I was trolling through google news today, looking for stories that relate to the dog world, and was thoroughly struck dumb at the contrast between the first two stories I found. You want the good one or the bad one first?
Don’t Police K-9 Handlers Receive any Training????
This is the second time recently that I’ve seen articles telling about police K-9 handlers leaving their dogs in a car in extreme heat, causing the death of the dogs. The most recent one was a handler in Nottinghamshire, England, who left two dogs to die in his personal car on the hottest day of the year, when temperatures reached 85 degrees. He may be prosecuted under Britain’s animal cruelty laws. This brings to mind a couple of questions.
Continue reading Don’t Police K-9 Handlers Receive any Training????
Training your dog with a clicker
We were watching “It’s Me or the Dog” on Animal Planet this morning, and Victoria was demonstrating the use of a clicker to train a dog. If you’re not familiar with it, the idea is to use a clicker to signal the dog that he is doing something right. Here is a short video showing how the clicker works – beware they are trying to sell you something!
Saturday Survey: Your dog and fireworks
Happy 233rd, America!
As we look forward to all of the fireworks displays scheduled for tonight, it made me wonder about how your dogs feel about fireworks. My dogs are terrified of the noise, so I never leave them outside during the displays, but I know many people who take their dogs to the park to be closer to the action. Take our poll below and tell us what your dogs do when they hear fireworks.
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Keep your dog safe on the holiday
As you celebrate America’s independence today, be sure to give some thought to the fact that your dog may not be up for the same sort of celebration as you are.
Dogs raise $45K by surfing!
If you ever watch NBC’s Nightly News, you know that Brian Williams features a segment on “Making a Difference” each night, showing what everyday people are doing to help those less fortunate. Usually, it’s people who work at a soup kitchen, or people who have founded a charity or something pretty conventional. However, the other night, he ran a feature on rescue dogs who showed their stuff at a surfing competition to raise funds for the charity Modest Needs.
The dogs are just too cute on their little surfboards – hard to describe – you have to watch it yourself!
Until next time,
Good day, and good dog!
Power company hosts search & rescue dog event
I hate to brag, but I have to say again how proud I am of my day-job employer, American Electric Power. The company’s Appalachian Power subsidiary recently hosted the K-9 teams from the Virginia State Police at their Smith Mountain Dam for a training exercise.
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New Government Program Pairs Assistance Dogs with Injured Soldiers
The Associated Press reports today that a new program from the Veterans Administration takes dogs from animal shelters, trains them, and sends them home with soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan to help them in their recovery.
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Sunday Survey: What to do with unwanted puppies?
We’re shaking up your weekend a bit here because Saturday was just a crazy day for me, but here is your survey for this week.
Let’s say your dog unexpectedly turned up pregnant. After you got over that sick feeling in the pit of your belly, what would you do with the puppies? I’m assuming here that it is beyond your means or desire to keep all of them, and that if you are reading this blog you have too much respect for canines to drown them in a burlap sack.
Continue reading Sunday Survey: What to do with unwanted puppies?
Friday Funny: Mass for a dog
Muldoon lived alone in the Irish countryside with only a pet dog for company. One day, the dog died, and Muldoon went to the parish priest and said, “Father, my dog is dead. Could ya’ be sayin’ a mass for the poor creature?”
Father Patrick replied, “I’m afraid not. We cannot have services for an animal in the church. But there is a new denomination down the lane, and there’s no tellin’ what they believe. Maybe they’ll do something for the creature.”Muldoon said, “I’ll go right away Father. Do ya’ think $5,000 is enough to donate for the service?”
Father Patrick exclaimed, “Sweet Mary, Mother of Jesus! Why didn’t ya’ tell me the dog was Catholic?”