There has been a lot going on for Cricket & Black Magic. The Wedding, the honeymoon, many appearances to make. But like all good celebrities, they know when it’s time to take a break. Last week Cricket & Magic spent the week in the Berkshires visiting with the grandchildren, hanging out under the table for any tidbits that got dropped on the floor, and they went swimming.

Cricket likes wading around in the water, but Black Magic is the real swimmer. He just loves it. Not just getting cooled off, but he just really seems to enjoy the swim. This is a short clip of him enjoying a daily swim on a quiet beach. The sunlight on the water came out as a “rainbow effect” on the video camera, so he seems to be leaving a trail of sparkly shimmer in his wake.

A Little Magic in the Water

Cricket & Black Magic are always a hit, but fortunately Cricket is a member of Therapy Dogs International, so she can make some very special visits. This week Cricket went visiting at an Irish themed party. The music was ah, OK, but Cricket was the star attraction, as usual.

Cricket goes therapy dog visiting

It’s often been said that people look like their owners – or the other way around. True or not, it does appear that dogs not only watch their owners, but learn from their movements.

Dogs mimic their owners

Besides some basics of how things work, like opening a door, I’m sure that dogs learn from their attitudes as well. Because they are Schipperkes, Cricket and Black Magic have natural ‘watch dog’ or ‘guard dog’ alertness and sensitivity to what they interpret as strange, different, or potentially threatening in their environment. However, they have also learned calmness, caring, and in particular, tolerance of children’s behavior. I have chosen not to emphasise their learning tricks for entertainment, but to learn calming and non-threatening approaches that make them suitable for therapy dog work.

Just like kids, dogs are prone to “do what you do, not do what you say.” Obedience training? A good thing, of course. But I also believe dogs personality and understanding of things can be shaped by yours. That should keep us dog owning people on our best behavior.

Cricket & Black Magic are very internet savvy dogs. They have their own blog (here), a Facebook page, a YouTube channel, and their own personal email at Salem Design. (CricketMagic@salemdesign.com). So what to do now that they’ve become such celebrities? Find more dog friends online!

So today Cricket & Magic joined DogTree and introduced themselves. The first group they joined was funny stuff & Youtube dogs. Of course. At first we thought DogTree might be just for AU dogs because of the link address, but when we signed up we could see there was a time zone for us, so that’s cool. We may not meet a lot of dogs on the web site personally, but we surely do like looking at dog pictures, and especially looking at dog videos. We found a place for dog jokes, so there will be more on that later too.

For now, here’s DogTree