Do Dog Owners Really Look Like Their Pets? Judge for Yourself

See photos of people and dogs who appeared on "Today" to test the doggie doppelganger theory.

When you and your dog start to look like each other, is that the sign of a close, healthy relationship? Or does it just mean that the two of you are spending way too much time together?

Whichever way you lean on the issue, it's clear that it happens. According to The Atlantic Magazine, there's even science behind it. In an article covering the phenomenon, Sarah Yager wrote this week that "Researchers around the world have repeatedly found that strangers can match photos of dogs with photos of their owners at a rate well above chance."

The Today show took the idea and turned science into something cute and charming by bringing five owners and their pets to New York to model their similarities for the nation. David Frei, who co-hosts the USA Network's broadcast of the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, did the judging of which owner and pet looked most alike. You have to admire their moxie; while most people think that other people start to look like their pets, very few are willing to admit that they have started to share physical characteristics with their beloved Labradoodle. Even in dog-loving circles, telling someone that they look like their dog may very well be a faux pas.

So how true is the Doggie Doppleganger theory? The Today broadcast at least gives us a chance to do some casual testing. The website includes pictures of all five owner-dog pairings and gives you the chance to vote for the one that you think looks the most alike.

And then, there's the important questions: Do you think that you and your dog look alike? Do you think that you will, given time? And if so, is it something you'd admit in public?

View the original article here

People Show Off Their Fake Therapy Dogs to the New York Post

"Fake service dogs are becoming pretty popular now," one numbskull proudly tells the newspaper.

Because the laws for therapy dogs are so easy to skirt, people do it, taking their dogs everywhere that dogs otherwise are not allowed. Sometimes these people have real problems and just don't want to go through the effort of getting an officially trained dog when they can simply buy a patch on eBay and get the same results. 

But this isn't about people with real problems and fake therapy dogs. This story is about a guy who doesn't want to leave his little dog outside when he goes shopping. This story is about Brett David, a 33-year-old restaurateur who seems to be just loving spilling all his secrets to the New York Post, even posing with his Maltese Yorkie, Napoleon, in a Whole Foods in New York, grinning through his ice cream.  

“I was sick of tying up my dog outside,” he told the Post. “Sometimes, they’ll give me a hassle and say bring the papers next time, but for five bucks, you order [a patch] off eBay, and it works 90 percent of the time."

Wonderful, David! We're so happy for you. What other dumb crap do you do with your dog? 

“He’s been to most movie theaters in the city, more nightclubs than most of my friends."

Super! I'm sure the people who work there are convinced Napoleon aids tremendously in your illness (you're without a brain, aren't you?), and will no way cast a suspicious light in the future on real service dogs who come in to their establishments. Certainly you're not carrying on and potentially ruining it for others out their who really need their service dogs, fake or not? 

“I don’t care who you are, a teacup Yorkie will trump a black [American Express] card when you’re trying to pick up a girl.”

Huh. Well, you have a point. Carry on, David.

Let's hear from Kate Vlasovskaya, a financier, who tells the Post she bought a a phony “service dog” ID card online from the United States Service Dog Registry for her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Lila.

Why? Hell, I don't know how you get to the Hamptons with your dog, but Kate takes the Jitney. Her $50 laminated card clears the way no problem. It's real official looking -- it has a hologram and even an ID number for the dog. She is not worried about anyone finding out. 

“You’d have to go through all of these links or get someone on the line,” she said. “With all of that effort, they will probably just let you in.” 

Also, she said that fake service dogs are “becoming pretty popular now.” The subtext, of course, is that only losers tie up their dogs outside restaurants.

This is not looking good. 

Via the New York Post

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Scientists (Finally) Discover How Dogs Use Their Tongues to Drink

"The motions are precise, even mathematical," says one researcher. Just the same, it ain't pretty.

Here's a question you've probably never had the good sense to ask yourself: What is the mechanism by which a dog drinks? In other words: How does a dog's tongue work?  

Throughout history, this riddle has been left largely unanswered, because dogs drink so damn fast. Then someone invented the high-speed video camera, and civilization cleaved into pre-HSVC and post-HSVC worlds. One of the neat things we could do in this post-HSVC world was watch crocodiles take down wildebeest crossing a river in super-slow mo (so cool). The other thing we could do was figure out how a dog's tongue works, according to NPR. 

Behold: A dog's tongue becomes a ladle! An inverted ladle, to be precise. 

"It dips down, scoops up some water, using its tongue as a pulley," writes Robert Krulwich. "This was a revelation."

However! Once scientists put down the high-speed video camera and took up their measurement tools, they discovered that all the water that the dog had scooped up with this tongue-as-ladle fell out when the dog actually brought the damn thing to his mouth. 

