ohmidog!

What do dogs and comedy have in common? Only about everything.

So given that today is Take Your Dog to Work Day, and given that’s the practice nearly every day in the New York studios of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, it’s not surprising that, for its 15th anniversary special issue, The Bark magazine features the dogs of the show’s staff members on its cover.

Late last year, The Daily Show — it has more than a few fans of the magazine on its staff, and vice versa –  invited The Bark to come meet the many dogs that roam its workplace.

Editor-in-Chief, Claudia Kawczynska jumped at the opportunity — and the result is a 10-page exclusive on the dogs of The Daily Show in this month’s issue.

The magazine also proclaimed The Daily Show the nation’s dog-friendliest workplace.

Kawczynska reports that The Daily Show officially turned dog friendly about 15 years ago when production manager Georgia Pappas asked permission to bring her Tibetan Terrier, Cosmo, to work with her.

Given both Jon Stewart and the studio’s building manager, Adriane Truex, are big dog fans, permission was granted, opening the door for other staff members to bring their dogs along to work. Today, dogs are welcomed in Jon Stewart’s office and just about everywhere else, Kawczynska notes:

“These days, the first thing new employees, show guests and visitors notice are the dogs. Free-ranging and ubiquitous, they have become an integral part of the office landscape: roaming, playing or lying about, with toys scattered everywhere. They attend staff meetings, share office chairs, charm the celeb guests –in short, The Daily Show is pretty much dog nirvana.”

About a dozen dogs might be there on any given day — and the regulars include Parker, Kweli and Ally. (You can find a slide show featuring all of them here.)

Co-executive producer Jen Flanz said the inviting atmosphere inspired her to adopt Parker, a Lab mix, from Manhattan Animal Care & Control. The only downside, Flanz noted, is that “our dogs are used to being here, being around people all day, running around and getting attention from a hundred people. So when we have time off, she bounces off the walls. They get so much activity and stimulation here.”

Artistic coordinator, Justin Chabot got his Golden Retriever, Kweli, when he was still a student in Boston. Kweli accompanies him almost everywhere, and has been trained to stick by his side when off-leash, even in Times Square. Kweli has also mastered riding on the back of Chabot’s motorcycle.

Supervising producer Tim Greenberg’s dog, Ally, a rescued Pointer-mix, is a more recent addition. Ally had fear issues and initally he only brought her to the office on slow days. Gradually, he  added more time to her “work” schedule. He thinks the office visits have helped build up her self-confidence.

Good training is essential to making the office-dog dynamic work, the article notes, and employees see it as a privilege they don’t want to lose.

“We all feel this responsibility to keep the dogs pretty well-behaved,” Flanz noted. “If someone comes in and thinks this is a free-for-all, they would be mistaken.”

Greenberg noted that ”like the show itself, there really is a strict discipline underlying what looks like a free-form.”

Concluded Kawczynska:

“From my perspective, it seemed that the office camaraderie, conviviality and general bonhomie — laughter can be heard everywhere — inspires and affects both the people and the dogs … Everyone I spoke with agrees that having dogs as co-workers may have something to do with the show’s ongoing success. Not only are they great de-stressors, good for morale, comforting and relaxing, the dogs contribute their own dose of inimitable comic relief to a group that’s focused on creating and showcasing comedy”

Some guests on the show get more excited about the dogs than others. Those who staff members said most seemed to  “get-down-with-the-dogs” are Jennifer Aniston, NBC news anchor Brian Williams, designer guy Tim Gunn, Ricky Gervais, Betty White and President Obama, a senator at the time.

The only guest to ever bring a dog on the set has been Ted Koppel, who came with his granddog, a black pup named Pepper.

Kawczynska got to meet Stewart, but his two French Bulldogs, Smudge and Barkley, were not there.

The package of articles also includes interviews — on the topic of dogs, of course – with Wyatt Cenac and John Oliver, who has a dog named Hoagie.

