This is a short blog today, folks. However, it’s still important, because my dog celebrated his 12th birthday last week. And when I say he celebrated, I mean we did.

Indy did find the time to relax on his birthday, thankfully, because the day was packed full of naps, snacks, and snoozes, along with a walk and car rides. UMC2 made him a birthday card, so on Indy’s birthday, UMC2 presented it and explained the features of the card to him.

Indy did receive some new dog treats, and I was quite surprised that he actually liked them because he’s still hassling us to give him more.

As much as I would like to talk about Indy’s birthday, there’s one thing I can’t avoid and don’t like discussing: his age. He’s now 12 years old, and because dogs age at a different rate than humans; along with their size, he is roughly 65 human years old. Indy is basically a pensioner now, so if he were human, he would probably vote for NZ First and that young Winston Peters.

I’m starting to cry as I write this, because jokes aside, I have to face the reality that we have a senior dog. The warning signs have been there for awhile now. He tried jumping up onto the bed and knocked his front left leg, a few months ago. We’re quite conscious of the height of the bed, so we’re trying to teach him to walk up a ramp, so he can sleep on the bed. He’s not a fan of the ramp.

He still enjoys walks, but he gets tired a lot faster than he used to. Because of this, we try and go for shorter walks with him. Even when Indy is running around in circles, whether he’s inside or outside, he doesn’t go for very long before he needs a rest. We have even changed his dog food to senior dog food.

My previous dog died when he was 10 years old, and it broke my heart. Because of that, I didn’t allow myself to get close to dogs again, even though I love them. That worked until I met my future wife and her dog. Dammit.

Strangely, Indy gave me therapy sessions, when I didn’t even realise I needed them. And now he sleeps on my pillow and clothes. It’s a good reason to put my clothes away, otherwise I’ll just be walking around smelling like a Bichon.

Anyway, we have a senior dog now, and his birthday has just made us appreciate him even more. Even when he is blitzing around the house at 3 am.

Does anybody have a senior pet? How has it changed the way you care for them? As always, please let me know.

Like I said before, I’m sorry, but this blog was shorter this week. Having said that, the Tour of the Solar System returns next week, so prepare yourself! Thank you once again for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. My advice for this week is simple: go and spend some extra time with your pets and I’ll see you next week.

Everybody loves a good threequel, right? Whether its a book, movie, or album, threequels have a reputation of being amazing like Highlander III: The Sorcerer, The Hangover Part III, Taken 3, or RoboCop 3. Classics. So just like them, I put forth a new chapter in the history of awesome threequels: My dog’s eating habits are getting strange: The conclusion.

For those of you living in blissful ignorance, the first and second chapters of this thrilling trilogy, can be found on my blog.

For a quick recap:

• My dog’s name is Indy and he’s 11 years old.
• I noticed Indy was eating figuratively and literally, half of his food in his bowl.
• I decided to study how he was eating the food, by recording it on the calendar; every day for a year.
• It was always the same type of dog food in his bowl.
• I published a blog covering the results from January-June 2022.
• I published a blog covering the results from July-December 2022.

This blog is going to cover the results for the entire year and if anything at all, can be discovered from the results; other than the debate about whether the dog or the owner is weirder. And with that compelling introduction, let’s do this for the third and final time!

2022 results:

The percentages work out to be:

Left: 39%  Right: 33%   Top: 10%   Bottom: 8%   Centre: 1%  All: 5%   Hour Glass: 1%  Did not eat: 3%

So what does this all mean?

1.) Based over the year, it’s plain to see that Indy prefers eating from the Left side of his bowl.

2.) You’ll see Did Not Eat spiked around September. This was when Indy got sick, but also when he had a holiday and ate, well…holiday food, that was not from his bowl.

3.) We tried to control the conditions throughout the year as much as we could; however we totally forgot about one factor: the door. During late Spring to early Autumn, the back door was left open, while we were at home. This was to let fresh air flow into the house, because of the heat. So during late Autumn to early Spring, we kept the door closed, because of the colder temperatures.

4.) During Winter, Indy started diversifying his eating styles, because the Left and Right decreased, while Top and Bottom increased. Whether there was a correlation between the status of the door and Indy’s eating styles, remains to be investigated for another day. This was because Indy’s food bowl was right next to the back door.

So armed with the knowledge of Indy’s preferred eating style, we are left with two questions:

1.) What do we do now?

I have no idea. The whole process of recording his eating style for an entire year has been fun; if not a little strange.

2.) Why does Indy prefer eating from the Left?

Again, I have no idea. I’m not smart enough to understand Bichon logic, so it’s totally pointless.

Alright, that’s it. An entire year’s worth of data, based on one dog’s eating styles; and it’s time well spent. Does your pet have any weird or unusual eating preferences? Please let me know.

Thanks once again for reading, following and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. This way, my wife knows exactly where I am, so no tracking device is required. Like always, go and walk your dog, read a banned book, stay away from Sour Cream and Chives, and I’ll see you next week.

