Book List: "The Hobbit"

In preparation for the recently released movie, I put Hobbit at the top of my reading list this month. I just finished it, and I loved it! This is the first Tolkien book I've read-- of course, I've seen the Lord of the Rings movies many times and I'm very familiar with the Middle Earth universe already.

The Hobbit held up to my expectations in every way. I knew something about it before page one, after seeing the Lord of the Rings trilogy on screen, and hearing everyone talk about it. I could've guessed it was about Bilbo's story, and that he also goes on a long journey through Middle Earth, eventually obtaining the Ring, etc. But books are always best first-hand, and that is still true.

Canine Possibilities

As a dog owner, a former seeing-eye-dog puppy raiser, and general puppy enthusiast, I am considering going into the field of dog training. I don't want to just teach, "sit," or, "stay," I want to teach canines useful things, like operating light switches for disabled people in wheelchairs, or providing a young autistic child with social skills, and maybe giving a dyslexic kid the focus needed to learn. Well-trained dogs can be taught anything-- giving a hug when a PTSD or anxiety disorder patient is having an attack, guiding a blind person, aiding a deaf person, searching for and rescuing accident victims, sniffing out drugs in police investigations, attacking on command for police protection, and on and on.

But never once have I thought of teaching a dog something like this.



I can't be sure if all this is for real or just a hoax or what, but it's something to think about. It would be ridiculously fun to teach a dog how to drive a car-- and if we could do that, think of what else we could teach dogs to do...