Coming Home to Doggy Destruction – What To Do – Dog Training Tips
Was a time when “dog training” didn’t come up in the average family. Unless you were teaching a specific working breed how to perform its job — guard dog, hunter or maybe even a wild wolfdog to pull a sled through the wild North Country — most family mutts just caught on.
In times gone by, families were bigger — there was always someone around to show Rover the basics of family behaviour. Your kids were there; their friends hanging out after school. Actually, Goldie picked up most things just by participating with family members.
Different today. Families are smaller. Most adults are out for the day. House and apartment dog breeds are more varied, with more needs.
Here, from our fave dog trainer, New Zealander Daniel Abdelnoor (affectionately called Doggy Dan), is a Guest Blog Post on that very subject. Listen!
Coming Home to Doggy Destruction – It Starts with Dog Training
Bet you’ve heard this before: “We got home and our new puppy had done a complete number on — well, everything! Holes dug in the garden and the couch, chewed tables, mess and destruction everywhere.”
As Dan says, “Sometimes it’s even worse… you get a notice in your letter box complaining that you have a dog who’s not only destroying the yard but one that’s been barking non-stop every time you leave the house and now you have five days to fix it or face a $300 fine.
“Oh boy! You’ve gotta love your dog. Strange thing is… very often, as soon as you walk back into the house there is never any barking (in fact you may hardly ever hear your dog bark) and no destruction takes place. It’s like you have a completely different dog when you’re not there…!
“In fact you would be amazed by how many people have no idea that they owned a barking dog because the barking only happened when they were not there. But… the great news is that none of this is a complicated problem to sort out.
“In fact it’s one of the most common and straight forward behavioral issues to sort out. In this post I’m going to quickly explain why it’s occurring and point you to a site where you can easily learn how to stop it, gently and quickly.”
“So why is my dog barking and being so destructive when I leave?” you ask.
It’s like this, Dan explains: “Imagine that you’re a parent with a two year old child. Your essential job is to care for, look after and protect that child. Now if the child ended up outside the house and you were locked inside unable to get out what would you do? Sit down with a cup of tea and read the paper? I don’t think so… You would be screaming and shouting and doing everything you could to get out of the house…pulling on the doors and the windows.
“Your energy levels would be way up. You would be stressed. And stress can show itself in many distinct ways… shouting, chewing fingers, excessive drinking or eating, gambling, addictions, the need to keep busy, man.
Follow the Leader
“Generally when we are stressed we are the opposite of relaxed ! You know where I’m going: your dog is no different. The cause of the problem is simply that your canine thinks that they are the pack leaders in the home and they think that their job is to keep an eye on you and protect you.
“That’s why your dog is stressed when you leave them. They are stuck inside the property unhappy, worried and restless — all their pups have gone! And anything could happen!
“Think about it. You leave for your workplace five days a week, early morning, and leave them at home again and again, imagine what that does to them! They build up of stress…and again, as with humans, that stress can come out in many different ways.
Barking Dogs
“Some dogs will bark continuously, some will become hyperactive and not settle down, digging holes and being destructive or chewing.
The chewing actually releases endorphins which can help calm your dog down, very similar to when humans are stressed and chew chewing gum. The bottom line is that they are stressed, unsettled and they are wandering around all day long, doing stuff… often not stuff that you want because they simply can’t settle.
“They are not bored. It’s not usually caused primarily by a lack of exercise and your canine does not need more toys or a meaty bone! In fact this can make the problem much worse! The real solution is actually so simple, straight forward, logical and not expensive…
Become the Pack Leader
“Establish your position as pack leader by asking your dog to work,” Dan explains.
“Take him on a walk before you feed him. And just as you don’t give affection unless your dog is in a calm-submissive state, don’t give food until your dog acts calm and submissive.
“YOU become the pack leader and then your dog will happily rest at home when you leave.”
The coyotes come and go. They follow the deer who love our old apple trees. And the rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks who live around here. And sniff around the beaver pond at one corner of our property.
We always know when the coyotes are back. Mocha, our GSD, begs to go out and, panting like an old locomotive building up steam, flies like a cannonball to the rabbit trail at the foot of the snowball tree. That night, we’ll hear the coyotes a’howling in the forest.
With us, Mocha’s as gentle as a kitten. When we call her in during one of her coyote harangues, she comes in right away — but with a look clearly saying, “Are you stupid? There’s COYOTES out there! It’s my job to scare them away!”
But we call her in. And she obeys. And lays down with a big sigh. She knows that we’re the pack leaders. As stupid as our pro-coyote behavior seems to her, she obeys. And waits for her next command to Stand On Guard…
We’re being the Alpha Dog Pack Leaders our German Shepherd wants. Right?
Here, from our fave dog trainer, New Zealander Daniel Abdelnoor, is a Guest Blog Post on that very subject. Listen!
“Be the Pack Leader Your Dog Wants You To Be”
In this post I’m going to reveal two very important facts about your dog…
The first is about whether or not you really need to be the Alpha Dog — Leader of the Pack. And the second is whether the pack leader must be aggressive.
For example, is it necessary to thump your chest, shout and smack your dog to become the alpha dog? The answer to these two questions could change your relationship with your canine companion. Almost instantly, and forever.
Question 1. Do I really need to be the pack leader? Lets examine the facts…
Dog are pack animals. There are leaders and followers. Loyalty is an essential part of their makeup. A big reason early Humankind took wolf cubs into their families so successfully. Followers and leaders: you can’t change that. It is simply how dogs work… and it works extremely well.
The pack leaders make the crucial life-and-death decisions and the rest follow. Simple. In the wilderness, dogs are pack animals. They’ve descended from those wolves. And what most people don’t realize is even in your home you form a pack. Sometimes there are other members in the pack, maybe children, more than one dog, even a cat…
The fact remains that dogs will view all these beings as members of the pack, and the pack leader in their eyes must make all the big decisions.
In many families, there are dogs who are just too happy to please, tales a-wagging. They simply do as you ask without any questioning. They are easy to train and the owners are convinced that it’s all due to how successful they are as dog trainers.
You may even know people who believe this. They have this amazing, easy, placid dog and you can’t work out how because the owner doesn’t seem to do anything special. In fact you might even be angered that, in comparison, your dog causes you so much grief.
What’s happening? How can it be this way? Well, allow me to let you into a secret. The fact is this… It usually has nothing to do with how good the owners are. Some canines are simply much easier to train others. That’s it!
Trust me…if you have an easy dog then you can get away with so much – and many people do. But if you’ve got a difficult, very smart, driven dog then you have to know fully what you are doing and the messages that you are sending your canine.
It’s much more difficult to train these dogs if you do not know what you are doing.
The secret to training these types of dogs is… to ensure that YOU are the pack leader in the home. Only then will they listen to you. And the difference between these easy and difficult dogs has nothing to do with breeds. It’s all about character and personality.
You’ll never be able to tell until they’re in your home. Kind of gripes us, right! But it explains why you are struggling. It’s why you are constantly bribing your dog, battling with them. It’s like trying to swim upstream… the struggle never ends, they never give in, and you’re exhausted. It’s all because in your dog’s mind you are not the pack leader…YET !
But hold on. Here’s the good news… I can help. You see if you are struggling…I can promise you that becoming the pack leader is the first thing you need to do. And I have just discovered a fantastic resource which shows you how to become the pack leader in the most amazing gentle way. But let’s discuss the next point before I tell you where this fantastic solution is…
Question 2. Is the pack leader aggressive in their behavior?
You’ve got to realize that the best pack leaders are calm and consistent. They’re firm but fair. There is no screaming, no shouting, no hurting, and no need for smacking. Forget the rolled-up newspaper. All those things that used to be associated with being the pack leader many years ago are now obsolete.
Old school dog training used to teach that you needed to physically dominate your dog. It involved a lot of force and confrontation with your dog which would often turn ugly.
The best dog training is where people are taught how to actually win their dog’s obedience in a calm and gentle way, so that their dogs accept them as the pack leader through choice, not fear.
This new dog training method is set to revolutionize the way we work with and train our dogs in the home. By learning how our dogs see the world we can then adjust our behavior to communicate clearly to them in a way they understand. It’s crucial that we give them the right messages, rather than simply applying human psychology to a dog.
Lets face it, we would never apply cat psychology to a dog.
Cats are a whole different animal. So why do we always apply human psychology? We are primates, evolved from the apes, but your dog is a canine evolved from the wolves and there are some subtle but crucial differences!
Conclusion: “When you understand your canine’s mind and where they are coming from there is no need for fear or aggression in training… if you are struggling then the chances are that your dog does not see you as the pack leader.” [1]
Thanks, Dan, for your clever, cognitive canine counsel.
Global Climate Change Facts From A Conservative Point Of View
COP21 Climate Change Conference Paris & Beyond…
“Canada Is Back!”
Now we have hope again.
After the years of Canada’s Greenest Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, when we actually shined on the international stage, we’ve just endured our Dark Decade, when our Sacred Land was completely abandoned to local and international forces of materialistic greed and destruction. [1]
And the destruction has been immense.
Our greatest living animal — the magnificent Polar Bear — struggles in a decreasing habitat that is literally melting under it.
Of course, Canada hasn’t been the only nation to under-participate in saving our living Earth. We may be the only country to have dropped out of the promised Kyoto Accord, but others have under-performed also.
