Pug Dog in an Armchair

Alfred Dedreux, Pug Dog in an Armchair, 1857

Yes, I also like that painting of dogs playing poker. So sue me. It tickles me that this was painted in 1857.

Worth a Thousand Words: Dynamic Dachshund

Giacomo Balla, Dynamism of a Dog on its Leash, 1912
via Arts and Everyday Living

You've seen this here before and you doubtless will again. I love it so much.

Bull Dog

Antique Produce Crate Label

A Blockade Runner

A Blockade Runner, Briton Riviere

Tick-Tick

Briton Riviere, Tick-Tick, 1881
via Arts Everyday Living

Sympathy

Briton Riviere, Sympathy, c. 1878

 This is one of my favorite paintings featuring, as it does, a dog doing what they do best — empathizing with their loved ones.

Dogs from Europe

Hashimoto Kansetsu (1883 - 1945), Dogs from Europe
via Wikipedia

 I really love thinking of some art lover in Japan marveling over these exotic dogs. To be fair, they seem fairly exotic to me, but not in the way they would to someone from the other side of the world who'd never seen the breeds at all at all.

Caesar at the Rubicon

Caesar at the Rubicon by Wilhelm Trübner, 1880.

How often any fond dog owner has seen this acted out! Certainly I have, most recently when the Christmas cookies were all on the sideboard and Jeeves, our male Boxer, had his eye out for opportunity! 

 I have seen the phrase about crossing the Rubicon before but never really knew what it meant. There's a whole article on it at Wikipedia, of course! So for anyone else who wonders, now we know.

Julius Caesar's crossing the Rubicon river on 10 January, 49 BC[1] precipitated the Roman Civil War, which ultimately led to Caesar's becoming dictator for life (dictator perpetuo) and the rise of the imperial era of Rome. Caesar had been appointed to a governorship over a region that ranged from southern Gaul to Illyricum (but not Italy). As his term of governorship ended, the Roman Senate ordered Caesar to disband his army and return to Rome. He was explicitly ordered not to take his army across the Rubicon river, which was at that time a northern boundary of Italy. In January 49 BC, Caesar brought the 13th legion across the river, which the Roman government considered insurrection, treason, and a declaration of war on the Roman Senate. According to some authors, he uttered the phrase alea iacta est—the die is cast—as his army marched through the shallow river.

Today, the phrase crossing the Rubicon is a metaphor that means to pass a point of no return.

OK Go is almost as well trained as the many adorable dogs in this video

Via Rachel Lucas.