My mom’s name was Stella.  She died in 1996, and I still miss her a lot.  I’ve always loved the name Stella, and have hinted to all my sons that it would be nice if they named a girl after my mom — but based on the family track record, I’m not counting on too many daughters.  So I decided I’d name…

There’s an awful lot of commotion down in the Beagle Man’s house these days about bringing home this Toller.  E-mails back and forth to the breeder.  Plans for a trip to Nova Scotia.  The B-Man reading a book about “the power of positive training.”  Lining up a dog trainer.  Registration for obedi…

So yes, as you’ve been hearing, it’s looking pretty solid that Future Dog is going to be a Toller.  And yes, arrangements are starting to be made for its arrival — knock wood.  The thing is, I’m pretty superstitious, and I don’t want to jinx anything by revealing too many details.  As my son Matt…

Yup, those rumors you’ve been hearing are true.  The very deliberate —sometimes agonizingly deliberate — Beagle Man is in line for a Toller.  A what?  A Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever.  I know, a mouthful, right?  Some say he chose it specifically because I was such a “handful,” and he was loo…

Yes, Beagle Man has gone dark for over a month now, as many of my friends and followers have observed.  Intentionally so.  I’d become abundantly aware that a lot of you out there felt I’d gotten well into the overkill stage in my research, my pros-and-cons lists, my live-dog interviews, my biding t…

Interviewed Chief, Scott’s husky, earlier this week at Acme headquarters in South Norwalk.  I’d have to say it went quite well.  I ate some chips in his presence, and the candidate, while interested, didn’t jump on the table for them; he actually claims not to be food-obsessed.  He’s got a good, s…

Could somebody check on the Beagle Man for me?  I think he’s losing it.  I understand his going to Norwalk to meet a German Shepherd, and to Greenwich to meet a Husky — and even to New Paltz to meet a Norwegian Buhund.  But now he drives to Fairfield to meet a Beagle?  Eleven years with me, and he…

“Have I missed a blog?” asked Marcia in an e-mail.  And from Bernice:  “Didn’t get your blog this week?” The fact is, I haven’t posted since May 17th — and there’s a reason for it.  In recent weeks I’ve sensed the patience of my friends and followers wearing thin as I continue to . . . deliberate…

I suppose I should have seen this coming — the wounded feelings, the fierce breed loyalty, the surprising (and, to my way of thinking, xenophobic, uninformed, and over-reactive) anti-German Shepherd sentiment  — when I encouraged followers to “weigh in” last month in my Future Dog post: Hi Doodlem…

Today would be Ricky William Herman’s 11th birthday. To celebrate this day, you should do whatever you want. After all, that’s what Ricky always did. 🙂