Canaan Dog - I never knew . . .

Canaan Dog History

The Canaan Dog, the natural breed of Israel, dates back to Biblical times, originatingin the Land of Canaan. Drawings found on the tombs at Beni-Hassan, dating from 2200 to 2000 B.C., depict dogs that show an unmistakable resemblance to the Canaan Dog of today.

The Canaan Dog waas the guard and herd dog of the ancient Israelites, guarding their camps and flocks. They were plentiful in the region until the dispersion of the Israelites by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago. As the Hebrew population dropped, the majority of the dogs sought refuge in the Negev Desert, a natural reservoir of Israeli wildlife. Avoiding extinction, they remained undomesticated for the most part, although some lived with the Bedouins and earned their keep by guarding the herds and camps. Some were also guards for the Druze on Mount Carmel.

This was how the Canaan Dog survived until the arrival of Dr. Rudolphina Menzel, who was asked by the Haganah (a Jewish self-defense organization) to develop a dog to guard the isolated Jewish settlements and supervise the build-up of war dogs for Israel's coming War of Independence. Remembering the Canaan Dog living in the desert, she knew only the fittest would have survived such hardships. As a breed the Canaan Dog proved highly intelligent and easily trainable, serving as sentry dogs, messengers, Red Cross helpers, and land mine locators. During World War II, Dr. Menzel recruited and trained more than 400 of the best dogs as mine detectors for the Middle East forces, and they proved superior to the mechanical detectors.

After the war, Dr. Menzel dedicated her time to helping the blind and in 1949 founded The Institute for Orientation and Mobility of the Blind, the only one of its kind in the Middle East. The entire Canaan Dog breeding program was concentrated within the Institute, where a solid foundation of kennel-raised Canaan Dogs was established that carried the name B'Nei Habitachon. The breed was first recognized by the Palestine Kennel Club, the forerunner of the Israel Kennel Club. By 1948, there were about 150 Canaan Dogs registered in their stud book.

On September 7, 1965, Ursula Berkowitz of Oxnard, California, imported the first four Canaan Dogs with the idea of establishing the breed in the United States. The Canaan Dog Club of America was formed the same year, and stud book records were kept from these first reports.

The Canaan Dog entered the Miscellaneous Class in June 1989, and dogs were registered in the AKC Stud Book as of June 1, 1997. The dogs began competing in conformation on August 12, 1997.

taken from: http://www.akc.org/breeds/canaan_dog/history.cfm

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The Rain

Have you ever sat on a screened in porch during a thunderstorm?

It is quite an experience. If you were actually outside in it, you would probably be running for cover. And once inside you shut all the windows, shut it all out.

But on the porch, you can hear the noises - of the rain, the thunder - especially in the mountains, where it rumbles through. You can feel the breezes, without getting soaked. Hell, you can blog, right in the middle of it. Something instinctual in you says "What are you doing out here!?!" But if you just sit there, amid the downpour (not to close to the screens so your laptop doesn't get wet) it is actually quite amazing.

It almost - ALMOST - makes up for the fact that you are sitting there, in your bathing suit, because you were leaving the house for the lake, when it started to rain.

blogging

After realizing how much I no longer post on my blog, I went back and read some old posts. My first reaction was - "I used to be clever. Wait, does this mean I am no longer clever?" And thus, I began to think about why I don't blog anymore, or at least as much as I used to. In a great feat of irony, I will blog about why I blog less often.

My main thought is that my blogging waned around the time I first got a job. And moved to Springfield. The things that happen everyday, well it can be just unprofessional to bitch and moan about co-workers or students on a blog. Also, I like to think I've grown up a big and don't want to kvetch as much. Also, a regular schedule gives me less procrastination time. And less things to procrastinate. I am not sure I'd ever feel comfortable blogging at work. Maybe during lunch, from my Treo, but definitely never from a work computer, and NEVER on work time. I'm waaay too much of a goody two shoes.

And just like that, I've blogged. Funny how that works.