Superbowl!

Hey, be careful with the pooches during the Superbowl. Dogs can escape, be poisoned, abused, or otherwise harmed. Keep an eye on them!

Some Dog Bites Are Justified...

A Boston terrier stopped a rape attempt by biting a Florida woman's attacker... a 46-year-old woman allowed a man inside her apartment after he said he was a repairman. Once inside, however, the man attacked her. Her female dog then bit the man on the shoulder, and he fled the apartment.

Criminal Animal Neglect?

The Humane Society of Northwest Indiana is investigating... a woman in Gary who wanted them to pick up her dead dog, who had frozen to death on Thursday night. Clayton found the snow-covered dog curled up in the fetal position inside its dog house -- less than 10 feet from the back of the house -- and it was chained to a tree. The dog house wasn't much more than a wire crate covered on all sides with thin paneling boards... The temperatures on Jan. 15 was minus 11 degrees, with a wind chill of minus 28. "There were no visible signs of food or water," Clayton said. "You could see its hip bones sticking out"...

This is sickening to me.

Pet Insurance

I am a believer in pet insurance. After spending way too much on medical bills over the years, i have realized it is better to be insured than to take your chances.

Here is a review of a variety of pet insurance plans.

Dying To Save Your Dog?

Compare these two stories..

1. A Plainsboro woman died Saturday morning after falling through thin ice and into freezing water while trying to rescue her dog, police said.

2. A man waded into icy water to save his dog after it became trapped in a lake in Greater Manchester. Marc Greenhalgh, 25, was out walking in Alkrington Woods, Middleton, on New Year's Day when his cocker spaniel Jarvis ran onto the ice to chase ducks. When the ice broke, Jarvis was having difficulty climbing out so his owner plunged into the water to save him. The fire service said Mr Greenhalgh could easily have died and urged people to keep away from icy waters.

Is there any clearer set of examples why it is important to train your dog to be RELIABLE when told to Come? Or Stay? Dogs need to be trained to do a variety of specific commands in order to be manageable in dangerous situations. People die when their dogs get loose, whether it is an icy situation like this, or in busy traffic, or on a hiking trail. Don't let this happen to you or your dog!

New Puppy?

So, did you get a puppy for the holidays? Or are you getting one soon?

I'd love to hear about it!

How is it going? Any surprises? Difficulties? Successes? What are your training plans?

Chinook? State Dog?

Seventh-graders from Bedford are the driving force behind a bill to declare the Chinook the New Hampshire state dog.

I am not excited about this development. The Chinook is still a pretty primative breed, and most of these types of dogs don't make great pets. Further, with a very limited gene pool, there is a great potential for genetic defects. It is also a sled pulling dog. The sled pulling versions of the Husky, the real things in the Arctic, aren't the same types of dogs as those you see in the dog shows. I haven't met or worked with a Chinook. I could be wrong. But, I'm probably right on this one... it is a specialty breed that isn't right for most pet owners. When a new breed comes along, the tendency is to oversell the dog, and not be realistic about what the dog is really like... and then they end up abandoned in shelters.

Seventh graders aren't the best resource for making suggestions on what dog to own or not own. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with promoting or creating new breeds.

Real Life Ace Ventura?

Loki, a highly-trained Fort Worth police dog, is back home after he chewed a hole in his handler's fence and ran away New Year's Eve, apparently spooked by fireworks. So police called Laura Davis and Kat Manning, who own a company called Dog-Gone Detectives that specializes in finding lost pets. They arrived at the scene with Godiva, a labrador with a sensitive nose. It took her just 15 minutes to find Loki, in a wooded area a few blocks away.

Cool! Very Cool!

Failure To Groom? Go To Jail

THIS neglected Yorkshire terrier had such a matted coat that it was impossible to tell one end of the dog from the other. His owner, who treated her pet - called Stumpy - appallingly for at least six months was jailed for 12 weeks and banned from keeping animals for life. Inspectors found the dog had been subjected to severe neglect, resulting in it having head tremors and such poor coordination that it was unable to fend for itself. Even after two weeks of hospital and veterinary care, Stumpy had to be put down to end his suffering. "The dog's coat was so badly matted that it was almost impossible to tell one end from the other. "Stumpy had been neglected over a lengthy period and was in a very bad way when we found him."

I saw something similar to this a couple of years ago. The groomer warned them that she would turn them into animal control if she found out that they ever neglected the dog like that again. This poor dog smelled horrible, a lot of dust came out from the coat, there were sores starting to form on the skin of the dog. Poop was matted so bad at the back end of the dog it was having trouble defecating. And it took the groomer hours to clean the dog up. In the end, the dog was pretty much shaved mostly bald because there was no way to get out all the mats. This kind of thing is cruel. The owner was too senile to own a dog, and it was the family who brought the dog in for grooming.