(Photos: Magazine cover, a French bulldog named Zuzu, and group shot of staff and dogs; by KC Bailey, courtesy of The Bark)

It’s not often that I share the personal frustrations of being a dog-blogger — especially one who tries to stand out from the crowd by keeping a lid on the pablum and fluff, and presenting from time to time some stories of depth about important dog-related issues.

Yesterday was a case in point.

I posted three items — about the daily average for ohmidog!

One was a mention of an upcoming motorcycle ride, sponsored by a motorcycle club and Baltimore’s Anti-Animal Abuse Task Force, to raise money for abused and abandoned dogs.

One was a story about a day of global protest against eating dogs in South Korea.

One was an update on a story I wrote a few years back after meeting in Los Angeles a homeless man and his three legged pit bull (her fourth leg was lost as a result of a police shooting). Both have fallen ill and need help.

I was especially proud of the latter two, as they both contained some original reporting, and original photographs, and displayed a little first hand knowledge I had gathered, mostly during the year and a half I was working on my book.

Checking my Google Analytics, as I do from time to time, I saw this morning that the dog-eating post (of global significance) drew 116 views; the post on Michael and Topaz (of national significance) got 46 views; and the post on the fundraising motorcyle ride (of local significance) got 16 views.

What drew most readers to ohmidog! yesterday — 676 of them — was a post, nearly 50 days old, about Jennifer Aniston getting her dog Norman’s name tatooed on her foot.

Thereby showing you the significance of celebrities. It blows my mind.

How people try to remember and memorialize their dogs is a legitimate story — and a large part of the book I wrote — and the fact that more people are going the tattoo route, as the New York Post reported this week, is worthy of note.

But let’s face it, it was Jennifer Aniston that brought me those readers — and while I appreciate her, and those readers who dropped by, it bugs me that her foot tattoo so overshadowed two stories of deeper importance and deeper humanity. But, despite all that’s in the bowl, they chose only that.

My little corner of the universe, or the Internet, serves it seems as a microcosm of what’s happened to the news media, which, to survive, has caved in to the pressure to give readers easily consumable, barely newsworthy bits of what they want, rather than fully fleshed out stories on topics of greater importance to the species, be it human or dog.

Looking at my Analytics — and I think it’s OK to share this proprietary information, given that I am the proprietor — a total of 435 pages and posts were viewed yesterday, 1,941 views in all.

The vast majority, though, were focused on Jennifer Aniston’s foot.

For those consumed with numbers, and getting them to increase, and paying the bills, the thinking would reasonably follow: We need more Jennifer Aniston, more tattoos, more feet, or more of whoever or whatever else is, at this given moment, “trending.”

Here’s one of the things that has happened. News organizations, and bloggers, see what’s “trending” and base their coverage on that, thereby making it “trend” even more, while items of higher significance — worth some digging up — fall unseen by the wayside.

Add to that the fact that those who write strictly for the Internet, often, are no longer writing for humans. Instead of writing for quality, instead of writing, even, for readers, they’re writing for robots — those search engine Peruse-a-trons that scan our words, mathematically determine their import and influence how many readers come our way.

Add to that the fact that average online writer now spends more time touting what he has written via social networks and elsewhere than actually writing what he has written. Time once spent on research and the craft of writing is now mostly absorbed by shouting about and hyping what one has written, even if that “writing” was little more than a cut and paste job.

We’ll even admit to doing some of that — what is now called “aggregating,” what was once called plagiarism. We’ll admit to touting stories we’re proud of on Facebook and Twitter. We’ll even admit to, once in a while, posting a story because we think it will draw a crowd.

Were ohmidog! a true money-making venture — which in some ways would make more sense than being poor and principled — we might follow the route that so many have, bringing you a steady diet of the cute, the happy, the adorable and the celebrity-related.

