: this is how I taught Jyah and Sydney to learn to search for different scents http://www.caninehorizons.com/Scent_One.html but Joey is learning it at four-months-old, and he is AMAZING!) The jar with baked liver inside is on the bottom bookshelf next to the blue books. Joey found it and automatically sat. The little genius! ("Sit" is the signal I train the dogs to use to tell me they've found the scent). Second pictur...

That Joey, his journal never ceases to amaze me! I hope his "crew" of photographers and trainers are well paid, as he sure does keep them busy (but I heard a rumor that they are VOLUNTEERS, that Joey has talked his human parents into doing all this, can you imagine?) Don't you just love Joey? Here is what he is up to today: Joey's Journal - August 22, 2011 Hi, Everyone ~~ Hey, Cuzzin Shea, I like spaghetti as much as you do! Mom and Dad had that for dinner last night -- only they told me it was "worms". I like worms so much and gobble them down so quickly that Mom had to take several pictures just to get one where you could actually see the worms. Today, after going to PetSmart, we ate at Qdido's Mexican Grill which is in the same shopping center. It was really hot outside - 85 in the shade - but there were lots of people coming and going so we had loads to look at -- and, oh boy, the smells! Thought you might like to see how we do green-sc...

Joey's Journal - August 21, 2011 How are you all today? Cool, I hope. It's gradually getting cooler here and we can stay out longer in the mornings. I've only ever known hot outside weather so I'm looking forward to when the outside is "air-conditioned" too. We're resting now 'cause Mom and Dad are going to shoot more green-screen video of me later so I thought I'd show you what I did this morning. You will note, I'm sure, that as a movie star I have puparazzi constantly following me around. Here I am going over the top of the "straight maze" and going down through the incline tunnel. Mom and Dad don't put me on things - they wait until I want to try it on my own. Mom keeps telling me, "You're just a baby, you can't do this one yet." So, that's the one I want to do! Mom and Dad were astonished when I jumped up the separated platforms this morning -- and also when I jumped back down. (Luckil...

Joey's Journal - August 20, 2011 Hello Everyone -- well, we've been pretty busy here. Yesterday, we started shooting my first movie. Mom says I'm a natural actor, and I'm only four months old!! She says she loves that I'm so expressive . . . I even do "head tilts" just like my big brother Jyah. (Mom is ecstatic about that!) Here's a still from video we took this morning where I'm carrying a "library" book away from the Chatham County Bookmobile. Sadly, the bookmobile was demobilized last month due to county budget cuts. Happily, Dad found where it was parked and we got some video shots. For the pictures below, I was on a green-painted floor in front of a green-painted wall and Dad shot video of me doing different things that mom was telling me to do. Then Mom put these shots into some video clips and chroma-keyed the green out so that it looks like I'm really in these different places. Mom says there is quite a bit more ...

Hi Everyone! First of all, thank you, thank you, thank you to Charlene Dunlap for allowing me to share Joey's Journal on this blog. I hope to catch up with his journal entries this weekend so that more of his engaging photos and adventures can be shared with you. Secondly, I wanted to make sure that Poodle Blogger readers know about my other blog, which is full of articles concerning dog training and dog rescue, as well as personal stories people have shared about the special dogs in their lives. I would love to have a story about your favorite dog to share on either of my sites. Coming soon...short video clips that anyone can access for free on the Knowing Dogs blog site, to show you how to teach your dog basic obedience commands, as well as how to solve common problems such as pulling on leash, jumping up and playbiting. Perfect for busy people who just don't quite have time to go to obedience classes, or for dog owners on a budget who may not currently be able to affo...

Joey's Journal - August 15, 2011 What a GREAT morning I had!! After breakfast, we all went to the lake for an hour. (The lake is about 12 minutes from our house . . . by car.) Here I am heading out to "see" ~~ And, pouncing on a "floatie." (Mom has lots more pictures I could send but she said not to bore you.) When we got home, we all had a hose shower and a good towelling. Then we lazed in the sun to dry out. (I'm gonna take a long nap after lunch. ) More later ~~ Love, Joey