In fact, we’re all suffering from the massive neglect industrialized nations have given the living world for centuries. For three hundred years, the ungodly idea of Progress has blundered around the planet, pouring out massive clouds of coal smoke and stupid indifference.
But things CAN change…
Newly-elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised that he is “committed to attending the Paris climate conference, and within 90 days, holding a First Ministers meeting to work together on a framework for combating climate change. Central to this would be the creation of national emissions reduction targets.”
After the last few years of record-breaking heat, drought, storms, flooding and forest fires (leading, among other things, to a decrease in food production and rising food prices!) most of the provincial Premiers are asking for new federal environmental laws.
Some folks (including a personal hero of mine, Farley Mowat) have said that it’s all too late. We’ve messed up. Eco Collapse. And some times I feel this way… [2]
Climate Change Summit
Certainly, if we’re to turn our massive destruction of our environment around, the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Paris in December is OUR LAST CHANCE! COP21 must succeed! Promises must be made there. And those promises must be kept over the next few years.
There will be fanatical attempts to undermine and even scuttle the COP21 in Paris. But we must prevail!
Why? Here, from right-wing environmental entrepreneur Jean Cannon, is a Guest Blog Post backgrounding this critical problem:
HOW DOES CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECT YOU & ME?
What’s all this talk about Climate Change?
I guess we all want to know how much of it’s true and how relevant is it to my business?
In this post, I’ll discuss what has happened, is happening and some of the predictions, so you can assess the importance for yourself. It also discusses the causes of this and includes some discussion of available options.
Global warming is a fact. It’s likely to speed up, with near record growth in greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere.
The recent UK Stern Report warned that if we ignore this we are likely to have an economic impact equivalent to the combined First and Second World Wars plus the Great Depression, and that is without considering millions of people displaced around the world — those increasing numbers of refugees.
To put climate change into perspective, during the last ice age global temperatures were only 5 °C lower than today and much of Canada, Europe and northern Russia was covered in massive ice sheets several kilometers thick.
Weather extremes and greater fluctuations in rainfall and temperatures caused by climate change are liable to change productive landscapes and exacerbate food, water and energy scarcities in a relatively short time span! Particularly worrying is sea-level rise because of the density of coastal populations and the potential for the large-scale displacement of people in Asia.
Climate change will cause health security consequences, since some infectious diseases will become more widespread as the planet heats up.
Rising global temperatures will see more fires, droughts and flooding over the next 200 years, according to climate scientists from the UK’s University of Bristol.
It is predicted that climate change will contribute to destabilizing, unregulated population movements in Asia and the Pacific. While most of population movement is likely to be internal, there will be flow on effects requiring cooperative regional solutions.
Increasingly extreme weather patterns will result in greater death and destruction from natural disasters, and add to the burden on poorer countries and even stretch the coping ability of more developed nations.
For a handful of small, low-lying Pacific nations, climate change is the ultimate security threat, since rising sea-levels will eventually make their countries uninhabitable.
Even if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases now, researchers predict Eurasia, eastern China, Canada, Central America and Amazonia are at risk of forest loss. Global warming of less than 2 °C would create a 30% probability of deforestation, while more than 3 °C would double the likelihood of loss. (UK research)
Now — About the Causes
There are three main gases that are responsible for causing the Greenhouse Effect. The data for this has been taken from ice cores giving thousands of years of information.
Carbon Dioxide CO2
Nitrous oxides – often called NOX
Methane
All three are increasing exponentially at present. We are now sitting a long way outside the concentrations that have ever occurred in the past and we don’t know what will happen.
Who is to blame for this?
My little bit can’t make all that difference. Twenty-seven per cent of carbon emissions come from homes which means the rest comes from business in some form or other and a large percentage of business involves small to medium enterprises and farms, just like most of us.
Air traffic is currently blamed for about 3.5% of the human activities that cause climate change and is the fastest growing source of emissions. Its share of total CO2 impact is expected to grow to 5% by the year 2050.
A recent report stated that agriculture is responsible for 40% of greenhouse gasses:
70% of total methane
80% of NOX – this comes from biochemical processes in soils. There are large losses of N from fertilizers – between 15 and 50% of N fertilizer goes missing. If you use N fertilizer, you need to improve the efficiency of use.
There are 1.4 billion cows worldwide, many in huge tracks of deforested land, each producing 500 litres of methane a day and accounting for 14% of all emission of the gas.
There is now five times the historic concentration of fertilizers in the sea off the coast of Queensland, Australia. This causes an increased growth of algae and algae feed Crown of Thorns starfish larvae. The combination of higher temperatures and Crown of Thorns Starfish is seriously threatening the Great Barrier Reef.
Impacts on water
Global warming is expected to intensify the water cycle, with increased risk of floods and droughts. One of the effects of global warming is likely to be changes in the seasonality of river flows in regions where winter precipitation falls as snow. Additionally, rising sea levels will damage the quality of fresh water available from coastal aquifers and wetlands.
Less freshwater is likely to be available in West Africa, Central America, southern Europe, the eastern US and southern Australia. Other regions, particularly tropical Africa and northwest South America, will be at significant risk of excessive runoff as trees are lost, increasing the chances of severe flooding.
We need to preserve our water quality. There are more of us and fresh water is deceasing. Anything discharged into drains ends up in lakes, dams, rivers or the sea. Do any rivers or lakes near your business have algal problems? A wetland can remove up to 90% of sediments, nutrients and bacteria from stormwater.
When we go boating we really enjoy being in the environment but have we thought about the impact we may be having on water quality. Two-stroke engines produced up to 10 times more water pollution than four-stroke. They acidify waterways and release heavy metals from sediments resulting in underwater pollution up to 1000 per cent worse with two-stroke engines.
Food and Our Environment
Food grown on modern mega-agricultural “farms” is responsible for 37% of our greenhouse emissions and transport is 10% concluded a recent environmental study.
The same study suggested that if we reduce our red meat consumption by 150 gm per week it’s equivalent to leaving your car off the road. I had previously heard that transport was 14% but it is certainly a lot less than food and agriculture.
There’s a lot of personal choice here. I seldom eat red meat because I don’t like the taste and I prefer fish and free range poultry. But that is a personal choice — although both those protein sources are less greenhouse gas emitting.
I’m not advocating vegetarianism because it certainly doesn’t suit my metabolism. And if we look at our teeth we have evolved to be omnivores or mixed eaters. We don’t have big canines like cats and dogs, but equally we don’t have herbivorous molars like cows and horses. Our nearest relatives certainly eat birds and small mammals when they can as well as leaves, fruit and seeds.
And none of this even begins to address the affects of factory farming on the welfare of the animals. [3]
As food production decreases globally due to climate change, growing and producing food ourselves will become a necessity. Organic gardening is a growing trend. It’s all about choices.
Climate Change Effects: What can we do about all of this?
We can think about our buildings and try to reduce energy use there. 84% of property owners, architects and consultants are involved in green development to some degree, but there are still limited choices of green building products, according to the first major survey of attitudes to sustainability.
While governments are seen as having the greatest influence on society’s reaction to climate change, 65% of surveyed people expected the private sector to take the lead in coming years.
Wind power could supply one third of the world’s electricity by 2050 and save 113 billion tones of CO2 emissions, according to a report by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and Greenpeace.
We can think about our waste
When our waste breaks down in land fills, it generates large amounts of methane gas. Some of the newer landfill sites have been carefully designed to prevent leaching into the water table and to capture the methane gas generated.
In Victoria in 2004-5, 5.4 million tonnes of waste was recycled. This is a seven percent increase from the previous year it showed recycling saved over 78 million gigajoules of energy, 52 GL of water and 4 million tonnes of greenhouse gasses. 55% of the total solid waste stream was recovered.
Germany has become the 18th country to join the international “Methane To Markets Partnership”, an initiative to turn the toxic greenhouse gas in the coal mining, landfill, agricultural, and oil and gas sectors into a clean energy source.
India, which still suffers from massive coal emissions and smog, wants industry to use waste-to-energy technologies to both generate electricity and help address waste disposal challenges in various core industries including pulp and paper industry, breweries, textile mills, rice mills and solvent extraction units.
The paper industry is eminently suited for power co-generation as 75-85% of energy is to heat the process and 15-25% as electrical power. “The large quantity of wastewater generated in pulp and paper industry can be used for generating bio-gas which can be used to produce thermal energy electricity.”
And we can consider using other fuels as well as how far we transport things and whether the transport is efficient.
The biggest initiatives here are alternative fuels such as harnessing solar and wind energy and also using fuels made from plants and other biological sources instead of fossil fuels. This is logical because fossil; fuels are just fossilised forests from the past.
Victoria’s wind farms are saving more than 250,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year, according to an independent study. A typical 2 MW wind turbine reduces greenhouse emissions by about 6,000 tonnes per year, with 1,000 MW of installed wind able to displace around 600 GWh of brown coal generation per annum.
A meat works in Victoria, is investigating the use of animal fat from its abattoir operations for making biodiesel. The potential 10 ML of biodiesel a year would fuel the company’s own transport fleet, with the excess sold on the open market. In Australian biodiesel is being made from canola but sugar would be another good source.
In New Zealand biofuel is being made from algae grown in sewage ponds. This is important because a major obstacle to biodiesel is the fact that the same land used to grow biodiesel crops is also needed to grow food.
Trading carbon is a sensible strategy so that people who do use large amounts of carbon based energy can pay other people who are growing trees.
