Last Sunday it was a beautiful sunny day at Brookline Playground. There were several dogs having fun at the park: members of the All Dogs Play meetup as well as dogs who live around the park.

The Brookline Playground is huge and you can take your dog off-leash there every day before 1pm. Plus, the park is totally fenced-in!

If your Yorkshire is tiny and you would like to socialize him or her with other Yorkshires of the same size, join the Little Yorkshire meetup! This group of amazing Yorkshire owners meet every month in Boston. Here are some photos from the meetup that took place last Sunday at Doggie Day, a day care and pet boutique located at 400 Tremont St in Boston.
Kellyann, the owner of Baby, and Kat, the owner of Chou Chou, started this playgroup around one year ago. Month after month, the group got bigger and several gorgeous little yorkies attend the event now!

Among the new members who attended the event there was Taki (pictured below) with his owner Maria. We met Taki several months ago, when he was a puppy, and we went hiking with Kevin, a dog walker, and a group of other dogs.
Taki is now one-year-old, and he is still more beautiful!

Click here to see other pictures of Taki as a puppy!

We heard from the Boston Snow Dogs Playgroup that there is a beautiful Siberian Husky mix named Eliza for adoption up at the Animal Rescue League of New Hampshire in Bedford, NH (a bit west of Manchester, NH and about 90 mins from Boston).

Eliza is a 4 year old spayed female who came to the shelter as a stray. She is a sweet, friendly girl who is a bit overweight. Since she has a possible skin allergy, she will have to be fed a high quality food especially for weight loss. Like most of her breed, she should have a home without cats or other small animals. Huskies also are known escape artists so she should have a fenced yard (not electric fence). Eliza is very social and would love to meet you.

Write to Danielle if you are interested in adopting Eliza.

In this season of giving, why not open your heart and your home to a dog in need? UnderdogResQ is a non-profit dog rescue organization that works throughout New England to save good dogs from being euthanized. They place those dogs with caring foster homes (they have no kennel of their own), and work to find them a forever home. Every new foster home saves another dog - and this is your opportunity to get involved and actively help save the life of a wonderful pet.

Underdogresq welcomes all breeds, and every dog undergoes a throrough behavioral test before being placed with a family to ensure that he or she will make a safe and good pet. Through the years, this association had tremendous success with the dogs they’ve saved, and they are proud to count many of their adopting “parents” among their volunteers.

For more information on the Foster Program, and to fill out an application, go to: www.underdogresq.org or email info@underdogresq.org.

Is there a limit on the number of friends a person can have? And what is the average number of friends of our dogs?

Today “The Wall Street Journal” published an interesting article on page B1 about the maximum number of network friends a person can have. While some people have thousands of “friends” on Facebook or MySpace, in 1983 Robin Dunbar, an Oxford anthropologist, calculated that 150 is the average number of our personal contacts. In an article published in 2003, he cited a range of 100 to 300 people as the average circle of friends. His point is that there is a natural limit to a friendship circle.

The author of the Wall Street article, Carl Bialik, suggests that technology, as it has already helped humans to surpass their physical limits on speed or strength, can enable us to boost the number of our friends by increasing our memory capacity.

Most of our friendships start offline, but through social networking websites it is much easier to keep in contact with a bunch of friends and acquaintances, especially if we are not able to see them very often. It is low cost and time saving. By sharing updates in our online profiles, we can keep in touch with multiple friends at the same time, without having to individually contact them.

And what about our dogs? In a survey SNIF Labs conducted with over 350 dog owners in the US, including readers of this blog, 60% of the respondents said that their dogs have one to five friends they interact with on a regular basis.

Dunbar pointed out that, because humans have a greater ability to use conscious thought and language, animals’ average circle of friends is much lower compared to ours. However, a dog’s social life is much dependent on its owner’s social habits, and that can push forward the limit of playmates a dog could have compared to wild animals.

The limit is that a dog can’t choose its own friends. A dog’s circle of friends is strictly dependent on his owner’s habits. If we go to the park only on Sunday morning, our Turbo will only play with dogs who go to the park at the same time. On the other hand, the relationship is reciprocal: it often happens that we make so many new friends through our dogs, and we keep in touch with these new people because our dog likes to play with their dog so much.

But this is not always easy. In the SNIF Labs survey, some dog owners pointed out how difficult it is to find or keep in touch with the perfect playmate for their dog. Even if Lucy randomly met Buddy once in a dog park, and they had the most fun time ever in years, the chances that they will meet again are not so high. Technology would then be helpful. So, why not keep in touch online with Buddy through a social networking tool for dogs, and be updated next time he is going to the nearby dog park?

By the way, our poor Turbo has 21 friends on his Facebook profile, and none of them is a dog. What a dog’s life!

Ingrid Newkirk, the author of “Let’s have a dog party” and the founder and president of PETA, presented her new book at Harvard Coop in Cambridge last October 21st.
Here is a description of the book:

“Dogs don’t need a reason to celebrate, and neither should their guardians! Every day can be a special occasion–Ingrid shows you just how to make the most of it for dogs and yourself. Each page is packed with tips for:
* Hosting a themed party, including fiestas, luaus, adoption-day celebrations, and “bark” mitzvahs
* Creating goodie bags and gifts for canine and human guests
* Making dog food and people food with recipes from Alicia Silverstone, Jackie Chan, William Shatner, and other stars who love dogs
* Celebrating doggie joy every day of the year

Whether it’s a ride in the car, a trip to the beach, a special viewing of a D(dog)-rated film, or a good old-fashioned howl at the moon, Ingrid explains how to throw the perfect party for the ultimate party animal.”

Kellyann and Baby, the founders of the Little Yorkies meetup, organized a Halloween party and, despite Halloween is gone, we have to share with you these amazing pictures!
The creepy photo setting was really amazing, with its giant spider, RIP graves, and ghosts.
As always, this meetup set a high standard for dog parties!