doggiediaries.

Ben Westhoff Each week, Ben Westhoff shares the ups and downs of owning Pippi, the dalmatian mix he and his wife, Anna, adopted as a puppy in late 2009. The reasons dogs jump on people is simple -- they want to be face to face with us. It makes sense; heck, if my head naturally sat 18 inches off the ground I would get tired of it, too. But it's also not something you want your dog to do. Even if you don't mind her jumping up on you, it sets a bad precedent for other people. Not everyone is a dog lover, and even those who are can be put off by a 50-pound wiggle worm getting up in their business. We wrote last year about a woman whom Pippi annoyed after jumping up on her collarbone. You ...

Anna Westhoff Each week, Ben Westhoff shares the ups and downs of owning Pippi, the dalmatian mix he and his wife, Anna, adopted as a puppy in late 2009. When and where dogs do their business has become a highly controversial subject in this column. First things first: Contrary to the insinuations of some of our frequent commenters, we always pick up after Pippi. But the concern about people picking up after their pets is common among many people -- pet owners and non-pet owners alike -- who wish others would practice better puppy peeing etiquette. This becomes even more of an issue during the winter, when snow everywhere means there's nowhere for the droppings to hide. Here in Northern ...

Ben Westhoff Each week, Ben Westhoff shares the ups and downs of owning Pippi, the dalmatian mix he and his wife, Anna, adopted as a puppy in late 2009. Since moving into a new house in a new town, we've got a whole new list of pup-related challenges. Not long ago, Anna wrote about some of our indoor issues, but there are outdoor troubles as well, particularly when it comes to finding a place for Pippi to romp around. We have a backyard, but it doesn't have a fence; we plan to get one of those invisible fences when the snow goes away, but considering it's shaping up as one of the more brutal winters in memory, that won't happen soon. Our former next door neighbor used to give us the run ...

Anna Westhoff Each week, Ben Westhoff shares the ups and downs of owning Pippi, the dalmatian mix he and his wife, Anna, adopted as a puppy in late 2009. After we initially considered names like "Pickle" and "Popcorn," Anna came up with the idea of calling our pup "Pippi," after her girlhood idol, Pippi Longstocking. Sure beats the name they had given her at the shelter: "Jamaica." Though I'm a big fan of "Pippi," it wasn't long before I began riffing on it. Almost immediately I began calling her "Pipsqueak." And then, before long, simply, "Squeak." Following that, for a very long time I called her "Squeakers" or "Squeaky." In fact, for the first year we had her, I probably addressed her ...

Anna Westhoff Each week, Ben Westhoff shares the ups and downs of owning Pippi, the dalmatian mix he and his wife, Anna, adopted as a puppy in late 2009. Anna wrote this week's column. We moved -- again! It seems Ben and I -- and our furry family -- just can't sit still for more than 365 consecutive days. So we packed up and moved ourselves from one New Jersey suburb to another, a few miles away, into a larger place with a yard for Pippi. It's only been a few weeks, but the move brought out some odd behaviors in our dog, and I hope our readers can offer some good advice for handling them. First, Pippi has taken up the habit of jumping on the living room sofa in order to look out the ...

Anna Westhoff Each week, Ben Westhoff shares the ups and downs of owning Pippi, the dalmatian mix he and his wife, Anna, adopted as a puppy in late 2009. A calamitous snowstorm hit the New York area not long ago, and it completely shut us in. Two feet of fluff blocked our exits, and Anna's car was completely covered; from certain directions you couldn't even see it was there. Now, Pippi may hate the rain, but she loves the snow. Right after last winter's blizzard, the two of us roamed our new neighborhood, all alone in the streets, running around and investigating snow banks for an hour or more. We got lost and had to follow our footprints back. The storm this year was so intense that ...