One of my clients has a forestry project to enable their business to be carbon neutral. At Enviro Action we donate a portion of all our income to Trees for Life to support them growing seedling native trees for farmers and other land owners to plan each year.
Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger explained that his state, the world’s 12th largest carbon emitter, could become a global leader in greenhouse emissions reduction following agreement on a Cap and Trade System.
SO HOW DOES ALL OF THIS AFFECT YOU AND ME? WHAT CAN WE DO?
Myself, I feel deep concern about the future my grandchildren and their friends face. I think we all need to take the many small steps that may seem to “not make much difference” to try to reduce the overall load on the system.
I use low energy fluorescent bulbs in table lamps instead of the ceiling full of halogen lights in both my home and my office. I chose to live in a well insulated north facing place so that I get winter sun coming under my verandah but no summer sun and I seldom use the air conditioner.
I used heating for only four hours last winter and that was when the ground outside was white with frost. In summer, 40 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit) outside translated to 29 ºC (84 °F) inside and I decided I was comfortable as it was under 30 ºC. I drive a duel fuelled car and walk or ride my bike when this is possible.
These are little steps to reduce our foot print and if we all do this in both our businesses and our homes we do have a cumulative effect. We can choose “green power” in most places. In our business we can think carefully about all the impacts we have just discussed and work out how to save green house gas use and remember this also saves us money.
Obviously we also need to take big steps as well and new technologies must also be developed as existing technologies are not adequate to “solve” the problem, but we can reduce the load and the rate of global warming by all taking our small steps and we need to start now.
Helping the environment can be a real win-win.
“It IS easy being Green!”
ABOUT OUR GUEST BLOGGER: Jean Cannon is a grandmother and deeply committed to helping to improve the legacy we are leaving our children. Jean’s philosophy is that by going green you can make more money. She is both an environmental scientist and a pragmatic business person — an enviro-entrepreneur.
Jean is the author of three books — REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT — IT IS EASY BEING GREEN — GREEN YOUR BUSINESS: THE DO-IT-YOURSELF MANUAL — and is a contributing author to another.
NOTE: The artwork at top of page is by Charles Livingston Bull, illustrating the short story THE SUMMONS OF THE NORTH by Sir Charles G D Roberts.
[1] “Canada’s Greenest Prime Minister Brian Mulroney…” In 1987, Conservative Prime Minister Mulroney spearheaded the The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer — signing countries committed to reducing, and eventually completely stopping, production of chemicals such as CFCs that contribute to breaking down the ozone layer. Remember CFCs — Chlorofluorocarbons? Our refrigerators, air conditioners and spray cans used to be full of them.
And Remember Acid Rain? Brian Mulroney began negotiations with President Ronald Reagan in 1986 on the deadly phenomenon. The Canada-US Acid Rain Treaty was signed by Prime Minister Mulroney and President George H W Bush in 1991. Our Great Lakes are showing sure signs of recovery.
The legacy of Brian Mulroney, Ronald Reagan and George H W Bush to the environment is a proud one. And a surprise to many.
And President Richard Nixon’s essential contributions include the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970.
Historically, the whole concept of Conservation came from the Right, not the Left. The very word “Ecology” was coined by German traditional conservative landowners who were fighting the massive destruction of their beloved woodlands (valiantly protecting what Wilhelms Riehl called the “mythic darkness of the primordial forest”) and their rich ancestral soil by the new international liberal forces of Progress and coal-fed industrialism.
And President Teddy Roosevelt was warning Americans about “Climate Change” and “Deforestation” way back in 1908, in his prophetic “Eighth Annual Message to the Senate and House of Representatives” – See Teddy Roosevelt Called it Climate Change in 1908!
[2] “We have no God-given right to survive forever. We have screwed up so badly in so many ways so obviously that only an utterly stupid species would consider that we have much of a future, as things stand,” Farley Mowat once said. “In the end, my crusades have accomplished nothing. I haven’t saved the wolf, the whales, the seals, primitive man or the Outport people. All I’ve done is to document the suicidal tendencies of modern man. I’m sure I haven’t altered the course of human events one iota.”
NOTE: I understand Farley’s discouragement when he spoke those words. But I disagree with him. Like Grey Owl before him, whose writings and costumed performances had a lot to do with saving the Canadian beaver from extinction, Farley has made a colossal difference. His NEVER CRY WOLF, for instance, created a passion for saving the wolf that has kept on growing. He planted seeds. They are still growing. See my Happy Birthday, Farley Mowat! Tribute to a Hero
[3] In a recent presentation — “The Effect of Mega-agriculture on the Health of Animals” — Dr Greg Harrison said, “There is broad evidence of the adverse effects of today’s mega-agriculture on all animals. Mega-agriculture includes the use of GMO or genetic modified organisms, glyphosate-ready crops, pesticides and artificial fertilizers. The effects range from behavior and reproductive disorders to immune suppression and cancers. All these issues point to the value of encouraging organic farming and being proactive in preventing these calamities in the first place.”
Justin and Sophie Trudeau. A Cultural Conservative Looks At The New Hope They Bring To Canada
Posted October 21, 2015
“Change happens because people come together.” – Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau
“Sophie is a phenomenal mother, a fearless partner, and a committed advocate for issues facing women and girls. She inspires me to be better, and to work harder, each and every day. I would not be here in front of you tonight without her leadership and her example.” – Justin Trudeau
Justin and Sophie Trudeau – Canada’s Fairy Tale Romance
We’ve seen them and been touched by them. The “fairy tale romances.”
They’re fun to watch, even inspirational. Couples dancing in the bright cameralight. They last forever — some of them. Some stagger and hurt under the public pressure. We hurt with them, don’t we?
Yet we still celebrate the latest Romantic Couples. Like Prince William and Kate.
And now in the Dominion of Canada we’re celebrating Justin and Sophie. Justin and Sophie Grégoire Trudeau. With his election as Canada’s newest Prime Minister, Justin and his beloved wife step onto the world stage.
Some are calling it a return of Trudeaumania.
For us early Boomers from the True North, this brings back bright, colourful memories and feelings.
We remember Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
But he arrived in different times. Better times for Canada, eh? The Late Sixties.
Expo67. We were a country wildly celebrating our 1967 Centennial and our youthful exuberance. We were a nation with our own thriving Culture. Singer-songwriters like Gordon Lightfoot, Ian & Sylvia, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Buffy Sainte-Marie, David Clayton-Thomas all sang our stories. The Stampeders and the Guess Who rocked us. Poets and writers like Leonard Cohen, Margaret Laurence, Alice Munro, Robertson Davies, Pierre Berton, Farley Mowat inspired us. A young Margaret Atwood was surfacing.
The CBC gave us all-Canadian radio and television programming, including the good ol’ hockey game on Saturday nights. And laughter: Wayne & Shuster, Paul Kligman, Max Ferguson, Rich Little, Billy Van, David Steinberg, Gordie Tapp, Don Harron (aka Charlie Farquharson). [1]
Canadian publishers gave us new nationalistic publications.
And reprinted older ones, like (a personal fave) FORTY YEARS IN CANADA: Reminiscences of the Great North-West by Sam Steele of the Royal North-West Mounted Police. Back then our Mounties were still central to our cultural identity. [2]
Outside forces stormed over our unprotected borders and entered our Northern psyche: the Cold War, Hollywood, the British Invasion (Beatles, Stones, Who), the Sexual Revolution, Women’s Lib, Vietnam, the Space Race, racial tensions, Rachel Carson…
Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and wife Margaret
Into this stepped Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Even though I’m conservative by nature, I voted for him in my first election. So, in a later election, did my own Mary Lee, then a province away.
To us Boomers, the older Pierre seemed one of us. He spoke of a Just Society, loved the heroic, stand-your-ground philosophy of Edmond Rostand and was something of a prankster.
A man for our New Times.
We elected him. Celebrated his changes to our great Dominion. Saw him marry Margaret Sinclair. Watched his family of three sons grow. Were troubled when his marriage with Margaret fell apart.
As Justin has since explained, “They loved each other incredibly, passionately, completely. But there was thirty years between them and my Mom never was an equal partner in what encompassed my father’s life, his duty, his country.”
And then the Sixties ended and the Seventies brought our October Crisis.
FLQ (a radical group with communist and PLO connections) terrorist attacks struck Quebec. Funded by brutal bank robberies and armed with stolen weapons and tons of dynamite, the FLQ began a reign of terror.
They bombed the Montreal Stock Exchange, injuring 27 women and men. Casually dropped their bombs in Montreal mail boxes and in front of buildings, which exploded with withering regularity. Killing Wilfred Vincent O’Neil, 65, a night watchman at an Army recruiting centre. Killing Thérèse Morin, 64, a secretary at a shoe workshop. And killing Jeanne d’Arc St.-Germaine, 42, a cleaning lady and single mother with two daughters.
Also badly wounding Sergeant-Major Walter “Rocky” Leja, a Canadian soldier trying to dismantle another bomb when it blew up in his hands. A total of 95 bombs exploded in the city, including a CNR train station, City Hall, RCMP and Canadian Forces buildings.
The victims of these inhuman attacks were just ordinary people, working folks, so our members of Canadian Parliament were remarkably silent. All parties sat comfortably in their seats.
Then came our Crise d’Octobre.
