Book Review – Sally Goes to the Beach

When it’s bedtime in our house, I trudge upstairs with the boys and lie down in Preemie Feet’s room. He is put to bed first, so I listen to his books before getting up and moving to Little Feet’s room for chapter books. Preemie Feet has been reading the Sally series of books and they are my favorite, by far. Stephen Huneck, artist and author, creates these great books based on his dog, Sally.



Sally has a big personality and the Sally hardcover books we take out of the library are just as large. Filled with humor and Sally’s escapades in this human world, the author captures the fun and laughable attitude of dog. The illustrations are printed from woodcuts that Mr. Huneck creates in his studio in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, a beautiful part of the US called the NorthEast Kingdom.



Sally Goes to the Beach describes a trip by ferry to a beach community by a group of dogs and focuses on Sally’s experiences on her trip. Preemie Feet frequently giggles throughout the book, which is a magical sound. And each page is a pleasure for the eyes. If you haven’t read these books to your kids or your dog, please do so immediately.

Stephen Huneck has his own website, where he tells his own amazing story, gives you a peek into the beautiful NorthEast Kingdom and sells prints of his art. You can find him here.

Chesapeake Bay Retriever Week – A Little History

For the wrap-up of Chessie Week, I thought I’d give you a history of the breed.

An English brig shipwrecked off the coast of Maryland in 1907. The crew was rescued, as well as two Newfoundland puppies named Sailor and Canton. They were bred to local retrievers, including the English Otter Hound, Flat-Coat and Curly-Coated Retriever. The Chesapeake Bay Retriever was created, one of the few American-bred dogs.

Chessies were well-known for hunting waterfowl in rough and icy waters. We could be asked to retrieve hundreds of ducks in a day. We could be in the icy waters of the Chesapeake Bay for many hours retrieving and tossing them over the side of the boat with very little rest. Gives you a little snapshot into how much exercise we need, doesn’t it? As a result of being in the water for so long, we started to think instead of just obey. Perhaps the reason why we have the reputation of being stubborn…

That’s just a little of Chessie history. We have our unique traits, just like most breeds. if you’re interested in a hands-on experience with all different kinds of breeds, you can visit Meet the Breeds. This is an AKC event at the Javits Center in NYC on October 17 and 18. There will be 166 breeds of dog (lots of cat breeds too, if you like that sort of thing), including the Chesapeake. Go, pet our wavy fur and perhaps, fall in love.

Thanks for hanging out for the week and celebrating my heritage! Woof!

Chesapeake Bay Retriever Week – The Happy Growl

A classic dog smile… we Chessies know how to smile like that as you can see above. But did you know that we also have a Chesapeake-only “smile” that can flip out the uninitiated?

This “smile” is toothy and comes with all kinds of vocalizations, which can include a growl or two. Each Chessie has a unique “smile,” just as humans do. If you don’t know this about our breed, it could seem as if we’d like to eat you for lunch. But it’s our way of showing happiness. Even when we aren’t smiling, we can be very vocal. A deep and throaty “roo-roo-roo” means “What’s up? Where have you been? I’m so happy to see you!” It always makes the humans laugh.

I give my smile only when I have a toy in my mouth, so you don’t see my teeth, but you can hear my happy growls. Many a visitor has recoiled to these noises, but they soon see I’m just a bucket of love. I don’t have any media to show you my smile, but here’s a little clip of another Chessie showing his lovely teeth, enjoy!

Chesapeake Bay Retriever Week – Chessie, Get Your Freak On!

**This post was originlly published January 29, 2009 and has been updated for this Chessie Week**

I haven’t really written about my particular breed yet, so I’ll share a little skinny on Chesapeake Bay Retrievers.

We love to swim and are known for something called “water freaking.” Any water that’s deep enough will do for swimming in circles, while splashing with our paws, snapping at the splash, and yipping with rowdy abandon! And if you call us while we’re freaking, it’s like we’re plugging our ears and saying “Lalalalalala-I can’t hear you-lalalalalala.”

Chessies can adopt this behavior as a bad habit, if humans don’t nip it in the bud. Sometimes there’s a gap between us learning to swim and finishing our basic training. That could be big trouble time. The solution is to tap into our retrieving work ethic. If we’ve got something to accomplish in the water, chances are we won’t freak. If you wait too long to give us a task like retrieving, we’ll use our independent Chessie minds and think up our freaky-deaky.

Bottom line, we need exercise, as all dogs do, for both of our mental well-being. Chessies have been bred to need activity more than some other breeds, so you have to get up and get out with us. Swimming is a great way to exhaust us into the sweet doggie oblivion of laying on your bed and woofing in our sleep. Don’t be afraid of the freaking. If it happens, there is no magic spell to snap us back to reality. Patience, my human, is all you need. And love.

Chesapeake Bay Retriever Week – Social Dog

Do you follow me? I’m @ScouttheDog on Twitter and I hang around Facebook on the RiverDog Prints page. Are you a fan?

With social media being all the rage, even dogs like me can have our own little part of the interwebs. How does that relate to being a Chessie? Roll with me homies…

My breed is fiercely loyal – we are a one family dog. We protect and love our family, whatever that may be. I’ve been raised with cats and kids, so I’ve been socialized to accept and love them. Socializing a dog means to introduce them to other dogs, animals and people. It can also mean to expose them to different social situations. When a dog is socialized, we remain calm and polite in most situations. It is essential to socialize Chesapeakes from the get-go of puppyhood. Our Chessie history has placed us with just one person, usually a hunter, and that mentality is ingrained in our independent brains.

