Dog Backpack or Life Jacket: Which Would You Choose?

Hey, Jake here! You can enter to win a spiffy new dog backpack or life jacket by following the directions at the bottom of this post. But first you should read my article, because it's pretty awesome.

I love getting packages in the mail. Even when boxes that arrive aren't for me, it's fun to tear through the cardboard and get to the contents. Then Maria eventually comes back downstairs to retrieve the packages, and wow! The way she reacts, you'd think I'd done a leg lift on the Queen Mother. 

So imagine my excitement when three packages arrived in the last couple of weeks with my name on them. It was like it was Christmas, only without the "Jake! Did you eat the gingerbread house?!" kinds of comments I hear all season.

Using my handy, built-in box cutters, I made quick work of the cardboard. Maria realized that the items these companies sent me as a perk of my work for Dogster formed a theme: summertime fun. So she decided I would review them (a dog backpack, life jacket and flying saucer) to earn my keep. It's the least I can do to repay her for all the flip-flops I'll shred this summer.

We'll start with an item that looked pretty great from the get-go: An Outward Hound Pet Saver Life Jacket. This model is a nice chartreuse, and it's really well constructed, with a secure, wide body strap on the bottom, which closes with Velcro tabs. It's made extra secure by buckle straps. This puppy ain't falling off.

I can swim super well, but I do go on boats occasionally, since we have a sea captain in the family. Sometimes I get a little too excited, and people have to do everything they can to keep me from jumping into the drink. Maria said this would be a really handy item.

It looks so good on the Outward Hound catalog model. Check it out.

So Maria, my girl Laura, and I went to a nearby pond for my own model shots. They put it on me and then started laughing. I bet no one laughed at that gorgeous creature above. Check out the picture of Laura laughing so hard she was almost drooling.

Very funny, Laura. Yeah, verrry funny!

Wow, not exactly star treatment! I was a bit confused as to the source of their merriment. This life jacket is super comfortable. I walked around and didn't even notice it was on. Didn't seem funny to me at all. I was beginning to get vaguely annoyed at being the pond clown, as you can see.

What?? Whaaaat?

As I was standing there perplexed, Maria brought the camera close to my bulging chest and took a photo. Ha ha, very funny.

It seems I'm just so well-built that the giant black tummy/chest strap was not coming close to Velcro-ing shut. It's supposed to have significant overlap, but the two sides weren't even shaking hands. I'm just "special," Maria says. She had thrown out the packaging, so we don't know if it's a large or extra-large. I am hoping it isn't the latter, because I would feel a little portly if i can't even fit into an XL.

OK, embarrassing.

This little issue didn't stop me from trying it out in the pond. I can swim without a life vest just fine, so I knew it wasn't going to be a problem. Plus the dual buckle straps, when adjusted to their largest setting, fit around me and held it on super securely. I felt pretty great swimming in it, and I look pretty great, too, don't you think?

I give the Outward Hound life vest four paws up for its comfort, style, and quality construction. I think any dog who isn't a strong swimmer and is around pools or docks or on boats this summer should talk their people into getting one. Just make sure you measure his or her girth correctly when ordering. It's fine when June is busting out all over, but not so good when your chest and belly are ....

The next present I opened was another Outward Hound product. This time, it was an Excursion Dog Backpack (product page here). The first thing I noticed is that it was powder pink. A lot of people think I'm colorblind. I'm not. And a lot of people think I'm a girl. I'm not. The company must have seen one of my prettier pictures and sent this my way.

Initially I was embarrassed. I took a bite from a big yogurt container and tried to hide my face from the paparazzi.

Then I realized: Hey, I am a manly dog! I regularly wear a pastel floral collar, and it doesn't bother me at all. It just sort of makes my manliness shine out extra strong all around it. A pink dog backpack wasn't going to be a problem, either. Real men can wear pink backpacks! 

And I'm happy to tell you that it's another really comfortable, secure product. The torso straps are padded, so the thing didn't bug me at all. The pockets are roomy, and there's even a poop-bag dispenser. How many humans can say that about their backpacks?

The last product I tried out was a Kong Saucer flying disk. It's the usual Kong red rubber, and that alone gets me pretty excited. Maria threw it for me once, and the flight was perfect. When I caught it, it was delightfully gentle on my mouth.

I loved it. To death. Maria got distracted by a visitor, and I absconded with it. When she came looking 15 minutes later, the Kong Saucer was in 138 separate bits. Laura counted. Maria gave me the "OMG you did a leg lift on the Queen Mother" face again. (I warn her that her face is going to stick like that, but she pays no attention.)

Most normal dogs will really enjoy the Kong Saucer for its intended purpose. If your dog is normal and not "special" like me, go get one.

And now for how to enter the contest. It's easy, 'cause I'm a simple guy. Just leave a comment below saying if you'd like to win a doggy backpack or life jacket. We'll do a random drawing for a winner for each. Please leave your comment by Friday, June 15, at noon Pacific time. You must have a valid e-mail address attached to your Disqus account for commenting. If we draw your name, PetSmart, which is supplying the winners with their fun prizes, will contact you to find out your dog's size and your shipping info.

