Dolce Vita Blog

Top 10 Worst Movie Dogs

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:58:16 -0800

Like every Darth has a Luke, and every yin has a yang, for every good movie dog put on celluloid, there is one really awful example of the breed. At least one. Here is our list of the worst movie dogs ever: 10. Frank: the alien dog from Men in Black 9. Toto: from the Wizard of Oz 8. Bruiser: from Legally Blonde 7. Buddy: from Air Bud 6. Underdog, Hooch and Beethoven: all from the movies of the same name 5. The Shaggy Dog: from the god-awful Tim Allen movie 4. Odie: from The Garfield movies 3. Scooby Doo: "live action" movie version only. Obviously Scooby Doo the cartoon dog was the greatest dog on TV. Ever. 2. Precious: from The Silence of the Lambs (super creepy!) 1. Frank, the alien dog from Men In Black. Yep, so bad we had to list him twice.

Top 10 Best Movie Dogs

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:57:46 -0800

10 Chomper: Stand By Me 9 Otis: the pug from Milo and Otis 8 Chance: from the Incredible Journey 7 Chomper: Stand By Me 6 Cody: the three-legged dog from The Life Aquatic. 5 Nanook and Thorn: from The Lost Boys 4 The Bumpus Hounds: A Christmas Story 3 Old Yeller: Old Yeller 2 Dog: Max's dog in Mad Max 2. 1 Old Dan and Little Ann: Where the Red Fern Grows Did we forget any? Write a comment below!

Pet (cafe) Society

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:26:45 -0800

Every evening Justin Rudd dines with his two English Bulldogs named Rosie and Riley at one of the many pet-friendly restaurants on Second Street in Belmont Shore, Long Beach, Calif. He is not alone. The outdoor areas along the sidewalks are filled with other doggie diners. Not to mention the after dinner strollers out window shopping and stopping off at the local pet bakery to pick up a treat for their dog before heading over to Starbucks to meet up with friends for a lattÃ©. There is no question about it â€” Americans are barking mad about their pets and this vignette is a mere slice of our new cafÃ© society lifestyle as cities like Chicago pass ordinances that allow dogs to accompany their owners in outdoor areas of restaurants, and states such as Florida write into the law that restaurants everywhere can opt for allow doggie dining if they choose. â€œIf youâ€™re going to take your dogs with you to restaurants and coffee shops, you have to be mindful of others at all times, says Rudd. â€œIf a restaurant is crowded on a particular night, weâ€™ll go somewhere else. And itâ€™s important that your dog is very well socialized around both people and other pets. I never let them beg at the table or feed them off my plate.â€ Read more...

Kids and Pets

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 11:02:40 -0800

There's just something so adorable about kids and pets. See 16 more pictures like this one on our Flickr page...

They Are All Bloodhounds Compared to Us

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 08:43:33 -0800

Everyone knows dogs have a better sense of smell than humans. But here at the Dolce Vita doggie blog, we always want to know not just what but why. Thanks to Newsday for the informative article giving us what we want:

Sniff sniff sniff. You can actually see a dog's nose hard at work, picking up a scent wafting through the air, following the invisible trail a rabbit left in the yard, or investigating your pants leg for evidence of a secret meeting with a cat. No one knows for sure how much more scent-sensitive dogs are than humans: a thousand times? Ten thousand? But what is known is that a dog's nose has many more odor receptors, and an olfactory (smell) center that takes up much more room in the brain. Human beings have about 5 million odor receptors, while dogs, depending on the breed, may have more than 220 million. The small human nose devotes only a postage stamp-sized area to odor receptors. The average dog nose has a mucous-y scent receptor area which, if spread out, would cover a Kleenex tissue. A dog's nose - moist on the outside, as well as the inside - acts as a magnet to scent molecules in the air and on the ground. Sniffing - a string of quick inhales and exhales - helps a dog rapidly identify a scent. Each deliberate sniff widens the dog's nostrils, allowing him to pull in more scent-laden air. According to researchers, a sniff also temporarily straightens the dog's nasal cavity, allowing odor molecules to proceed directly to receptors deeper in the nose. The contact between molecules and receptors generates nerve impulses, which travel along the olfactory nerves to the brain's huge smell center. Presto: Scent decoded. (Meanwhile, Jacobson's organ, a special chamber above the roof of a dog's mouth, has its own scent receptors. These transmit nerve impulses to the brain's hypothalamus, an area associated with social and mating behavior.) The average dog's ability to detect a few scent molecules in a trillion others has created a whole industry built on canine noses. Dogs sniff for hidden drugs in cars and planes, follow the trails of hikers missing in the woods, and find the remains of people in the rubble left behind by earthquakes and bombings. Now, scientists are testing the ability of dogs to detect the distinctive smell markers of various cancers. So far, it seems that dogs are good at detecting melanoma, the deadliest skin cancer. Dogs also have been trained to detect the waste products of lung and breast cancer cells, simply by sniffing a patient's breath. And some dogs can identify people with bladder or prostate cancer by picking up on odors in urine. Dogs trained to detect certain cancers, scientists say, might someday help screen whole villages of people in remote areas without easy access to lab tests. A dog's sensitivity to scents can even be used to calm it down, in a kind of canine aromatherapy. Researchers in Northern Ireland found that dogs riding in a car filled with the odor of lavender spent more time sitting quietly, less time racing from window to window and yapping in the driver's ear. Read More...

More links on the same subject: Video of a dog's nose in action (from SciencCentral News) An article from MSNBC.com about dog's potentially diagnosing cancer by smell. Really.