The FLQ terrorists struck by kidnapping British diplomat James Cross and Quebec Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte. They released Cross and murdered Laporte with his crucifix chain. The conservative in me cheered when Prime Minister Trudeau finally invoked the War Measures Act, calling out an unprepared military to protect Montreal from our first home-grown terrorists. Who the police tracked down. [3]
The Press and the Left attacked Trudeau for calling out the troops. To which Pierre replied: “Well there are a lot of bleeding hearts around who just don’t like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is, go on and bleed, but it is more important to keep Law and Order in the society than to be worried about weak-kneed people who don’t like the looks of…”
Pierre steered Canada through good times and bad times.
And over the years we watched Justin grow up, travelling the wild Northcountry on foot or by canoe, working as a white-water rafting guide, a snowboarding instructor, sparring in the boxing ring. And becoming a teacher.
We saw him as he and his father mourned the death of Justin’s adventure-loving brother Michel. As Justin wrote: “While I had been standing at a blackboard, an avalanche had swept my brother and one of his buddies into Kokanee Lake. They had been traversing the steep incline above the lake…”
And two years later, we watched him give that heartrending eulogy over the Canadian flag-draped coffin of his father at the state funeral. Ending with a tearful “The woods are lovely, dark and deep. He has kept his promises and earned his sleep. Je t’aime, Papa.” [4]
It was during that address in the Notre-Dame Basilica that Justin partially explained the roots of his old-fashioned gentlemanly Sunny Ways:
“But at age 8, I was becoming politically aware. And I recognized (in a restaurant) one whom I knew to be one of my father’s chief rivals. Thinking of pleasing my father, I told a joke about him. A generic, silly little grade school thing.
“My father looked at me sternly, with that look I would learn to know so well. And he said: ‘Justin, we never attack the individual. We can be in total disagreement with someone, without denigrating them as a consequence,’ and, saying that, he stood up, took me by the hand and brought me over to introduce me to this man.
“He was a nice man, who was eating there with his daughter…”
Justin made no apology for choosing to become a teacher instead of the expected role of a lawyer: “I’m a teacher. I’m a convenor. A gatherer. I’m someone who reaches out to people and is deeply interested in what they have to say…”
And then, of course, Justin met Sophie at a Montreal Grand Prix charity ball in 2003.
Sophie Grégoire was an arts and culture reporter for local media — brilliant, compassionate and honest about her concerns. Like her personal struggle with bulimia and concern about gender equality.
In an interview with her friend Erica Diamond, Sophie described her
feelings about Justin: “I had this weird feeling, like I was meant to be with him and didn’t know why. I told my Mom, and she laughed and said, ‘You and every other girl Sophie! You know how many girls think that?’
“One year later, I co-hosted a charity function, and Justin was coincidentally my co-host.”
“When we met again, I reminded him that I knew his brother, Michel. There was definitely a physical and emotional connection. We flirted. But I sent him an email the next day, and he never replied.
“Three months later I bumped into him on the street. He apologized that he never wrote back. ‘Can I have your number?’ he asked. ‘No,’ I replied. I wanted him to work a little! Well, he found my number and called me.
“We then went for dinner and on our first date, our very first date, he looked into my eyes, and said, ‘I’ve been waiting for you 31 years. You’re going to be my wife. We’re going to have a family together.'” [5]
About motherhood, Sophie said, “Motherhood has taught me to be more connected to other human beings. All mothers everywhere, we are all responsible for each other. We’re not different, but rather more similar than you think. So if you’re fighting a battle alone, choose not to fight it alone.”
Perhaps her most popular quote is “The Sacred Feminine is on the rise.”
Sophie explained her passion for gender equality: “I hosted the UN Women’s Gala for gender equality and violence against women. I think that we have developed a lack of respect for the womb of humanity. We’re paying a high price for it — it’s created a huge imbalance. There is still much violence towards women around the world. It’s still happening too often in our society. Many basic rights are still being taken away in parts of the world for one reason — because they are a woman.”
She has no doubt influenced Justin’s decision that his Cabinet will have equal numbers of men and women, a first in the British Commonwealth.
So is Justin’s election as Prime Minister the sign of Trudeaumania II?
Not really. [6] These are different times. Canada has just endured its Dark Decade.
We’ve watched as mean-spirited, lowlife forces have played havoc with our home and native land. We’ve watched as international interests have ripped our economy, our culture, the very land that gave us birth — ripped it apart. In the election just gone, we watched the worst in us emerge… [7]
But out of this came Justin Trudeau and his message of “Real Change” and “Sunny Ways.” And in many ways a new Fairy Tale Romance: our nation of Canada with Sophie & Justin.
It’s encouraging to hear that, of the four major international summits coming up, the one he most wants to attend is the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. After the total abandonment of our forests, land and waterways during the Dark Decade, Justin promises to pick up where Canada’s Greenest Prime Minister, Conservative Brian Mulroney, once took us. [8]
Canada is still a young wilderness nation. Our stories, our culture, our national identity, come out of the Wild Places.
As Laureen Harper so perfectly said it: “Our country — the land we live in — is an important part of our identity as Canadians. Our outdoors is our history and its our future, its our workplace, our storehouse and our playground. Because this land is so central to who we are as Canadians, it’s so precious and it must be protected.” [9]
Justin seems eager to speak up for our endangered living world and join other enlightened nations in its protection.
We’ll all see Justin and Sophie walk hand-in-hand on the world stage.
And smile with love and pride.
God give them the strength for the battles ahead.
We need them.
Note: We didn’t create this page as a political statement. Although we all have personal issues. Ours are the Environment, our Sacred Land, our Forgotten Veterans and Equality for Women — especially equal pay for women workers. We have expectations of the present government).
But we created this as a Cultural Celebration.
As I write this in October, 2015 there’s a new feeling of Sunshine and Renewal in Canada. A feeling that it’s time to dream and create and tell our own stories again. A time of inspiration. There’s a joyful feeling that our own Canadian creativity will be accepted again — at home and away. Best of all — there’s laughter in the wind again. And it’s all because of Sophie and Justin.
How will it end? Is Justin the real thing? Will he bring real change to Canada the way his father did — or is he just another “New Boss, same as the Old Boss” as his detractors say.
Time will tell, I guess…
Justin and Sophie Trudeau – Canada’s Fairy Tale Romance
[1] The PM Pierre Trudeau Era would soon see the rise of the All-Canadian Comic Cavalcade.
Such comedians as Roger Abbott, Dan Aykroyd, Dave Broadfoot, John Candy, Tommy Chong, Jayne Eastwood, Don Ferguson, Luba Goy, Ron James, Eugene Levy, Mike MacDonald, Howie Mandel, Lorne Michaels, Rick Moranis…
And John Morgan, Katherine O’Hara, Hart Pomerantz, Martin Short, Leslie Nielsen, Steve Smith (Red Green), Alan Thicke, Dave Thomas, Scott Thompson, Mary Charlotte Wilcox. In downtown Toronto, Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club was rocking with laughter at the impressions, pratfalls, goofy jokes and boyish smiles of a young Jim Carrey…
Slain RCMP Const. David Ross’ dog Danny at the funeral procession for the three RCMP officers killed in Moncton, NB.
[3] The October Crisis would remain our lone homegrown terrorist attack on Canadian soil for four decades. Until June 4, 2014, when a gunman dressed in camouflage and armed with high powered guns shot five members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Moncton, New Brunswick.
Three of the officers were killed: Constable David Joseph Ross, Constable Fabrice Georges Gevaudan and Constable Douglas James Larche.
The regimental funeral was broadcast live across Canada. As the National Post wrote: “Dog handler Ross’ K9 partner, Danny, whimpered by the side of his partner’s casket during Tuesday’s emotional funeral, moving many Canadians across the country to tears. Danny didn’t stray far from the hearse carrying the casket of Ross during the funeral procession and was photographed sniffing Ross’s Stetson.”
Justin and Sophie Trudeau – Canada’s Fairy Tale Romance
[6] Although with women tweeting things like “super hot good looks!” and “pmilf” — whatever that means — Trudeaumania could be building, this time internationally.
[8] Yes, Conservative! It was former Conservative Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, referring to the “tremendous energy, enthusiasm and initiative of young people concerned about pollution,” who drove the official creation of Environment Week in Canada, observed each year in the first week of June. Under the Liberals, John Diefenbaker’s Environment Week has been almost forgotten.
“Our Greenest Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney.”
And Brian Mulroney’s proactive environmental legislation and international treaties will be his greatest achievement. Remember Chlorofluorocarbons? Remember Acid Rain? It’s the hard work and international treaties of Prime Minister Mulroney, President Ronald Reagan and President George H W Bush that began to get control of those deadly, destructive forces. (And what thanks have they got?)
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien gave us hope when we signed the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, followed by three 2002 environmental laws, including the The Species at Risk Act which fulfilled promises made by Mr Mulroney at the 1992 Earth Summit. And then Jean dropped the ball. Paul and Stephen just kicked it around in the Dark Decade. So Justin’s solemn promise to pick up where the man who earned the title of “Canada’s Greenest Prime Minister” — Brian Mulroney — left off must be kept!
Although the Conservation movement came out of the traditional conservative cultures of Northern Europe, especially Germany, it was Republican Theodore Roosevelt who popularized the phrase “Climate Change.” President Teddy Roosevelt was warning Americans about “Climate Change” and “Deforestation” way back in 1908, in his prophetic “Eighth Annual Message to the Senate and House of Representatives” – SEE Teddy Roosevelt Called it Climate Change in 1908!