Good luck -- and have a great summer!

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First-Ever Golden Collar Award Nominees: Which Dog Actor Do You Think Should Win?

The Golden Globe Awards are so last weekend. The awards event that’s shining today is the Golden Collar Awards, a new institution recognizing the best canine performances in film and television.

The first-ever Golden Collar Awards, put together by Dog News Daily, will follow in the decade-old pawsteps of the Palm Dog Awards at Cannes in honoring the year’s top dog actors. The nominations came out yesterday, and we were not too surprised to see some of our favorite four-legged thespians on the list. Check out the nominees below and let us know who would get your vote if you were a judge.

The spotlight has been shining brightly on the amazing Uggie, the 9-year-old Jack Russell who had a major role in the wonderful film, The Artist. He upstaged pretty much everyone at the Golden Globe awards on Sunday with his incomparable cuteness. His Uggieness even inspired a call to start recognizing dogs at the Golden Globes and the Oscars (check out the Consider Uggie Facebook page), but there has been no official movement in that direction. Well, who needs a statue when you can get a cool collar?

Penelope Ann Miller and Uggie announced the Golden Collar Awards yesterday

Uggie, who helped his human costar, Penelope Ann Miller, announce the nominees, was nominated twice for a top-dog award. (His other nomination was as Queenie in Water for Elephants.) Judges will probably have a hard time, because last year there were some superb canine performances.

One of my favorites on the list is Cosmo, the uber-adorable Jack Russell who played beside Christopher Plummer in the indie breakout film, Beginners. I saw that in a special screening with Dogster Managing Editor Janine Kahn, and was grateful we brought a little packet of Kleenex with us.

Both Uggie and Cosmo were rescued from shelters by their trainers. How cool is that?

As well as telling us who you think deserves the Golden Collars in their categories, let us know what you think about the up-and-coming idea of having a category in the Oscars for performance by an animal. Stephen Spielberg is reportedly behind this effort; he apparently would like to see the horse who played Joey in War Horse nominated for such an award. (From what I read, several horses played Joey. Not sure how that would work …)

The awards ceremony takes place on Monday, February 13, at 6 p.m. (PT) at the Hotel Palomar in Westwood/Los Angeles. You won’t be able to tune in, because it’s not being televised, but we’ll bring you the results.

Canine nominees for the Golden Collar Awards were announced in five categories:

BEST DOG IN A THEATRICAL FILM

COSMO as Arthur — BEGINNERS (Focus Features)

UGGIE as Queenie  — WATER FOR ELEPHANTS (Fox)

DENVER as Skeletor — 50/50 (Summit Entertainment/ Mandate Pictures)

HUMMER as Dolce — YOUNG ADULT (Paramount/Mandate)

UGGIE as Jack — THE ARTIST (The Weinstein Company)

BEST DOG IN A FOREIGN FILM

KOKO as Red Dog — RED DOG (Roadshow Films, Australia)

LAIKA as Herself — LE HAVRE (Janus Films, France)

BIINA as Alf — THE DAY THE DOGS DISAPPEARED (Nippon Television, Japan)

ICHICO as Tao — THE DAY THE DOGS DISAPPEARED (Nippon Television, Japan)

BEST DOG IN A TELEVISION SERIES

ROCY as Arnold — ENTOURAGE (HBO)

CHUNK as Himself — CHELSEA LATELY (E! Entertainment Television)

BRIGITTE as Stella — MODERN FAMILY (ABC)

DART as Chance — HOT IN CLEVELAND (TV Land)

JASON GANN as Wilfred — WILFRED (FX)

LAMBCHOP as Yakult — SUBURGATORY (ABC)

BEST DOG IN A REALITY TELEVISION SERIES

GIGGY — THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF BEVERLY HILLS/Lisa Vanderpump (Bravo)

MILLOU — THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF NEW YORK CITY/Sonja Morgan (Bravo)

JACKPOT — THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF BEVERLY HILLS/Adrienne Maloof (Bravo)

SPARTACUS — ICE LOVES COCO/Coco (E! Entertainment)

HERCULES — PIT BOSS/ Shorty Rossi (Animal Planet)

BEST DOG IN A DIRECT-TO-DVD FILM

FRED as B Dawg — SPOOKY BUDDIES (Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment)

GASTON as Beethoven — BEETHOVEN’S CHRISTMAS ADVENTURE (Universal Home Entertainment)

ANGEL as Chloe — BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA 2 (Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment)

ROWDY  as Marley — MARLEY AND ME: THE PUPPY YEARS (Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment)

RUSCO as Papi — BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA 2 (Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment)

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Which popular drugs for humans harm pets?

Of the five top-selling human drugs, do you know which ones are the most toxic if accidentally ingested by your pet?

