Are You Ready For “Pig Brother”?

If you’re a fan of reality television, you’re probably familiar with Big Brother — the show where strangers are put in a house together for the world to watch. Cameras capture every move as one by one, the contestants are voted out of the house. In preparation for the third annual Speck-Spektakel in Helfenberg, Austria, the town is hosting their own version of Big Brother — featuring four piglets. “Pig Brother” stars Piggy, Lilly, Pauli, and Fredi competing for the title of Super Pig at Helfenberg’s Speck-Spektakel (Bacon Trade Fair). Between now and the June festival, you can watch the … Continue reading →

Amazing Animal Videos

A while back I wrote about a baby water buffalo who had survived a lion and a crocodile attack –all of which was caught on tape. I was so impressed by that baby water buffalo and his brave herd. (The herd had come back to help save the baby and chased off the lions.) But recently two other amazing animal videos have come to my attention. Dolphins Try to Save Their Own On YouTube there are a ton of dolphin rescue videos. Mostly of people saving dolphins, though. There are a couple of dolphins saving whales, but the other day … Continue reading →

Why You Should Take a Dog with You When You Die

Recently Wayne was goofing around with our DVR again and decided to put it to use recording old Twilight Zone shows. Before he leaves for work most mornings, we sit in front of the TV and eat breakfast together. Sometimes we watch the news, but since that’s been too depressing lately we’ve been relying on whatever DVR recordings are in the queue for our morning entertainment. That’s how we came to find ourselves watching one of the Twilight Zone reruns Monday morning. No Dogs Allowed in Heaven It was called “The Hunt.” It’s about an old man and his dog … Continue reading →

Greatest American Dog: Thoughts on the Final Episode

Presley was crowned the champ, the cast was reunited to see it, and tears were shed. It was a moving final episode. It made me pause for deeper reflection. So now I’m going to share my final thoughts on the final episode of the show I came to love. Not about Being Perfect In my last article, I explained how at one point the judges made a big deal out of Andrew’s size and how impressive it was he made it so far. Andrew’s performance was impressive, just like all of the other dogs on the show. I couldn’t understand … Continue reading →

Greatest American Dog: The Final Episode

Somehow, despite my problem, I made it through the entire series of the Greatest American Dog. (Except for the couple of episodes I missed while on vacation, as I mentioned in my last Greatest American Dog commentary.) A Dog is An Extension of The Owner When they were trying to narrow it down from the final three to the final two, the judges were evaluating the owner as much as the dog. They were pretty critical of how the owners were with their dogs. As Laurie put it, it came down to a battle of the training methods. (Which again … Continue reading →

Greatest American Dog: The Loyalty Episode

Because we were away on vacation and Wayne completely unplugged the T.V. (and thus rendered our DVR useless), I missed two weeks of The Greatest American Dog. But since our TV, and therefore DVR, is plugged back in, I finally had a chance to watch this past week’s episode. Galaxy’s Limp Like when Bill had to take Star to the vet because he feared she’d been bit by a snake, I was so thankful for the DVR’s fast forward feature when JD had to take Galaxy to the vet. Not sure what the challenge had been in the previous episode, … Continue reading →

Greatest American Dog: The Art Episode

If ever, oh, ever there was an episode that proved my point that the show is not looking for the greatest American dog but is looking for the greatest American trainer, it was this last one. The Judges: Art Critics or Dog Experts? What was up with them judging the art? I don’t recall in the list of any of their credentials it being mentioned that they’re world renowned dog artists themselves. Okay, so Laurie’s was rather simplistic and “poster-ish” but who are they to knock on her? Like they’d do better? And Beth Joy and Bella Starlet’s creation? I … Continue reading →

Greatest American Dog: Further Criticisms about the Show

One of the reality TV shows I ended up enjoying the most was Kid Nation. I wish the Greatest American Dog had a format more like that. Why I Liked Kid Nation I was not expecting to like the show. A bunch of kids forming their own society? Um, yeah, I couldn’t see how that’d be interesting. So I didn’t watch. But Wayne did. He DVRd the first episode and was raving so much about it curiosity won out. I watched and fell in love with those kids. It was hard not to be impressed by so many of them. … Continue reading →

Are They Looking for the Greatest American Dog or Trainer?

Even before a reader left a comment on one of my “Greatest American Dog” articles about how could I buy the junk the show’s trying to sell us, I was already starting not to like certain things about the show. I’ll address more of those in a separate article to follow later, but for now I’ll talk about my main gripe: it seems they’re not so much looking for the greatest American dog as they are the greatest American trainer. Because forget what happens in the Dog Bone Challenge, it all comes down to how well the owner worked with … Continue reading →

Animal Planet’s Puppy Olympics

On Friday night, during the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics, Wayne just had to do what most men in charge of the remote feel the need to do: channel surf. But I’m not going to fault him this time. If it wasn’t for his ADD I wouldn’t have discovered Animal Planet’s Puppy Olympics. What’s Puppy Olympics? It’s actually called Puppy Games 2008, but I can’t stop calling it Puppy Olympics. From what I gather it’s the first year Animal Planet’s doing it. It’s very similar to when they do Puppy Bowl. Except instead of a football field, they have … Continue reading →