But, Jennifer Aniston aside, we plan to continue to vary our fare — presenting the cute, from time to time; the uplifting, as often as we can find it; but also the cruel and depraved acts of humans that lead to animal suffering.

If, in the three years we’ve existed (did I mention we’ve just turned 3?) and in the 3,000 posts we’ve posted, ohmidog! has shown anything, it is this: the depths to which humans can sink and the heights to which they can rise when it comes to dogs.

We’re going to keep doing that.

And you can tattoo that on your foot.

Jennifer Aniston has had her deceased dog’s name tattoed on the inside of her right foot.

I don’t find that too bizarre, given some of the far more outlandish lengths bereaved pet owners go to — all covered in my book, “DOG, INC.: The Uncanny Inside Story of Cloning Man’s Best Friend.”

I don’t find it particularly newsworthy, either.

But it is Jennifer Aniston, and it is her foot, and she did love her Norman, a Corgi-terrier mix.

As many a pundit has noted, including those at the Daily Mail, which devoted major space to the story yesterday, it was a truer and longer lasting relationship than she has seemed to enjoy with any of the men in her life.

Norman died last month at age 15.

Aniston confirmed that the tattoo was a tribute to her pooch while talking to James Lipton during a taping of “Inside the Actors Studio,” People reported.

In 2008, Aniston, while doing publicity for the movie version of “Marley & Me,” in which she starred, told a magazine she wished men were as faithful as Norman.

Aniston, who divorced Brad Pitt in 2005 and had recently split from singer John Mayer, told the magazine she longs to meet a man that is more like Norman.

“It wouldn’t be bad if, when a man comes home, he’d run to his woman with his tail wagging,” said Aniston. “This sort of excitement is something I’ve always missed in a man, to be honest.”

Norman was already slowing down by then, and was undergoing a full regiment of therapy, at a cost of $250 a week, including massage, Reiki and and acupuncture, according to media reports.

In DOG, INC., a chapter is devoted to the sometimes extreme lengths people go to in trying to hang on to the memory of their pets — from freeze-drying to modern-day mummification. Cloning, in a way, is only the newest, not to mention most expensive and controversial, one.

I’m glad Aniston — at least as far as I know — didn’t choose to pursue that route.

In comparison, a tattoo is almost tasteful.

(Top photo: Aniston in a 2005 Elle magazine spread)

Jennifer Aniston’s Welsh corgi-terrier mix, Norman, has passed away.

“He died a few weeks ago. He was an old dog and it was just his time,” a representative of the actress confirmed.

Norman was 15.

The death, according to the Daily Mail, came just before Aniston closed a deal on a New York penthouse, purchased in Norman’s name.

The former “Friends” brought Norman with her most everywhere, including television and film sets, and their relationship long outlasted that she had with the men in her life.

“He’s my baby boy. Norman goes with me on location – I’ve got to take Norman,” she said in a February appearance on the Chelsea Lately show, where Norman appeared at her side.

Even as a puppy, Aniston said, “he was as cool as a cucumber. He’s just a person in a dog suit,” she said.

Norman went missing for two days back in 1998 but eventually turned up unharmed at an animal shelter. Aniston also has another dog, a white German shepherd named Dolly.

When Aniston recently bought three units in a New York City condo, she did so under the name Norman’s Nest Trust.

Snoopy beat out Lassie, but just barely, in a recent poll conducted on behalf of the new AOL pet website, PawNation.com.

Both Lassie and Snoopy captured 39 percent of the votes for “favorite celebrity animal,” but Snoopy edged the beloved, but fading from memory collie by 14 votes. Garfield and Scooby Doo trailed with 12 and 11 percent, respectively.

The survey covered other important issues as well.

Asked “which celebrity pet’s passing did you mourn the most?” Oprah’s deceased dog Sophie came in at the top, followed by Mickey Rourke’s chihuahua, Loki.

