Dog of the Day: St. Bernard

No question what this guy is. And such a gorgeous specimen too. (Light post today… feeling under the weather.)

St. Bernard

I think if I got a St. Bernard I would have to get a king-sized bed. I mean, what’s the good of having a dog like this if you can’t cuddle up at night when it gets chilly?

Saint Bernard

This guy was all class. If you rubbed his belly, he would paw gently at you in an attempt to return the favor.

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Dog of the Day: Jed the Papillon/Dachshund Mix

Okay, so I’ve fouled up my notes again. According to them, I didn’t take any pictures at all on the day these were taken (June 13), and instead took pictures of a pup named Jinxster, a corgi/German shepherd puppy, on June 12th. Those pictures are entirely missing.

So, is this Jinxster? Is he really a corgi/shepherd mix? With those ears? Ah, who knows? Who cares? All I know is, he’s totally ridiculously adorable.

Edit: So it turns out, as noted in the comments, that this is Jed, not Jinxster. Hi Jed! Jinxster is here.

Adorable Puppy

He’s just the right size to pick up and drop into my backpack.

Adorable Puppy

He looks a little like Watson, actually, except without the slightly cynical expression that Watson so often wears.

Adorable Puppy

I would be an awful puppy parent: I couldn’t resist giving that dog anything he wanted. Look at that face!

Adorable Puppy

I know what he reminds me of! He’s totally a fennec fox!

Adorable Puppy

There’s the lucky mom. She totally needs Autumn to come puppy-sit. And me to come help.

Adorable Puppy

I dunno. I’m not seeing corgi here… the body isn’t long enough, the legs aren’t short enough. I guess sometimes the puppies have different proportions though.

Adorable Puppy Sticking his Tongue Out

And there’s the tongue, right on schedule.

Adorable Puppy with Tongue

Why do some dogs look like they’re happy when they stick their tongues out, and others look like they are totally taunting me?

Adorable Puppy Nose

Narrowly avoided lens-noseprint.

Adorably Disgruntled Puppy

Not quite sure what this expression is. Besides cute.

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DoggiEvent: Yappy Hour, Part 2

And today, the dogs of Yappy Hour!

Labrador Retriever and Doberman Pinscher

Among the larger canine attendees. I haven’t run into a doberman in quite some time.

Doberman Pinscher

They really are streamlined dogs.

Miniature Schnauzer

I think mom said this pup was getting a grooming the next day. Which is funny, because she looks totally adorable to me. But then, I’m a sucker for the half-flopped schnauzer ears.

Schnauzer

She didn’t even have the ‘grumpy old man’ schnauzer thing going, she was just too cute.

French Bulldog and Labrador Retriever Mix Puppy

The ‘ballroom dancing’ portion of the party was obviously quite well-received. (The black one is a Labrador mix puppy, by the way.)

Labrador Retriever Mix Puppy and French Bulldog

Clearly a budding romance!

Scruffy Dog

Not sure what this pup is, but he didn’t need a partner: he was dancing around all by himself.

Cocker Spaniel

Gorgeous pup. And polite and and sedate the entire time I was there. That’s just about a first for me and cocker spaniels.

Scruffy Little Dog and Lab Mix

Not sure what the little guy was, but he got on famously with just about everyone.

Golden Retriever

There had to be a golden there somewhere, and this one was the glamor girl of the party.

Vizsla

And the grand dame of the ball, keeping an eye on the proceedings.

German Shepherd Mix

And this guy is totally the clown of the party. German shepherd mix, maybe?

Pug

Pugs always remind me of Peter Lorre, so let’s assume this one is the detective, Mr. Moto.

Pug

Uh oh, I think I just blew someone’s cover.

Yorkshire Terrier

The massage services at the party were obviously first-rate too.

Man and Dog

But eventually, there’s an end to every party. And, in this case, a morning after.

Fountain with Dog Ball

They did a great job cleaning up after the party. By the morning after, you would never know that there had been a dog soiree there at all… except for one little something someone missed.

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DoggiEvent: Yappy Hour, Half Moon Bay (Part 1)

At last, my photo documentation of the Yappy Hour celebration at Half Moon Bay’s Ritz Carlton Hotel. Apparently they’re going to have these on the last Thursday of the month on a regular basis. (I think it’s last Thursday of the month, anyway. Hopefully there’ll be more info on line available soon.)

(By the way: I finally resolved my little hosting issue. Sometimes there is no substitute for a telephone call.)

The Ritz itself is a gorgeous building, on a sea cliff overlooking the Pacific. Some lovely views from some of the rooms, I’m quite certain, although as a lowly blogger who was given a truly ridiculously inexpensive rate, I had to content myself with a merely pretty view off in the opposite direction. How terrible!

