Good Bloggie!

Have you ever noticed your Frenchie watching the TV along with you? And not just because there is a dog or cat on the screen? We’ve noticed this behavior for years in our guys. (Lucy has this thing for a younger Mel Gibson.)

Found some very interesting research which determined short-nosed dogs see differently than long-nosed dogs. A short-nosed dog’s eyes are shaped more like a human’s and they have a visual field more in-line with ours. It all deals with the retina and whether a dog’s eye has vision cells in a cluster (like ours) or in a visual streak (like a hunting dog).

For a more in-depth “look” at this topic you can read these articles.
“Arizona Republic” article
“Catalyst” article
Karger research article “Brain, Behavior, and Evolution”

So if your short-nosed dog could be in-tune with what’s on the screen, you have to wonder, do dog food commercials make them as hungry as fast-food commercials do for humans?

The Mighty Texas Dog Walk, that is!

This Saturday, April 14 is the 9th Annual Mighty Texas Dog Walk and we are looking forward to it. The walk is a three-mile walk for the benefit of the Texas Hearing and Service Dogs foundation. It also competes for the Guinness World Book of Records largest dog walk. The record was taken away by the Brits last year. We hope to help bring that record back home to Texas.

The Austin French Bulldog Play Group is getting together with dog strollers and ice. (In case you are wondering how well a Frenchie can put up with such a long walk.) Our guys are pretty good with long walks, as long as the weather is cool and they get breaks. Saturday’s high is predicted to be 68°F, and the walk starts at 9 AM. Perfect Frenchie walking weather. (Glad it wasn’t last weekend. It was sleeting and snowing, in April, in Central Texas! Perfect Husky walking weather.)

If you want more info, or want to be in the Walk, please visit the website:
www.servicedogs.org/dogwalk07/index.html

If you miss the online registration deadline, you can still sign up the morning of the Walk on location. It will just cost you five more dollars. ($25 instead of $20.)

See ya there!

Followup:
Didn’t break the world’s record, but the walk did break a fundraising record. Over $80,000 raised for the training and care of service dogs. And Cocoa had a great time. She loves long walks and the weather was nice and cool.