Justin and Sophie Trudeau – Canada’s Fairy Tale Romance
Keywords: Brian Alan Burhoe, Fairy Tale Romance, Justin and Sophie, Justin Trudeau, Laureen Harper, North-West Mounted Police, Prime Minister Trudeau, Sophie Trudeau interview, Trudeau quotes
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We’re a three dog family (one after another, and not counting the dogs my wife grew up with as a girl). Yukon King, Brandy and Mocha. [1]
One, a part Lab, was an easy train. The other two, a Husky mix and a German Shepherd, required more of our time. So a big answer to the question “How can I train the best puppy?” is: “Depends on the breed.”
Labrador and Golden Retrievers are, on the whole, easier to train than a husky, bulldog or pit bull puppy. That’s just the way it is.
Here from our fave trainer, New Zealander Dan Abdelnoor, affectionately known by his many fans as DOGGY DAN, is a Guest Blog…
HOW TO TRAIN A PRIMO PUPPY:
For years, I’ve been asked, “How do you raise the perfect dog?” It’s what we all want but the question is — does the perfect dog exist?
Here’s my best advice.
Before you find yourself headed off to a local puppy school to see your canine being taught to do high-fives, roly-polies and the commando crawl, ask yourself this: Is this what my dream dog must do? Is a primo puppy basically a performing pony whom I coax out when company comes visiting so that they can say “Cool! That’s amazing, mate. What an intelligent dog. How did you train him to do THAT?”
The hard reality is that in so many circumstances the next thing the dog owner has to do is warn the visitors “Oh, don’t go near his food bowl when he’s eating. Don’t pat him on the head. And do not let your kids go near his toys!”
Insane, isn’t it? We take so much time trying to teach commands such as Sit and Stay but never even think about the really critical stuff. And when we do it’s usually kind of late.
Why is this? Because most canine trainers are just doing what everyone else is doing. And that’s teaching the Sit, the Down and the Stay!
Yup. Just like sheep, everyone following each other and nobody asking WHY? Think about it: has a dog ever been put to sleep (yes, I am talking about euthanization) because they didn’t do a proper sit? Or because their down command was a kind of leisurely?
Or because they had an unsure Stay?
Of course not. Who really cares about that stuff? Yet that’s what we all learn at puppy school! WHY?!
Puppy Training: Housebreaking & Aggression
But… Housebreaking? Dogs instinctively know not to urinate and defecate in their own dens. But this can quickly become a problem to inexperienced pet owners. And few professional trainers tackle this number one problem.
Aggression? Oh Boy. Most dogs are put down for aggression, barking, growling, challenging and other bad behavior. Aggressive to children, owners, strangers – its all bad news. There’s nothing more dangerous than a rebellious dog, pulling you along on the leash, ignoring you when you let them off. Never mind the danger to themselves around moving vehicles and other animals.
Yet not many canine training classes are teaching you how to forestall all of this, because very few actually comprehend it themselves!
Most folk’s real idea of a perfect dog include all of the following five important behaviors:
Calm around all other animals including dogs
Friendly to all people, especially children
Relaxed and obedient around the home
Perfect at coming when called at the park
Outstanding when walking on the leash in public
Hhmmm — I can hear you thinking — He’s got a point! [2]
[1] UPDATE: Saturday, June 10, 2023. And now, these years later, after the third heartbreaking loss of our Mocha, we’ve doggy downsized. On our little Cocker’s vest hangs a stainless steel tag. It reads “BELLA” on one side, along with our landline number. On the other side, along with entwinned hearts, it reads “Please Call My folks. I’m Their Support Dog!” We love her!
When Prime Minister Stephen Harper used the phrase “old stock Canadians” in the September 17th leaders debate, he sure stepped into it.
We knew what he meant by Old Stock — although he’s tried to publicly redefine the meaning since.
“Being of good stock” has been a European aristocratic phrase for a thousand years and more. “Bloodline” and “stock” are commonly used to express pride in your ancestry. In Canada, Old Stock really refers to — as Stéphane Dion once commented — “middle-aged old stock French-Canadians or English-Canadians.” Descendants of Northern European settlers with their Celtic Christian beliefs and traditional ties of blood and land.
When Stephen Harper blurted out those three little words, Old Stock Canadians, he set off a firestorm throughout the Dominion.
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau responded with “A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.”
First Nations Mi’kmaq Elder Stephen Augustine said on CBC Radio that he found the term “offensive and racist.” [1]
So, why am I writing this post?
Because on my Father’s side I’m Old Stock and proud of it.
The first Burhoe joined the British Army in 1776 and mustered out of the Royal Nova Scotia Volunteer Regiment in 1783 to build a farmstead and raise a family right here. [2]
During those seven years of military service, John Burhoe saw a seismic change in the political structure of the New World, including Canadian.
From scattered British Colonies and independent First People’s nations — to a young expanding republic to the south and our newly formed British North America in the north. Already, of course, those who lived in British North America were calling our new settled lands “Canada.” A Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, word meaning “Home Village.” And ourselves Canadians.
Following the rise of Manifest Destiny and the attempted Invasion of 1812, Canada became a true nation onto itself. Chief Tecumseh led his warriors in staunch defence of the fledgling Canada. John A MacDonald fought hard to create a brand spanking new nation — our Dominion.
And then lawlessness and trading company forts flying foreign flags threatened our western frontier. And the very survival of our new Confederation. Prime Minister MacDonald responded by creating the legendary North-West Mounted Police. The story of our Mounties becoming our National Epic, giving us some of our greatest heroes. [3]
When Prime Minister John Diefenbaker gave his 1960 “Dominion Day Speech” introducing his magnificent Canadian Bill of Rights, he proudly referred to “the two great basic races” that came together to create Canada. Although he didn’t quite mean it that way, I always took the Two Races to be the First Nations and the Northern European settlers. Especially French and English. In that stirring address to the nation, he pledged that his Bill of Rights would “give to Canadians the realization that wherever a Canadian may live, whatever his race, his religion or his colour, the Parliament of Canada will be jealous of his rights and will not infringe upon those rights.” [4]
As I’ve written elsewhere, my Father served in the Canadian Algonquin Regiment during World War II…
…and told me of his friendship and respect for the Northern Cree he served with in the Regiment. As I’ve said, “Out of those yarns, I developed an image of Native and English Canadians, not antagonists, but standing side by side, with the word CANADA on both their shoulders. Fighting our common enemies and building our uncommon nation.” [5]
I’ve always believed that this great nation was built by all of us. Side by side.
And I’m proud of our heritage, and the part my family has played in it.
Which makes me Old Stock, eh?
Well, yes.
Except for this: January 7, 1946. Pier 21, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
With 300 other British war brides, my mother disembarked from the “Reunion Ship” Stavangerfjord. After being fed a hot meal by the Red Cross, she said a tearful farewell to other war brides she had befriended and got on a steam train for Saint John, where she was reunited with my father. Making me, on my mother’s side, an immigrant’s son.
Mum tried to fit in to her new homeland. After five years she grew homesick, and we boarded a big ocean liner bound for England. I lived in Yorkshire from ages 4 to 8 — formative years, for sure.
When we returned to Canada, I considered myself a true Canadian kid returning to my Home and Native Land — a land that was green and alive with wildlife and just as I remembered it.
But by then I spoke like a Yok-shah tyke (if you’ve watched Coronation Street or listened to the Beatles speak, ‘appen you know summat of the Northern English voice, Luv). I looked like them but I didn’t sound like them and quickly learned what it was like to be treated like a stranger from an alien land. A Newcomer. An Outsider.
In a sense, I’ve been one ever since.
But I’ve lived here and thrived here and played my part in building our nation. And fallen in love with and married a gal who is part Mi’kmaq and proud of it. And we had children who don’t hide their pride in being Canadian.
We welcome and accept everyone here — everyone who’s willing to contribute to our ever evolving Home Village.
[1] Stephen Augustine is Hereditary Chief of the Sigenigtog District Mi’kmawey Mawiomi and Keptin on the Mi’kmaq Grand Council. He went on to say, “We have a long tradition of opening our doors and sharing our food and resources to people who are in need. We’ve always done that. I’m talking about John Cabot, Jacques Cartier, Samuel de Champlain. All these people arrived here and the Mi’kmaq opened their arms and welcomed them. And said ‘you are our brothers.'”
Ron Tremblay, a member of the Wolastoq Grand Council and Wolastoq First Nation, added to the conversation: “The Wolastoqeyiyik signed Peace and Friendship Treaties in the 17th Century. They were with the first Refugees who sailed from France (becoming the Acadian settlers). Who were searching for a better place to live and escape the uneasiness that was evolving in their country.”
[4] Conservative John Diefenbaker remains my favourite Prime Minister — even though Brian Mulroney has been justly called “Canada’s Greenest Prime Minister,” a true badge of honour. We sure could use a Green PM now.
But Dief — he had that fierce belief in individual rights that I, only age 10 or 11, immediately responded to. And he gave the First Nations the vote. Popularized the Northern Vision. Gave powerful speeches that captured even a young boy’s attention. “I was criticized for being too much concerned with average Canadians. I can’t help that — I’m one of them!” “As long as there’s a drop of blood in my body they won’t stop me from talking about Freedom.”
Names for Bears: Baby Bear & Cute Teddy Bear Names
“It must be pretty scary having a bear as a pet! But! Why not? If there are any bear keepers out there, make sure you keep them well away! On the other hand, our Teddy bears are a different story…” – Tong Lin, Pet Name Zone.