Last July, I wrote a post about the eating habits of my dog. If you have not already read the first installment, here are the key points, compressed down like a spinning black hole:

• My dog’s name is Indy and he’s 11 years old this month.
• I noticed Indy was eating figuratively and literally, half of his food in his bowl.
• I decided to study how he was eating the food, by recording it on the calendar; every day for a year.
• It was always the same type of dog food in his bowl.
• After the first six months (January-June 2022), I presented the results in the form of some graphs and data.
• I’m strange, which to be honest, explains a lot about Indy.

The main takeaway from the first six months of the experiment, was that Indy was slightly favouring eating from the left side of his bowl. The percentages were:

Left: 45.88%  Right: 40.88%  Top: 6.63%  Bottom: 3.31%  Centre: 0.55%  All: 2.21%  Hour Glass: 0.55%

If you want a better understanding of this ridiculous experiment, please read the post here.

Anyway, this post is about the second six months (July-December 2022) of the experiment.

These are the results:

The percentages work out to be:

Left: 32.24% Right: 26.22%  Top: 14.20%  Bottom: 13.66%  Centre: 1.09% 

All: 7.10%  Hour Glass: 0.54% Did not eat: 5.46%

So what does this all mean?

1.) Indy is still odd, so nothing has changed there.

2.) Indy is still favouring the left side of the bowl with 59 days to the nearest rival; the right side with 48 days. The interesting thing here is that during the July-December period, Indy actually decreased eating on the left and right hand side of the bowl, compared to the January-June period.

3.) Just like the first six months, Indy’s eating habits have become more diverse, especially the increase of All of the food and Did not eat. These two categories can be explained though, because they are connected. During the second six months, when Indy did not eat his food, it was because of three reasons; it was too hot, he was sick and a surprise one.

Trying to decipher dog logic is difficult at the best of times, but I believe that when the temperature was hitting 25°C or higher, Indy was simply feeling too hot to actually eat, so he didn’t. As for the illness, Indy would sometimes eat some random food while he was having a walk, which would make him sick and put him off food for several days. No surprise there.

There is also the third reason, which was when he was on holiday. On the very few times we actually went somewhere for a holiday, Indy would stay with my father-in-law, so he could be looked after. Indy loves him, however he would refuse to eat the food from his bowl, because my father-in-law would feed him lots of different things, that he really shouldn’t be eating. Indy is treated like royalty, every time he goes there. So basically, we had to record it as Did not eat, several times, purely because he did not eat from his bowl.

With Indy eating all of his food in one session, this would usually occur after a day that he did not eat, because he was so hungry. Not every time, but near enough.

4.) With being diverse, Indy had four months with six different options, which is quite progressive for a 10 year old dog.

And with that, I’ll present the entire results of 2022 next month; though to be fair, it’s pretty obvious what Indy prefers.

That’s it for this week and thanks for reading, following and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. Go walk your dog, read a banned book, watch the Six Nations Championship and I’ll see you next week.

I want to talk about my dog, in particular his eating habits. Why? Oh that’s easy, this stuff is bonkers. My dog’s name is Indy,¹ and he’s had some interesting eating habits.

When he was a puppy, he would scoop up some of his dog food in his mouth, walk over to someone sitting down or standing, drop the food, and then proceed to eat the food by their feet. Of course Indy would turn round, walk back to his bowl, scoop more food up and repeat the exercise. Not the most effective eating method, was it?

Fast forward to May of this year, I wrote about what life is like living with a dog. In that blog, I mentioned about his current eating habits. For whatever odd reason, we noticed that he had started eating his food from his bowl, by dividing it in half. Indy was eating nearly half of his food each time, which is nothing special; however you could tell what he’s done, because he was literally eating half.

We have tried to determine if there is a pattern to his madness, but every time we think we have unlocked it, he up and changes it. It’s like he understands what we are doing, and is deliberately being a jerk about it.

Anyway, we did what any geeks would do, we started recording his eating habits. We discovered Indy has several different ways to eat his food. He is fed only once a day, always in the morning, and with the same type of dog chow.

For Indy’s eating methods, they cover different starting points: Left, Right, Top, and Bottom. There is also the Centre, when Indy ate from the centre and not from any side; All, when he ate all of his food in one setting; and the Hour Glass method, where he ate from the left and the right, so the food looked like a hour glass.

These are the results:

The percentages work out to be:

Left: 45.88% Right: 40.88% Top: 6.63% Bottom: 3.31% Centre: 0.55% All: 2.21% Hour Glass: 0.55%

So what does this all mean?

1.) My dog is strange, though that’s relative.

2.) Indy is slightly favouring eating from the left side of the bowl (83 days-74 days), though I do have a hypothesis for this. It may have something to do with the Summer months and the door being left open; or it could be some other crazy reason(s).

3.) As the year has progressed, Indy’s eating habits have become more diverse. June was his most diverse month, because the number of times eating from the bottom half of the bowl, was equal to the number of times eating from the right hand side. Very progressive.

4.) So why has Indy actually started eating his food like this? I don’t know. I’m serious, I don’t know. Does he have OCD?

