Gibson’s Successor Named as World’s Tallest Dog

Titan, a four-year old Great Dane from San Diego, has been named as the world’s tallest dog, succeeding Gibson who passed away earlier this year after a brave struggle against bone cancer. 

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Tuesday’s Top Ten: Ways to help black shelter dogs

I posted last Friday about Black Dog Syndrome:  the lower adoption rate shelters see for black dogs than for lightered-colored ones.  Here (reprinted from Black Pearl Dogs) is a list of 10 ways you can help.

 1) Spay and neuter your pets. Urge those around you to do the same.

 2) If you can adopt, please consider adopting a black dog who is waiting just for you.  *”Many beautiful black dogs are overlooked—and, sadly, euthanized in disproportionate numbers”.

 3) Sponsor a black dog or open your heart and home to foster care for a black dog (if you can’t adopt), in a rescue or shelter so they can open their doors to another black dog on death row without worry of finances.

 4) If you can’t sponsor or foster, make posters for a black dog you find in a shelter or rescue to **advertise** their need of a home on community bulletin boards, vet offices, pet stores, your work office board, the company newsletter, the school paper.  Gain permission from the sponsoring rescue or shelter first.  Include the Blackpearldogs webpage address as part of the advertisement so interested people can understand more fully the plight this waiting BlackPearl faces. See one womans brilliant work

 5) Go past your apprehensions and stretch yourself: walk a black-dog-in-waiting in a park and advertise to all that s/he needs a home. They will appreciate that you left your comfort zone so they could (hopefully) enter into one.

 6) Volunteer to take them to obedience classes to attain skills that will make them more adoptable to the average family or teach them an endearing human greeting (like sit and shake).

7) Share this webpage address to let all dog lovers know how wonderful and in need a black dog is in today’s’ canine adoption community.  We at Contrary to Ordinary are not a rescue facility. We know there are many cogs to make the wheel turn and we are fullfilling our niche of being an educational platform to get the word out so those gifted with other talents (ie foster care, transportation, fund raising, placement and adoption matching) can fulfill their niches to help the waiting black dogs out there.

 8) Start your own rescue…just for black dogs rescued off euthanasia row.  They can be found easily and it can be done just one dog at a time. Be inspired by the Starfish Story and Stop the Killing .  

 9) Click on “Free To A Good Home” and read Brutus’s story. Help a black dog (or any dog for that matter ) avoid this fate. Prepare your own rescue aids using the tools found here at Sun Bears Squad.

10) For those with savvy or flair: coordinate a “Tux and Tails” event for your local shelters or rescues.  Gather up all the black coated critters waiting to find their forever heart and “do the bubbles” to make all fresh and clean.  Add a tux (red or white) bow tie or a snappy collar (Bison Designs has brillant ones) and provide these waiting pearlies the opportunity to “run way” their stuff and become available for folks to appreciate them out of a dimly lit kennel run. You could even go as elaborate as every hour have a “walk” set to music with cards read that share what they already know: sit, down, off, fetch.  I am guessing some of the pearlies would even do a demonstration of what they have to offer.  Have a table set up to take applications or to donate financially to support these waiting pearls.

 **The image that you make….i.e. the picture that you take….. may be the key to his or her being adopted by the right person. Black dogs are in desperate need of great photos in shelter listings. Practice using tips from “Photographing a Black Dog” to get your technique down before applying to help all the shelter animals have a better photographic chance to meet their future forever person.

Black Dog Syndrome

Typically in October, shelters begin worrying about the black cats under their care, with many shelters refusing to place black cats up for adoption until after Halloween.  Did you know black dogs are also at risk in shelters?    Check out this article from Helium.com   telling why black dogs are so hard to place.

 If you work in a shelter, the article linked above will give you some ideas to help market your black dogs.  Other resources are  http://startseeingblackdogs.com/ and http://blackpearldogs.com/, which are dedicated to just this issue.

 Until next time,

Good day, and good dog!

Never Leave Your Pit Bull Alone with A Child

If you are an owner of a dog that belongs to a ‘dangerous breed’ category and you also have a child or a visiting small child, please take this as a warning.   Don’t leave your dog with a small child unattended under any circumstances!  Only one little moment was enough for the following to happen. 

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Tuesday’s Top Ten: Top Dogs

The AKC has developed a list of the nine breeds that have embodied America’s taste in canine companionship over the past 125 years. (I added the 10th, because of my belief that everyone needs the experience of knowing a Golden Retriever at least once in their lifetime.)

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Survey Saturday: What’s Your Favorite Breed of Dog?

I nearly got into an argument today with a friend over what the best breed of dog is.  So, we’ll let you, the readers, decide.  Listed below are the 9 most popular breeds, according to 2008 AKC registrations, as well as the ever-popular “mutt-i-gree”.  I had to narrow it down somehow, so AKC rankings seemed like an easy way to do it.

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Budweiser Clydesdales and a Dalmation

The first Friday of each month, downtown Canton holds a “First Friday” event to draw people to the downtown area.  Sometimes it’s a concert, sometimes a wine tasting, sometimes an art show – whatever.  This month, the big feature was the Budweiser beer wagon, pulled by a team of 8 Clydesdale horses.  Boy, were they beautiful!

How does this tie to a dog blog?  Did you know that the wagon also carries a Dalmation, just like a fire truck?  I sure didn’t, but I guess it makes sense historically.  The Dalmations were originally used to keep stray dogs away from the horses used to pull fire trucks, so it follows that other industries that relied on horse-drawn wagons would use them, too.

Just a little history lesson for you!

Until next time,

Good day, and good dog!

The picture of the horses didn’t turn out as well due to the crowd, but thought you’d like to see the horses, too!

Extreme Grooming for Poodles

Thanks to friend-of-the-blogger Wendy for sending me the finalists from the Extreme Grooming Contest.  Don’t forget to look at the people in the background, as well as the dogs.  No doubt, there are those of you who will think this is cruel and demeaning to the dogs.  Feel free to let me know.  My personal feeling is that they are works of art, and assuming that the paint comes off fairly easily and does not harm the dogs, why not?

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Yet another Pit Bull ban

We’ve talked about this before, how people blame the dog for how his owners train him.  Now, no less of an authority than the United States Marine Corps has joined the fray.

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Tuesday’s Top Ten: Funnest Dog Breeds

OK, so I’m not sure funnest is even a word, and there is no science to this list – it is simply the dog breeds I have known that I have had fun with.  This topic came to mind because my dogs are having  some serious playtime in my office – running all over the place and play-biting each other. 

Some dogs, like the Basset Hound, turn into doorstops soon after leaving puppyhood, so they’re not what I would call fun.  Other dogs, like German Shepherds, are too serious about being a guard dog, so I’ve never seen one having fun.  (OK, the address is “TheDogLady@doggies.com, for all of you Basset and German Shepherd owners!)

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