PET BABY BEAR NAMES…
Winnie the Pooh is perhaps the most well known of all bear names.
On a sunny day in the early 1920’s, author A A Milne and his son Christopher Robin were strolling through the London Zoo. Young Christopher spotted a Canadian black bear, “Oh look, Father. I like him.” The name plaque identified the black bear as Winnie.
The bear had been left by a Canadian soldier on his way to the fierce French battlefields in World War I. The tame bear had been the regimental mascot of the Fort Garry Horse Regiment, out of Winnipeg, Manitoba. And was named “Winnie” after the city of Winnipeg.
Christopher Robin loved the bear and loved its name, calling his new teddy bear Winnie the Pooh. In 1924, Milne released his first book telling the adventures of his son and his cuddly yellow bear dressed in a red shirt: WINNIE-THE-POOH.
Another famous name is Yogi Bear made popular by the Hanna-Barbera cartoons of this mischievous bear and his pal Boo Boo in Jellystone National Park. And then there are the Berenstain Bears: Mama, Papa, Brother and Sister Bear.
Pet Bear Names? Very few people keep bears as pets, at least not full-grown adult bears.
There was a time when circuses raised and trained bears for performance. But the Animal Rights movement has all but ended this practice, which most often involved inhuman treatment.
Hollywood has seen a number of trained bears. Tho were kept by their trainers as pets and given loving homes. Bruno was an orphaned black bear who would play the role of TV’s GENTLE BEN. Bozo was a rescued circus bear, a loving and gentle female grizzly bear who played next to trainer/actor Dan Haggerty in THE ADVENTURES OF GRIZZLY ADAMS. Today, perhaps the most famous televised bruin is Brutus, who lives with naturalist Casey Anderson.
Since so few of us keep a bear as a pet, it’s unlikely that you’ll need any help in naming your pet bear.
Zoos and other organizations that do need to name new bruin cubs often hold a competition in which they ask children to send in suggested names and they choose one of these names through a random selection.
TEDDY BEAR NAMES…
And, of course, there is a problem many families face: naming a new Teddy Bear.
So, what are great Teddy bear names?
First. Consider some of the popular names for real bears housed in zoos:
Ardal
Arthur
Bernard
Bernal
Gregory
Maximilian
Oberon
Osborn
Yosemite
These are all names that reflect the strength and might of a bear. Popular names for female bears in zoos are:
Avla
Bernadette
Calesta
Jerica
Orsa
Ursula
Nadette
As mentioned, for the most part people choose a bear name for their teddy bear or stuffed plush bear.
They usually try to choose a name that has some significance for them such as a name surrounding the occasion on which they received it.
A white stuffed teddy bear that was a Christmas gift could aptly be named White Christmas, Christmas or Noel. Birthday Bear would be a suitable name for a teddy bear you received as a birthday gift. Some try to choose a name that has a close connection to the colour of the bear, like Whitey, Blackie, or Brownie.
The Queen Elizabeth Teddy bear released to celebrate her 2012 Jubilee invited different names. “Lilibet” — the endearment given Elizabeth in her girlhood. “Cabbage” — Prince Philip’s loving nickname for the Queen.
Making their own bear is now a popular activity for children.
In this activity Children and adults choose the color and material for their own bear and create it themselves, right down to the outfits. They also choose a name for their bear at the same time, which could be basically any name you can think of.
Since a bear is perceived to be a cuddly creature, many of the names have to do with this feeling. Cuddles and Pookie are examples. However, if you want to choose a name that has a specific meaning, you can browse a list of names and their meanings:
Male Names: –
Asbjorn – Swedish name meaning divine bear
Avonaco – a native American name meaning lean bear
Benat – Basque form of Bernard, which means bold as a bear
Osbourne – meaning god-bear
Nanook – an Inuit name for the polar bear
Edon – meaning rich bear cub
Orson – meaning bear cub
Female Names: –
Berengari – meaning bear-spear
Orsola – meaning little she bear
Bernadita – meaning bold as a bear
Giju’muin – native Mi’kmaq, meaning mother bear
Teddy Bear Names Meaning…
There are quite a number of names that mean “Little She Bear,” which would be the perfect name for a small teddy bear:
Menina Ursa – Portugese
Xiǎo tā xióng – Chinese
Poco Sopporta – Italian
Petite Elle Porte – French
Litla Hún Ber – Icelandic
Bärenmädchen – German
Niña Oso – Spanish
For daily use, these names would naturally be shortened to cute endearments such as Poco, Litla or Nina.
By choosing one of these unusual full names, it’s very likely that when someone hears the name they will want to know the story behind it.[1]
– Tong Lin. Keeper of Teddy Bear Names. “What was your childhood Teddy called? I can proudly say that I’ve still got my Julius, AKA Groucho.”
– Brian Alan Burhoe. “You can learn more exciting stuff about popular bears in Fact and Fiction at my ZERO COOL BEARS – ALL THINGS BRUIN!”
Read “How the Bear Lost its Tail” — The Oldest Known Bear Story…
You’ve gotta read our new retelling of the oldest known Bear Story of them All! Listen!
“Long ago — when our Sacred Green Earth was young and much more alive — Bear, like his cousins the Wolf and the Fox, had a long beautiful tail.
“One chilled winter day, Bear shuffled down to the lake and saw that Fox was feasting on some fish. Licking his chops, Bear asked him, ‘Fox, ol’ friend, how did you manage to catch all those fish?’
“The cunning fox saw his chance to make a fool of Bear…”
You ask, little cub, about what lies beyond this world. Let me tell you a story…
An Ant was climbing up the rough bark of a big maple tree when he saw a renowned Wise Ol’ Bear shuffle up to the base of the tree. The bear sat down on the leafy green ground, leaning with a big sigh against the trunk.
Knowing of the bear’s great knowledge, the Ant spoke up with his loudest voice: “Please excuse me! I’m wondering — what lies on the Other Side?”
And the Ol’ Bear puffed himself up and explained all that was known about such things by Civilized Bearkind and recorded by Humans who had been here before us. The Ol’ Bear spoke of ghosts and woodspirits and seasons and moons and planets and suns and galaxies and how the universe will someday sputter out like the last sparking embers of a burned out fire log.
When he was done, the Ant shook his little head in confusion and said, “I just wanted to know what’s on the other side of the tree.”
If so, you’ve got to read my popular short story “THE BOY WHO WAS RAISED BY BEARS.” It is a Traditional Native American Animal Story & Folktale Retold.
Talking bears and human children adopted and raised by loving mama bears are common story themes in both Old and New World oral traditions. Even J R R Tolkien wrote about Beowulf and Bear’s Son Tales in European folklore.
Gentle Giants: Famous Bears in Fact & Fiction – from Ben to Bozo Bear
Famous Bears in Fact & Fiction – Gentle Ben to Grizzly Adams
“GRIZZLY BEARS ARE THE TRUE MONARCHS OF THE WILDERNESS.” – Jane Goodall
Famous Bears in Fiction
As I said in my post “Bears in Literature” — bears have appeared in our folk tales since we first told stories. Especially in Northern cultures, where the bear was seen as a fierce and noble animal. Literally, in Northern Europe, the original “King of Beasts.”
Some cultures, especially First Nations and Northern European, believed that Bear was Humankind’s closest blood relative. Many chieftains and war leaders in old Nordic, Celtic, Germanic and Anglo-Saxon clans claimed to have Bear blood in their ancestry.
Famous fictional bears include Rudyard Kipling ‘s Baloo, A A Milne’s Winnie-the Poo, Michael Bond’s Paddington, Walt Morey’s Gentle Ben. As well as favourites Yogi and Boo Boo. [1]
Perhaps the best known Ursine-themed story is “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” which drifted from fiction to real life when the bear who played Gentle Ben on TV once ran into the woodlands around Miami and met a little girl who was all by herself…
Famous Bears in Fact
From ferocious and dangerous attackers — to loving and carefree friends — real life bears have appeared in Hollywood productions from the beginning.
In Canada, movies like Nell Shipman’s silver screen classics of the Silent Era, Back To God’s Country and Trail of the Northwind, were popular. Both were filmed with animals from Nell’s own wildlife rescue sanctuary. They included Brownie, a laid back brown bear Nell had raised from an orphaned cub. [2]
Here are a few of the most famous real bears:
1. Bruno, aka Ben. Bruno, along with his brother Smokey, was rescued as an orphaned black bear. He appeared in a number of Ivan Tors film features, including Daktari and Zebra in the Kitchen. And Gentle Giant.
As a young bear he swam with Suzy the dolphin who played Flipper.
Bruno’s career blossomed when he was cast as the title character in the televised version of Walt Morey’s beloved novel GENTLE BEN.
Author Walt Morey was raised in the Pacific Northwest and set his novels in the cold Northcountry of Alaska and Canada, including his popular and best selling KAVIC THE WOLF DOG and GENTLE BEN.
Found in the Everglades…
When Tors adapted GENTLE BEN for the screen, he changed the locale from Alaska to the Florida Everglades, where the producer had a wildlife sanctuary.
Bruno quickly learned to respond to the name “Ben.” While becoming the most famous bear of them all.