Hungry Hungry Kitty

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 08:35:43 -0800

Haha....this is an example of why most cat owners I know have scars on their hands

dogs i have met

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 08:14:47 -0800

A highly recommened book by the Dolce Vita doggie blog. An overview: â€œOur dogs see us through more than they put us through,â€ Ken Foster writes in Dogs I Have Met, his collection of stories from readers whose lives were changed by the unexpected arrival of a dog in need. Fosterâ€™s new book introduces us to: a pit bull named Jimmy that is recovering from a hit-and-run in Oakland, California; a woman in Costa Rica who opened her house to fifty-five strays; a pit bull that raises a piglet as its own; a hemophiliac dog trained as a therapist; and the Ninth Ward dogs that returned with their owners to rebuild New Orleans. Buy the book from Amazon. Read a Voice of America review here.

Where is My Precious-s-s-s?

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:30:46 -0800

"The rock and pool is nice and cool, So nice for feet! I only wish (wack!) To catch a fish (wack!) So juicy sweet! (wriggle) (wack! wack! wack!)"

Dogs in the Night

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:02:50 -0800

Ever wondered if you need to turn the light on for your dog? Turns out, you don't need to. As pointed out in Science Daily today: "Dogs have evolved to see well in both bright and dim light, whereas humans do best in bright light. No one is quite sure how much better a dog sees in dim light, but I would suspect that dogs are not quite as good as cats,â€ which can see in light thatâ€™s six times dimmer than our lower limit. Dogs, he says, â€œcan probably see in light five times dimmer than a human can see in.â€ Dogs have many adaptations for low-light vision, Miller says. A larger pupil lets in more light. The center of the retina has more of the light-sensitive cells (rods), which work better in dim light than the color-detecting cones. The light-sensitive compounds in the retina respond to lower light levels. And the lens is located closer to the retina, making the image on the retina brighter. But the canineâ€™s biggest advantage is called the tapetum. This mirror-like structure in the back of the eye reflects light, giving the retina a second chance to register light that has entered the eye. â€œAlthough the tapetum improves vision in dim light, it also scatters some light, degrading the dogâ€™s vision from the 20:20 that you and I normally see to about 20:80,â€ Miller says. Read more...

Cat Falls 80 Feet--and Walks Away!

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 09:48:54 -0800

You have to see it to believe it...

Dogs Honored in Nepal...

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 08:06:46 -0800

Nepal is celebrating the festival of Tihar, its equivalent of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. In Nepal, on the second day of the feast, special honour is bestowed on dogs. On this day, called Kukur Pooja or Kukur Tihar, its canines are garlanded, adorned with the Hindu powder of blessing, the tika, and given festive food including sweetmeats - jalabis. Read and see more...

Justin Case

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 11:44:50 -0800

Best literary reference to dogs (in books I've read): The majority of Terrans were six-legged. They had territorial squabbles and politics and wars and a caste system. They also had sufficient intelligence to survive on that barren boondocks planet for several billions of years. We are not concerned here with the majority of Terrans. We are concerned with a tiny minority-the domesticated primates who built cities and wrote symphonies and invented things like tic-tac-toe and integral calculus. At the time of our story, these primates regarded themselves as the Terrans. The six-legged majority and other life-forms on that planet hardly entered into their thinking at all, most of the time. The domesticated primates of Terra referred to the six-legged majority by an insulting name. They called them "bugs." There was one species on Terra that lived in very close symbiosis with the domesticated primates. This was a variety of domesticated canines called dogs. The dogs had learned to achieve a rough simulation of "guilt" and "remorse" and "worry" and other domesticated primate characteristics. The domesticated primates had learned how to achieve simulations of "loyalty" and "dignity" and "cheerfulness" and other canine characteristics. The primates claimed that they loved the dogs as much as the dogs loved them. Still, the primates kept the best food for themselves. The dogs noticed this, you can be sure, but they loved the primates so much that they forgave them. - Introduction to Schroedinger's Cat, by Robert Anton Wilson. A great book, you should go read it today. Or start it at least, it's a long book. Don't worry, we'll have more cats falling off stuff tomorrow! Have any other literary references to dogs and cats? Write us!

Presidential Pets

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 08:52:57 -0800

Really cool Wikipedia entry compiling all the pets owned by the President's of the United States. Teddy Roosevelt wins for the longest entry! - Pete, Bull Terrier - Skip, Rat Terrier - Blackjack, Manchester Terrier - Manchu, Pekingese - Rollo, Saint Bernard - Sailor Boy, Chesapeake Bay Retriever - Tom Quartz and Slippers, Cats - Emily Spinach, Garter snake - Algonquin, Pony - Maude, Pig - Josiah, Badger - Jonathan, Piebald rat - Dr. Johnson, Bishop Doane, Fighting Bob Evans, and Father O'Grady, Guinea pigs - Baron Spreckle, Hen - Eli Yale, Macaw - Fedelity, Pony - Gem and Susan, Dogs - A one-legged rooster

Socks (born c. 1991) was the pet cat of Bill Clinton and the Clinton family. After the Clintons left the White House, Socks was given to Clinton's secretary, Betty Currie. See the full list here.

Hail Laika

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 09:38:52 -0800

Space exploration has been populating the solar system with manmade hardware for half a century, and last month marked the 50th anniversary of Sputnik, the planetâ€™s first artificial satellite. But an even more significant breakthrough occurred less than a month later, on Nov. 3, 1957, when space hardware began carrying life forms into long-duration orbits. This Saturday marks the 50th anniversary of that milestone mission â€” the Russian Sputnik 2 launch that put a dog named Laika into orbit. Most of the remembrances of "Muttnik" may focuse solely on the first dog in space and her sad fate. But in the annals of the expansion of earthly life to the universe beyond, the full story is much more profound. Read more....

Cat Wake Up Call

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 09:11:45 -0800

Any cat owner will be able to relate... Thanks to Daniela for sending this one in...