When we meet another dog for the first time, we’ll make quick introductions (yeah, you know how we do it.) After that, it’s like the other dog doesn’t really exist. If the other dog wants to play, we’ll go along, but we’re always looking to see what our main peeps are doing. We won’t engage unless we’re the dominating kind.

Without socialization, meeting other dogs and humans can be a terrible experience. Chessies will either be excessively submissive or the completely obnoxious A-Dog. So, bring us out. Introduce us around and we’ll show you that quirky, silly and very active doggie that make humans marvel at our positive energy.

It’s Chesapeake Bay Retriever Week and it’s My Birthday!

I am eight years old today and as a way of celebrating, I’m featuring my breed all week on this here blog. Chesapeake Bay Retrievers are not as well known as say, Labradors, so I’m here to educate y’all on some of our great, and not so great, qualities.


Let’s kick off the week with how I look. I am 56, you know, and I think I look darn fine. But I want to talk about a Chessie’s characteristics.

See those green eyes above? As a puppy, chessies have either green or blue eyes which will eventually turn to a golden hazel. These eyes make it difficult to take indoor photos, as illustrated below in the before pic. But once those humans of yours figure out how to REALLY use the camera they have, you can get a nice representation of what a chessie’s eyes look like.

Frequently on walks, other humans will say “What a beautiful chocolate lab!” I’ve seen A-Dog and Shoes-on-the-Floor react differently each time to this misinformation. They used to get a little huffy and try explaining what breed I was and see how my hair is wavy in places. Then it moved to a quip, “She’s something like that.” Now they just smile. Do I get offended by some human’s ignorance of my breed? Not in the least. If I’m out for a walk and seeing other people and dogs, Dude! I’M OUT FOR A WALK! Who cares what people call me?

If you look closely, my coat is distinctive. We Chessies come in a variety of warm, earthy browns. But we all have this wavy look because we have a double coat. The top coat helps us repel water with its slightly oily texture and the undercoat stays kind of dry to help us swim in any temperature water. You can find me at any time of year swimming. It’s what I’m built for with my webbed feet and crazy desire for waterways. And yes, Chesapeake Bay Retrievers are named for that waterway in Maryland.



So, come on back all week for more fascinating tidbits about Chessies.

And Happy Birthday to me!

Inspire Me Cards: A Posing Guide for Dogs

There aren’t many things we love more here at RiverDog Prints than cards. Combine cards with photography that serves a function and NOW you’re talkin’!

Design Aglow, an online resource for information and products directed at professional wedding and portrait photographers, offers 50 cards for dog photographers to get just the right shot of their hairy subjects.

With beautiful photos taken by some of my favorite photographers, each card gives great advice to get your pup in a perfect pose.

You can drool over the cards here.

In the Doghouse

Originally published 11-12-08

The humans are so angry.

I can’t help myself… I’m a dirty dog.

Me and A-Dog have been out running for the past couple weeks. She takes me places where I can run free (as long as no one is there), because I run too fast for her. When she’s holding the leash, I need to summon all my patience to “run” at her pace. She lets me off when the coast is clear and we each do our own thing. That’s where I run into trouble.

As I’ve mentioned, dogs like things that smell. We don’t make a good or bad judgment about the smell; it’s just smell. I lose my mind a little in the presence of decomposition. You can snap me out of almost anything with the promise of a treat, but not when I smell poor little mousy, three days gone. I get a smell, then a smear, and if I’m really lucky, a roll. That’s when the shouting starts. It’s usually my name and NO! and COME NOW! This is my third mouse in as many weeks, so the words coming out of A-Dog’s mouth were a bit different. She was speaking so fast and loudly that all I heard was “gonna kick your barking a**!”

Needless to say, that didn’t happen. I got a bath and a fresh collar (the smear is always on my neck, like a fine perfume) and a lot of attitude from A-Dog. I’m acting as contrite as possible, but it looks like no ears rubs in my future.

So why? Why do we rub ourselves in death with such passion? The ancient instinct to mark our discovery to the pack is one theory. Masking our odor for hunting is another. Whatever the reason, I don’t think about doing it. I just do. And I only remember that I’m not supposed to do it, until after it’s done.

What can you take away from this? Either accept it as natural dog behavior or keep me on the leash and run faster. Here endeth the doggie lesson – woof!

Doggy Dining In Style

I’m getting older. The evidence is all over my chin (gray hair – yowzah!) And as we larger dogs age, it gets more difficult to eat from a bowl on the floor. Prop it up for us, please, and what better way to do that than with this stylish table from Richell.

Made of eco-friendly rubberwood, the platform can be raised or lowered to your dog’s specific height. I would appreciate snarfing my food out of these bowls on this lovely table.

It’s on sale here.

Another Giveaway on Phetched!

Okay, so I’m becoming a bit of a consumer as I age. Nothing crazy, mind you… I haven’t started wearing clothes (not that there’s anything wrong with that) or jewelry. But a new collar? Fo shizzle dizzle – gotta have that!

And Phetched is having a giveaway of Lupine collar and lead sets for 5 phetched.com readers. There are many great patterns and designs to make any dog and human happy. So, jump on over to Phetched by clicking here and make your neck snazzy. I’m choosing the Camo Chic design pictured below. It woofs that I’m a girl AND I mean business.

Thanks Phetched.com for having another great giveaway!