According to the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, the top five drugs — which together accounted for $28.9 billion in sales last year — prescribed for people in 2010 were (in order):

Lipitor® (atorvastatin), the top-selling ‘statin,’ known for reducing cholesterol levelsNexium® (esomeprazole), which curtails gastric acid production and lowers ulcer susceptibilityPlavix® (clopidogrel), a clot inhibitor, lessens the incidence of strokeAdvair Diskus® (fluticasone propionate and salmeterol), an inhaled anti-asthma medicationAbilify® (aripiprazole), used to treat depression and bipolar disorders.

Although it’s best to keep any human-drugs away from pets, according to the Pet Poison Helpline, of the top five, the bottom two are potentially the most lethal. When it comes to Advair®:

(D)ogs that chew into them are exposed to massive amounts of the drug all at once. This often results in heart arrhythmias, an elevated heart rate, agitation, vomiting and even acute collapse. Severe electrolyte abnormalities such as very low potassium levels are likely and can be life-threatening without immediate veterinary treatment.

As for Abilify®:

It is important to keep this drug out of the reach of pets, as ingestion can result in profound lethargy, vomiting, hyperthermia, significant changes in heart rate and blood pressure, and seizures. If a pet ingests this drug, immediate veterinary attention is needed.

However, as any veterinarian will tell you, the most lethal drugs for pets are likely in your medicine cabinet right now, and you didn’t need a prescription for either of them.

1. NSAIDs (e.g. Advil, Aleve and Motrin)
Topping our Top 10 list are common household medications called non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs), which include common names such as ibuprofen (e.g., Advil and some types of Motrin) and naproxen (Aleve). While these medications are safe for people, even one or two pills can cause serious harm to a pet. Dogs, cats, birds and other small mammals (ferrets, gerbils and hamsters) may develop serious stomach and intestinal ulcers as well as kidney failure.

2. Acetaminophen (e.g. Tylenol)
When it comes to pain medications, acetaminophen (e.g. Tylenol) is certainly popular. Even though this drug is very safe, even for children, this is not true for pets—especially cats. One regular strength tablet of acetaminophen may cause damage to a cat’s red blood cells, limiting their ability to carry oxygen. In dogs, acetaminophen leads to liver failure and, in large doses, red blood cell damage.

It’s best practice to make sure all your medications are far out of reach of your pets, and you should never store drugs in plastic (even Ziploc-type) bags. They’re too easily chewed through, and since the bags are transparent, the pets can see the potential goodies inside.

Today is World Turtle Day! May 23, 2011 is World Turtle Day, according to American Tortoise Rescue (ATR). Susan Tellem, ATR’s co-founder, talks about why today matters.

World Turtle Day was started to increase respect and knowledge for the world’s oldest creatures. These gentle animals have been around for about 200 million years, yet they are rapidly disappearing as a result of the exotic food industry, habitat destruction and the cruel pet trade,” said Tellem. “We are seeing smaller turtles coming into the rescue meaning that older adults are disappearing from the wild, and the breeding stock is drastically reduced. It is a very sad time for turtles and tortoises of the world.” She added that many sea turtles lost their lives in 2010 thanks to BP’s uncontrolled oil spill off the coast of Louisiana. “It’s a tragic example of putting profits before preserving our environment,” Tellem said.

Lies, damn lies, and…. Brent Toellner of KC Dog Blog does a great job here exploding one of the oddly persistent myths about pibbles.

The prodigal cat — and dog — return: The aftermath of tornado damage in Alabama was unremittingly awful. I had trouble watching some of the coverage, but my wife said I just had to see this video from CNN.  I had to watch it a couple times to believe what I was seeing. The same day, Susan Fox sent me this link from SFGate, so you could read an even more improbable saga. The moral of the second story: microchips are a good thing.

Stories from the road: Dr. Becker is nearing the stretch run of his Big Bus Tour, but somewhere in the great plains he still had time to forward a story about a man and his dog. The man is named Marty Kihn (no relation, I’m pretty sure). The dog is a big, not very well behaved Berner named Hola (shown at right). Marty lived in New York City, was drinking heavily, and had lost nearly everything, including his wife. All he had left was Hola, and ultimately it might have been Hola who saved Marty. All in all, a terrific feel-good story from foxnews.com.

Wanna go for a ride? The cat-came-back video from Alabama wasn’t the best video of the week. This one from AutoNews about a road test in England is. I feel really badly for the poor St. Bernard. If I were him, I’d have taken one look and said “Sorry, ol’ chap, have a good time. I’d rather walk.”

Travel tips: This is a good time to start discussing travel tips for your pets this summer, but the real reason I’m mentioning this story from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune is to draw your attention to Best Western’s choice of new pet travel expert. Talk amongst yourselves.

Finally….the picture of the week. Thanks to my pal Maria Goodavage at Dogster for this wonderful picture. Hey, how about a caption contest? C’mon, gang, let’s hear the nominees for what you think the dog on the right is thinking. Comment away, and I’ll see you next week.

I always like to hear from readers, especially if you have tips, and links for interesting stories.  Give me a shout in the comments, or better yet, send me an e-mail.

Photo credits: Pills, flickr creative commons (RambergMediaImages). Evil Knievel, tortoise.com. Hola, foxnews. Puzzlement, dogster.

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