Ritz Carlton, Half Moon Bay

A view of the hotel, from a quarter mile or so away. It doesn’t come a lot more picturesque than this.

There were a variety of pretty spots within a short walk, around the edges of the golf course.

Bridge Near Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay

Picturesque, isn’t it?

Ocean Near Half Moon Bay Ritz Carlton

The view from the ‘back porch’, so to speak.

And then there was the get-together. It was very low-key, with about a dozen dogs in all, and a single vendor, who had some very fancy dog-related paraphernalia. And three water coolers: one had regular water for the dogs, and the other two were chicken-flavored water and beef-flavored water. (It is not entirely clear to me the difference between that and bullion, but whatever, right?) And, of course, they had all of the amenities:

Fireplug

No comment.

Okay, I didn’t realize quite how long this post was, and I’m quite tired tonight. So tomorrow… the actual dogs! (And a couple of people, too.)

 

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Birder-day Supplement: The Birds of Yappy Hour

Still haven’t finalized my solution to this blog mess. As soon as I do, I have all the photos edited for my yappy hour roundup. But in the meantime, here are some other non-dog-related pictures I took down at the Half Moon Bay Ritz.

Note! The photography contest is now officially closed to entries! (Although if you’re really nice to me I might let you sneak in something under the wire. But hurry, dammit!) Over the next two weeks or so I’ll be setting up a voting system where people can vote on the top few pictures in each category. Keep an eye out, and please do vote when you see them.

Brown Pelican

I thought this one was a brown pelican, although I note that most of the pictures of brown pelicans on Google seem to have white heads…

Crow

This bears a striking resemblance to a piece of jewelry I made in a metalworking class about fifteen years ago. Crow, I think.

American Goldfinch

American goldfinch. Such gorgeous little birds.

Brown Pelicans

Finally, that really is three brown pelicans, not three exposures of the same one. And some cormorants and gulls in the background.

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Dog of the Day: Still the Boston Terrier

Having some problems getting switched over to the new hosting plan. Can’t post large amounts of new stuff until I get switched over. As it is, I’m deleting old stuff that I probably shouldn’t be. Ugh.

So… dognose.

Boston Terrier Nose

As always, my favorite pose.

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Dog of the Day: A Little More Boston Terrier

Writing this live from the aftermath of the Pampered Pooch Party, at the Half Moon Bay Ritz Carlton.

It’s been a really long time since I stayed at a Ritz Carlton (like… I think I was eight? Ten?) And although I’ve been in a few other luxury hotels since then, I had mostly forgotten what it was like. I was going to say ‘I could really get used to this’ but I’m not actually sure I could: it’s that disconcerting. But it’s certainly nice once in a while.

I’ll try to get some pictures up tomorrow. In the mean time, two more of our friend here.

Boston Terrier

Yeah, you get that goofy ‘high-and-mighty’ expression, but I know you just want to lick my toes.

Boston Terrier

When he yawns his ears stand even more to attention than usual.

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Dog of the Day: More Boston Terrier

Still deciding what to do. The Macintosh resale market is really weird.

In the mean time, here’s that Boston terrier again. Incidentally, only three more days until the photography contest ends! Hurry up and submit!

Boston Terrier

If you see a white floating something-or-other above the dog’s head, that’s a dog-nose-print that was on my lens for around three days. Hazard of the profession.

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Dog of the Day: Boston Terrier

Still contemplating options on the hosting front. Thinking of setting up a Mac mini colocation: a little pricey up front, but where else can you get your own quad-core 16-gig-RAM SSD-with-hard-drive-backup machine for $30 a month?

Then I have to figure out what the heck I would use all that power for, of course.

In the mean time, here’s another somewhat minimal post of a very cute Boston terrier.

Boston Terrier

More of this guy tomorrow. He’s got a great variety of expressions.

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Dog of the Day: More Tidus

Well, I’ve managed to squirm down below the 5 gig mark, and am still working on long-term plans; I was sort of hoping not to start spending significant amounts of money on this blog, unless it started making me a little money. But, on the other hand… it’s fun. I briefly considered adding advertising, but… well… ugh. I have almost never seen blog ads that I didn’t think were ugly and intrusive at least some of the time.

Well, we’ll see what happens. In the mean time, posts will be a bit short, so I can maximize my available space. I promise I’ll have all this sorted by the beginning of the next phase of the photography contest, where blog visitors will be able to vote on the finalists of each category, which will probably be around the second week in July. (There’s still time to submit!)

Anyway, here’s a picture I quite like of Autumn and Tidus the corgi.

Autumn Rhodes of the San Francisco Pup Scouts Dog Walkers and Tidus the Pembroke Welsh Corgi

Autumn loves her job. Can’t you just tell?

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