In other results from the poll, the honors for ”craziest pet owner” went to Leona Helmsley, with Paris Hilton a distant second. And the celebrity picked as the one people would most trust to watch their pet was Jennifer Aniston, who captured a whopping 70 percent of the vote, beating out Mickey Rourke, Pam Anderson and Nicole Richie.

Almost half of the respondents said their pets sleep in their beds every night, and more than fourth said they did some sometimes.

(Graphic: from redkid’s ”Snoopy Says Generator”)

Who says the paparazzi are good for nothing?

TMZ is reporting that Jennifer Aniston’s dog, Norman, escaped from her Malibu home over the weekend, and was found and returned by a photographer. What’s more, the photographer saved the dog from walking into traffic, TMZ said.

Aniston, now appearing in Marley & Me, is shown here with Norman, a corgi-terrier, in a 2005 Elle magazine spread.

A video posted on TMZ.com shows a paparazzo taking the dog back to Aniston’s home. No comment yet on the incident from Aniston.

If you’ve read the book, then see the movie, you may notice that while Marley is still shown with all his behavioral warts on the big screen, the story has been sanitized in at least one way: The real Marley came from a  breeder in Florida, while in the movie Marley is a “rescue.”

It’s a minor alteration, and far from nefarious, but it does show the clout animal welfare organizations can have – and how, when the media cooperates with them, they return the favor.

Even PETA — despite its objections to using animals for entertainment, despite a scene in which a dog is walking on its front legs while its rear is held by a passenger in a moving car — has given the movie “two paws up” for sending the message that pets, no matter how problematic their behavior, are for keeps.

“Dogs are members of the family, and Marley and Me reminds moviegoers that they deserve to be treated as such,” says PETA Vice President Lisa Lange. “We hope this movie inspires people to stand by their animal companions — even when it’s not easy — and to love them unconditionally, just as they love us.”

Read more »

The reviews are in, and there’s widespread agreement that Marley is … a cute dog.

All 22 of him.

That’s how many yellow labs the moviemakers used in the making of Marley & Me, reviews for which are — unlike the dog — mixed.

Associated Press movie critic Christy Lemire said the movie has “more than its share of hanky moments …  We’re not talking about just a tear or two welling up — we’re talking grown men and women snuffling and sobbing uncontrollably, then dashing from the theater before the lights come up to avoid making eye contact with all the other blubbering saps.

“Seeing the ending, in all its horrifically sad detail, is bad enough if you’re a grown-up (and a dog person). If you’re a little kid expecting a happy puppy movie, “Marley & Me” could cause serious trauma requiring hours of therapy and many scoops of ice cream to repair.

But Lemire conludes that “it’s not a particularly good movie” and has “no great momentum …  just a long, flat arc toward the inevitable.”

(Flat arc? Can there be such a thing?)

Read more »

It’s finally here! No, not Christmas, the opening of the movie, Marley & Me.

One of three new dog movies — and by far the most publicized — Marley & Me, based on the best-selling book by former Philadelphia Inquirer columnist John Grogan, stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston as a young couple that, preparing for parenthood, gets a dog as a trial run.

By turns funny, sad and uplifting — or at least intended to be such — the movie looks at life with Marley, a hyper and ill-behaved yellow lab who nevertheless becomes a cherished and indispensable part of the family.

In that way, it’s the story of Everydog — though every dog thankfully isn’t the handful Marley proves to be.

Early reports are that it will both make you feel good and make you cry, and — given the popularity of the book and pre-release hype around the movie — it’s likely to be a box office winner.

Here at ohmidog!, we’ve saved all our hype, and whatever the opposite of hype is, for today, with three more pieces related to the book/movie/phenomenon that is Marley & Me — a look at its early reviews, a look at how the movie isn’t 100 percent true to the book. We’ll also hear from one commentator who has had his fill of movies in which dogs die, and doesn’t plan to see it.

Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at two more new dog movies, “Hotel for Dogs” and “Wendy and Lucy.”