5.) We will continue to monitor his eating habits for the rest of the year, because, you know, why not? At the end of the year, I’ll present our findings for July-December and compare them to January-June. I’m sure some scientist would be interested in the results. Maybe.

Does your dog or pet have any strange eating habits? Please let me know. Alright, that’s it for tonight. Enjoy the blog, walk your dog, and I’ll see you next week.

¹ He’s named after Indiana Jones.

I want to talk about dogs. Why? As some of you are aware, I live with a very domesticated dog. His name is Indy, and he’s named after Indiana Jones. The reason being, as my wife often tells me, is that the only reason we got married was because Harrison Ford was not single. Cheers, thanks for mentioning that, for the third time this month!

Indy turned 10 years old in February, and from what I understand of dog years when converted to human years, he’s at least in his fifties; so Indy’s older than me. He’s a Bichon Frise/Maltese cross, which means he’s a dog, but he acts like a cat and looks like a lamb.

Now I realise there are millions of people across the planet, that have dogs in their lives, so what I’m going to discuss could be things you already know. Equally for people that don’t own a dog, this will be some brutal honesty, on the reality of living with an animal that is descended from wolves.

Let’s start on something easy: his diet. Being part Bichon, Indy is a fussy eater, which can be explained with two examples.

Maybe 10-12 months ago, Indy suffered from some food poisoning; basically eating something that he shouldn’t have. The result we believe, was that he blamed his blue bowl for becoming sick! Seriously. After Indy recovered, he refused to eat or drink out of his blue bowl.

In the end, we had to replace his blue bowl for two separate bowls; one for water and one for food. When that was done, he started eating again. We wanted to test our hypothesis of Indy thinking his blue bowl made him sick, by replacing the new bowls with his old blue bowl.

The result? He refused to eat from it again. We swapped back to the new bowls, and would you believe it, he started eating again. That’s mental!

Another example of his crazy diet, is that Indy seems to understand fractions. In October 2021, we noticed something odd. When Indy had eaten his food, he was only eating half. And when I mean half, I literally mean half.

Previously he would have eaten in the centre of his food, with the food from the sides, moving into the centre, to replace the food that had been eaten. But not now. Now you can see whether he has eaten from the left or right hand side of the bowl; and the rare occasions from the top or bottom. We just need up, down, strange and charmed to complete the set.

We have been recording his fractional eating choices from 1st January 2022, because we just find it too crazy to ignore. At the end of June, we will publish the results of the first six months of observations, because…why not?

Let’s move on to his beds. I say beds, because Indy sleeps wherever he pleases, even though he has a flat cushion for a bed. Anyway, currently he is preferring to sleep on my pillow during the day. This is because of two reasons: firstly, he’s afraid of sleeping on my wife’s pillow; and second, by sleeping on my pillow, he can catch the late afternoon sunlight.

This of course means my pillowcase needs to be changed every 1-2 days. It’s a horrible sensation realising your dog has slept on your pillow, because of the dirt, sand, grass, but also of the smell.

Speaking of smells, anybody that has played field hockey or football will understand the need for shin pads. They need to be cleaned regularly, otherwise they reek of sweat and grass. Indy’s paws smell exactly the same as shin pads.

How do I know this? My wife and I dare each other to smell his paws, when Indy is asleep. We chicken out pretty quickly, as the odour of his paws are quite strong. You can’t tell, but I’m having flashbacks of that smell and it’s not good.

To add to the gross factor, you need to be careful when you’re patting Indy. You may be unlucky enough to receive a Bichon burp or sneeze, directly into your face. No amount of face washing, will ever take that away from your memory. It’s seared into mine.

Another danger is in the morning, when he discovers you’re awake. Whether Indy emerges from my bed, like a small and hairy kaiju, or he’s been sleeping somewhere else, he waits until he hears voices.

He lies in darkness, like Batman, waiting to strike. When he hears voices, he launches his finishing move. While you are lying down on the bed, Indy will stand on your chest, and proceed to greet you. By greeting you, I mean he will lick you.

Have you ever had your nose licked by a dog? Don’t, it’s gross. Would you like more gross information? Sometimes he will reach down and lick your teeth. Under no circumstances, has this ever been a good idea.

A cheek, ear, nose and teeth are all targets to him. Being licked there by a dog, again is pretty foul, however Indy has yet to play his trump card. If you are not paying close attention to him, or you’re not focused, he will lick your eye.

Let’s just think about that for a few moments. Just picture it, a dog licking your eye. It’s hard not to now, isn’t it? I can’t properly stress the utter horrible feeling you have, when this disaster happens. It’s something that you’re not going to put into your diary.

Apart from crying at the rain, the cold, or cats; sleeping on your clean clothes (never dirty clothes, because that would be disgusting, right?); licking your legs after a run or the shower; crop dusting a fart past you; rolling on dead crabs, birds, or fish at the beach; going rubbish bin diving; or turning your own bed into a Bichon odour factory; living with a dog is nothing, if not interesting.

What gross things does your dog do? Let me know.

Thanks for reading, go for a walk with your dog, and I’ll see you next week.