Ricou Browning, who directed many episodes, explained, “Ben was a big puppy dog. He wasn’t well-trained; he was just tame. We had other black bears, some trained better than him, that we used as doubles and backups, and also for stunts and tricks. Gentle Ben’s main capacity in the show was to work with the boy (Clint Howard) and to be friendly and nice.” [3]
A bear named Buck was the most commonly used stand-in for Ben. Other bears used for special action scenes were Smokey, Drum, Hammer, Oscar, Baron, Tudor and Virgil. Hammer was used in swimming and bear-fight scenes. Unknown, but famous bears in their own way.
“The boy,” Mark Wedlow, was expertly played by Clint Howard. Clint had already established a buzz by playing the small alien Balok in Star Trek.
Browning recalled, “A number of times Ben accidently stepped on Clint’s foot, you know, a 650-pound bear stepping on your foot can hurt a little. Tears would come into Clint’s eyes. But he was a rugged little boy. He managed well.”
Clint and Ben were immediate friends: “He’s as gentle as my cat Mitts. It doesn’t matter how big he is, I’m not afraid of him and he’s not afraid of me,” Clint said.
Lost in Miami…
The biggest scare they got while filming came the day Gentle Ben, alarmed by a sudden noise, “took off into the woods down here south of Miami. We all went after him with lassoes, but nobody could find him — a 650-pound black bear running loose in Miami…”
What followed was a three day bear hunt, with the crew worried that someone else — with a gun — would find him first.
“On the third day,” continued Ricou, “a little girl was riding her bike on one of the bicycle trails and rode up to our bear. She had her lunch basket with her, so she shared her lunch with our bear then let us know that she’d found him. Why the little girl wasn’t frightened to death, I don’t know.”
Producer Ivan Tors wasn’t surprised at the result of this citywide bear hunt, explaining, “Humans have only given Ben good experiences so Ben only gives good experiences in return.”
Memories of Gentle Ben
Although, in his memoir, Ivan Tors admitted to a basic animal training trick: “The room was full of reporters from various magazines and newspapers. They were all elated when they saw me enter with my leading bear. I sat down in a comfortable armchair, and Ben immediately sat down on the carpet right next to me. He did not move or create any disturbance during the interview. This wasn’t really because he was so polite. You see, my pocket was full of lemon drops, and Ben wanted to be close to the origin of this heavenly scent. He also knew that he would, in due time, receive his reward.”
Tors then goes on to warn his readers about meeting (and feeding) bears in the wild — especially in National Parks. [4]
Forever Home on the Ranch…
After the Gentle Ben series was suddenly cancelled as an early victim of the infamous Rural Purge, 0ne of Ben’s trainers, Ron Oxley, moved the amiable bruin back to California. Ben lived a lighthearted life at Oxley’s Action Animals Ranch.
Now called “Bruno” again (at least in the cast credits), he appeared in a number of new productions, including The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean starring Paul Newman. John Huston plays an aging Grizzly Adams in it. And Shadow of the Hawk with Chief Dan George.
Dennis Weaver, by the way, who portrayed the boy’s father (Park ranger Tom Wedloe) used to love to play and roughhouse with Ben the bear between takes. That, and “driving the airboat on the Everglades,” were Weaver’s “fun things to do.”
Weaver, best remembered as Chester Goode on Gunsmoke and Deputy Marshal Sam McCloud, would go on to become a noted vegetarian, environmentalist and animal rights activist.
2. Bozo, aka Ben. Certainly one of the famous bears. Bozo was a female Kodiak bear. She was found working in a travelling circus. Nothing was known about her cubhood.
Though animal trainer Dan Haggerty believed that because of “her amazing affection for humans” she had been raised as a pet and then sold to the circus when she got bigger.
When the independent feature movie The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams was cast, Haggerty was picked as both the bear’s trainer (the bear was supposed to be a male named Ben) and as the actor portraying the title character, James “Grizzly” Adams.
Adams was a real-life independent mountain man who had lived in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California in the 1860’s.
Haggerty had already experienced working with animals in movies and television, including some Disney productions and the live-action Tarzan series. Since “actors didn’t like animals leaping on them,” he easily found work as a stuntman, double and animal handler. “I had lions and chimps and leopards and all kinds of things. So working with the bear and the eagle and all that was a very natural thing for me to do.”
The movie became the surprise international hit of 1974. Consequently leading NBC to make it as a television prime time program. The series was released in 1977. Another bruin added to the Famous Bears!
The series lasted two seasons, with a total of 37 episodes. It’s become a beloved classic. In fact — after constant demands by fans — NBC brought back the cast in 1982 and made a TV movie titled The Capture of Grizzly Adams.
As Dan Haggerty concluded, “I think the response to Grizzly Adams shows something very important. I think it shows that people like blue skies and animals and simple things that are clean and honest.”
When Bozo developed health problems, she was retired to the Folsom Children’s Zoo in Lincoln, Nebraska, where she received care. Bozo the Bear passed in her sleep while hibernating in January, 1990. “She was my girlfriend and my best friend and one of the best animals I ever worked with,” said Haggerty.
3. Brutus the Bear. Here’s another member of the Famous Bears Club! Brutus was only a newborn grizzly cub when wildlife enthusiast Casey Anderson found him in an animal preserve. The grizzly would eventually grow to become a 800 pound adult — and a friend.
As Anderson explains, grizzlies raised in captivity can’t be released back into the wilderness. For one thing, it takes a grizzly mama a full two years to teach a cub the necessities of hunting and surviving in the wild. In fact, without its mother to protect and teach it, the cub will lose its life. And bears raised around humans become too trusting of Humankind — not a good survival trait in Hunting Season.
So Anderson raised the cub himself.
He built the Montana Grizzly Encounter, an animal rescue sanctuary, where Brutus can live. And has shown him on TV on programs like National Geographic’s Expedition Wild.
“There is nothing special about me,” says Anderson. “But Brutus is an exceptional grizzly bear, who just happens to have me as his pet. In the beginning there was a lot of roaring, with me lying on top of Brutus, as we rolled around on the ground and I growled in his ear and called him a bad boy. We understand each other now, with the result that we exchange a lot of high fives and I frequently call him a good boy.” [5]
Brutus was Anderson’s Best Man when the naturalist filmmaker married actress Missi Pyle.
4. Blaze the Mama Grizzly. On the very day I’m writing this, the popular Yellowstone Park mother Grizzly Bear Blaze is making news. It’s bad news.
Park workers have hunted down and captured Blaze Bear. A human hiker has apparently been killed by a bear. It’s reported that he accidentally stumbled upon the sleeping mama and her cubs. If it’s determined that the attacking animal was Blaze, she will be slaughtered. No news yet what they will do with her cubs.
There’s online action, including Twitter, saying “DO NOT KILL BLAZE!”
The National Park Service is reported as saying that “the mother bear has been trapped, but not the cubs who they can hear calling for their mother from the surrounding forest. The park service has said the bears will be killed if DNA testing matches them to the evidence around the hiker’s body.”
It’s also reported that the poor hiker wasn’t carrying bear spray.
When I was a much younger man, neither did I. The recklessness of youth. But knowing what I do now, and loving bears as I do, I now carry bear spray when in the woods, as well as my hunting knife and occasional weaponry…
UPDATE: Friday, Aug 14. This morning I had to Tweet: “#RememberBlaze! RT NEWS: THEY KILLED BLAZE & SENT HER ORPHANED CUBS TO A ZOO! REMEMBER BLAZE! HUMAN STUPIDITY…”
A sad day — one battle lost, but the long struggle to save all living creatures we share our Sacred Earth with must never end.
If so, you’ve got to read my popular short story “THE BOY WHO WAS RAISED BY BEARS.” A Traditional Native American Animal Story & Folktale Retold. A Story for our New Spirituality.
Talking bears and human children adopted and raised by loving mama bears are common story themes in both Old and New World oral traditions. Even J R R Tolkien wrote about Beowulf and Bear’s Son Tales in European folklore.
[1] To see my complete posting BEARS IN LITERATURE, CLICK HERE NOW!
[2] To learn more about Nell Shipman and her popular Wilderness & Wildlife movies, as well as other WOMEN PIONEERS OF ANIMAL RIGHTS, CLICK HERE NOW!
[3] From THE GREAT SHOW BUSINESS ANIMALS by David Rothel, published 1980, A S Barnes & Company, California. A long-time personal fave — this essential book should be reprinted!
[4] Ivan Tors, MY LIFE IN THE WILD, published 1979, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.
[5] Casey Anderson, THE STORY OF BRUTUS: My Life With Brutus The Bear And The Grizzlies Of North America, published 2010, Pegasus Books, New York.
In Conclusion, Famous Bears in Fact & Fiction – Gentle Ben to Grizzly Adams.
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“Tread carefully when you follow the Wolf Trail.” – Brian Alan Burhoe
As I wrote in my popular article DOG INTELLIGENCE – THE TOP 10 MOST INTELLIGENT DOG BREEDS, cross-bred husky/wolf hybrids were once common in the Canadian Northcountry.
My short story WOLFBLOOD deals with this theme (and readers keep asking me, “What happens to the wolf dog puppies?”).
I described how First Nations people deliberately interbred their sled dogs with gray wolves. The result was a big intelligent animal adapted to the wild country. As mechanized transport was introduced to the North, the need for working sled dogs decreased…
1. HISTORY — Wolves to Dogs
When French and English explorers first arrived in the savage Northcountry of Canada and Alaska, the natives would commonly warn them to “Watch out for the dogs!”
Those wolfdogs were big, fierce and dangerous. Most were kept outdoors, although gentler “less wolfish” puppies were sometimes allowed indoors with families.
The outside world heard about these mixed breeds mostly from the popular fiction of adventurous writers who knew the country. Their books became best sellers. Books like WHITE FANG by Jack London. KAZAN THE WOLF DOG by James Oliver Curwood. And SILVER CHIEF: DOG OF THE NORTH by Jack O’Brien. Although they were writing fiction, these authors knew their subjects well. They had traveled the Northlands.
Jack O’Brien, for instance, was described by his publisher as “one of those soldiers of fortune to whom adventure and danger are the spice of life.”
As Chief Surveyor for Admiral Byrd’s first Antarctic Expedition of 1928-1930, O’Brien was in charge of the dog teams taken along on that historic trip. He drove huskies on prospecting ventures into Northern Canada and worked so often with the big sled dogs that “he came to know them as few men do.”
The last interbred wolfdogs to be used as working dogs were in the Ungava area of the Canadian Northwest Territories.
American writer and explorer George Marsh wrote about these last wolfdogs, the Ungava huskies, in novels such as FLASH THE LEAD DOG and THE HEART OF THE KING-DOG.
With the advent of snowmobiles and other gas-driven machines, sled dogs were mostly abandoned as working animals.
Competitive racing became the rage of the age, growing in popularity.
Thus began a deliberate breeding of modern huskies and malamutes for speed. Crossbreeding northern dogs with southern racing breeds. The result is a much smaller animal. The huskies you see in present day movies and videos are much smaller and sleeker than the old wolfdogs of a hundred years ago.
2. TODAY — Is My Dog Part Wolf?
Are wolfdogs legal? Yes and no. In most countries, there’s no law against interbreeding canine species. Owning them may be a problem. Many cities, because of population numbers, tend to have more proactive pet bylaws than rural areas with their open countryside.
In the US, Alaska has no wolf/dog hybrid breeding laws. Probably because Alaska (along with the Canadian Yukon and Northwest Territories) have that cultural history of such interbreeding. It’s interesting to note that cat crossbreeding is illegal in Alaska — owning a kitten from mating a domestic cat with any species of wild cat is illegal.
In Missouri, you must have a permit to confine a hybrid wolf. Texas laws vary county by county.
In Canada, owning a pure wolf is illegal. But not wolf hybrids.
In other words, check with your local Lands & Forests. Or veterinarian.
In North America, such animals are often the result of happenstance. A rural female pet who meets a bachelor wolf, usually without the pet owner’s knowledge – until the puppies appear.
Although there are a number of independent American and Canadian breeders advertising and selling wolfdog puppies. Like Wolves USA, who say, “My wolfdogs are my greatest passion – words can’t express the majesty and intelligence these animals exude, they are grace beyond description. When I have secured the right kind of homes for the pups, my wolfdogs have litters once a year in Spring. Their bloodlines contain Canada Blackphase Wolf, Alaskan Tundra, Alaskan Interior, Arctic Wolves and Canadian Gray.”
3. BREEDING WOLFDOGS
In Europe, however, there have been a number of attempts to create a recognized standard wolfdog breed. Like the Czechoslovakian Wolfdog. And the European, or Dutch wolfdog.
The most successful results came from Dutch breeder Leendert Saarloos. In the 1920’s, Saarloos (believing that radical breeding had genetically weakened the modern domestic dog, creating sickly and inferior animals) decided to take Canis familiaris back to its ancestral roots, Canis lupus.
“Saarloos began the creation of the European Wolfdog by crossing a German Shepherd Dog called Gerard with a female wolf called Fleur. That pairing between GSD and wolf produced a total of twenty wolf-dog hybrids over time. He then crossed those half-wolves back with their father the German Shepherd Dog Gerard producing a new stock of hybrids that were just quarter wolf,” explains dog breeding expert and writer “Kayye Nynne” [1] who goes on to say:
“His quarter wolf-dog mix canines were extremely shy and wary of people, an undesirable trait that 12,000 years of domestication had apparently relieved the domestic dog of. Wild wolves are notoriously shy and wary of Humans and generally avoid people as much as possible.
“Furthermore his Saarloos Wolfhounds were little disposed to the usual methods of training and overall made for second rate work dogs. The Wolfdogs were also lousy guard dogs because they just plain refused to attack and made for equally bad watchdogs because just like the wolf, barking simply was not their thing.”
As our friend Kayye concludes:
“In the end, what it really boiled down to was that the Saarloos Wolfdog had inherited a tad too much of the wolf gene. Wolves are highly intelligent animals that are very adept at escaping confinement within man-made enclosures, something that the average domestic dog is not.
“It’s in fact now believed that wild canids learn through insight whereas the domestic dog learns by rote and repetition. Yet people tend to think of dogs that do their bidding willingly and eagerly as intelligent and those that don’t as dumb.”
Despite these difficulties, the Saarloos Wolfdog (known as the Saarlooswolfhond in Holland) has been recognized as a true breed.
4. WOLFDOGS FOR SALE
Are wolfdogs legal? In most localities, yes.
But if you answer a “Wolfdog For Sale” ad, you should be aware of a couple things. One, wolfdog hybrid experts are saying things like “75% of all claimed wolf dogs are actually just dogs.” Second, you might find that you’ve got an animal not quite suited to your own expectations or lifestyle. A wolf IS a wild animal. And they like it that way. Hybrid wolf-dogs can be the same.
Like wolves, wolfdogs can be willful, with a prey drive that makes them want to prowl for food. They may fight obedience training from any human not recognized as the Alpha. Northern breeds may want to live outdoors, especially on hot summer days.
They make poor watchdogs — they rarely bark but might frighten the neighbours with wolfish howls in the night. Our first Husky, Yukon King, did that. It was fun seeing King quietly laying for a mouse before pouncing on it just like a cat.
Wolfdogs often don’t take to grocery store dog food. They really want raw food. “How much raw food to feed dog?” is a common question. The answer is trickier. See Learn the FOOD FACTS About Raw Dog Food.
We may like the whole concept of adopting a captive-bred wolf, a wolfdog or other exotic hybrid. And many folks rise to the challenge and provide a loving home for them. But other folks find they’ve just got “too much dog” on their hands and abandon their canine charge. Unless they can find a proper rescue group to take over the homing of the suddenly unwanted animal — such as Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary of New Mexico or the Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary of Alberta, Canada — the end result can be tragic.
BREAKING NEWS: Another sanctuary that’s recently gained a great reputation is the Shy Wolf Sanctuary in Naples, Florida — the “Gentle Giant” wolfdog Yuki there has become an online sensation.
[1] Kayye Nynne is the “Nom de Chien” of the author of a number of canine-related eBook Guides. His most popular guide is “The Single Biggest Mistake People Make When Choosing A Puppy — And How To Avoid It,” found on Smashwords and Scribd. Recommended! His books have also appeared on iTunes, Chapters Indigo and Amazon.
Post Update: July 25, 2023.
Are Wolfdogs Legal? Wolfdog Facts & Fiction – Wolfdog Breeds.
Are Wolfdogs Legal? Wolfdog Facts & Fiction Keywords: animal rights, are wolfdogs legal? Czechoslovakian wolfdog, high content wolfdog, how much raw food to feed dog, is my dog part wolf, Jack London Tradition. Raw dog food, Ungava huskies, wolf dog, wolfdog breeds, wolfdogs, wolfdogs for sale, wolf and dog, wolves. Best Dog DNA Test. Does My Dog Have WOLF DNA?
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In times gone by, families were bigger — there was always someone around to show Rover the basics of family behaviour. Your kids were there; their friends hanging out after school. Actually, Goldie picked up most things just by participating with family members.
And be sure to read my popular online dog short story…
IF SO, YOU’LL LOVE WOLFBLOOD — MY MOST POPULAR ANIMAL STORY: “HAPPY ENDING!”
Historically, the whole concept of Conservation came from the Right, not the Left. The very word “Ecology” was coined by German traditional conservative landowners who were fighting the massive destruction of their beloved woodlands (valiantly protecting what Wilhelms Riehl called the “mythic darkness of the primordial forest”) and their rich ancestral soil by the new international liberal forces of Progress and coal-fed industrialism.
And then, of course, Justin met Sophie at a Montreal Grand Prix charity ball in 2003.
Insane, isn’t it? We take so much time trying to teach commands such as Sit and Stay but never even think about the really critical stuff. And when we do it’s usually kind of late.
You’ve gotta read our new retelling of the oldest known Bear Story of them All! Listen!
If so, you’ve got to read my popular short story “THE BOY WHO WAS RAISED BY BEARS.” It is a Traditional Native American Animal Story & Folktale Retold.
1. Bruno, aka Ben. Bruno, along with his brother Smokey, was rescued as an orphaned black bear. He appeared in a number of Ivan Tors film features, including Daktari and Zebra in the Kitchen. And Gentle Giant.
2. Bozo, aka Ben. Certainly one of the famous bears. Bozo was a female Kodiak bear. She was found working in a travelling circus. Nothing was known about her cubhood.
3. Brutus the Bear. Here’s another member of the Famous Bears Club! Brutus was only a newborn grizzly cub when wildlife enthusiast Casey Anderson found him in an animal preserve. The grizzly would eventually grow to become a 800 pound adult — and a friend.
The last interbred wolfdogs to be used as working dogs were in the Ungava area of the Canadian Northwest Territories.