Watch: 

In short, the dog is basically a toddler eating soup for the first time. So, why aren't all dogs dead of thirst? Scientists entered a conclave and promised not to emerge till they had the answer. Eventually, they had the answer. The world waited.  

The dog's tongue is a sticky wick! OF COURSE THAT MAKES PERFEC -- huh? A dog's tongue is a sticky wick? That's what we're paying you for? What does that mean? Let's hand this off to Krulwich:

"A dog will extend -- no, that's too polite a word -- the dog will thrust its tongue into the water and then whip it back up, very, very fast. A stream of water attaches to and follows the tongue upward (adhesion and cohesion) -- but only for a fraction of a second. Then gravity kicks in. The rising stream of water loses its upward momentum, and just as it's about to fall back into the bowl, at exactly the point where gravity is about to win, the dog snaps its mouth shut and swallows. Done. The motions are precise, even mathematical."

Don't argue. It's math. It's physics.

(As for cats, they drink the same way, only "more carefully, more elegantly, more efficiently." Harumph.)  

Via NPR

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Rescued dogs dedicate their life to helping the environment.

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In France, Locals Abandon Their Dogs When They Go on Vacation

This could be the worst sentence you'll read all day: Before they head off on summer vacations, many French people dump their dogs at shelters before they leave. It's a despicable practice, but before you get outraged, think a moment: How many abandoned dogs do you think there are? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands?

How about more than 100,000? Every summer. Now you can get outraged. 

An NPR article reports that the practice of abandoning pets before summer vacations is common across Europe, though France is among the worst offenders, with Italy and Spain close by. 

It seems to be part of the culture, despite campaigns by animal rights groups. Every year, the French SPCA runs a program to educate and inform the public through posters and social media. One poster features a dog and the line, "Animals can't cry, they just suffer in silence. Don't leave your pet this year."

It seems that some people in France -- many people in France, actually -- just don't care about dogs. According to Claire Brissard, who runs Society for the Prevention of Cruelty in Chamarande, many people don't even think they are doing anything wrong.

"So we make them come with us to put the dogs in the cages themselves," Brissard told NPR. "And when they see the stress of the animal they're leaving behind, at least they're not proud of what they're doing. And we hope that keeps them from doing it again."

Anne-Claire Chauvancy, of the Foundation for the Assistance of Animals, says that the education campaign has been so widespread that it has lost its impact.

"Everyone knows abandoning your dog is cruel, and he'll probably starve or get hit by a car," she told NPR. "This campaign has become almost banal and just seems to mark the beginning of summer."

Clearly, a new campaign is needed. The idea that more 100,000 dogs are handed off to shelters so their owners can relax is nearly impossible to for us to understand, especially because France is perceived as dog-friendly country (at least in the restaurants and cafes). France, with 61 million domestic animals, has the most pet ownership in Europe, and nearly half of all household have a pet, reports NPR.

David Chauvet of Animal Rights, a group that wants sales in retail pet stores halted until the shelters are empty, tries to explain: "The large majority of French are horrified by the thought of abandoning their pet," he told NPR. "But there are people with no scruples, much like child abusers."

More than 100,000 dogs, every year. That's a lot of people with no scruples.

Via NPR.

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Embrace This: Most People Hug Their Dogs More Than They Hug Other People

Got dog fur across the fronts of your sweaters and shirts? Not surprising, according to a recent dog owner survey. Blame it on our dogs being just too embraceable to resist.

More than two-thirds (68 percent) of those surveyed say they hug their dogs more often than they hug "certain people" in their lives. Nearly one-third (30 percent) say they hug their dogs more than their relatives, and one-quarter (26 percent) say they hug their dogs more than they hug their best friends.

That's a lot of dog love, and could help explain what (at least to me) seems to be a rise in fur/lint rollers in stores.

But is one dog's affection gain someone else's loss? Does the good old physics law of the conservation of mass/energy apply here? Possibly. The survey of 482 U.S. adult dog owners in the Beneful Baked Delights survey found that 10 percent of women say they hug their dogs more than they hug their spouses or significant others. That probably translates to 10 percent of spouses who would like to be treated like a dog.

So what's so intoxicating about hugging a dog? The majority of owners surveyed say that hugging their dog makes them smile and feel happier. Nearly 40 percent say hugging their dog causes them to forget about the stress in their lives.

Hugging isn't just a one-way street, either. According to the survey, more than 60 percent of owners say that when they hug their dog, the dog returns their affection.

I think it's true. Dogs may not hug you back, but they embrace with their eyes and a certain way of leaning and being quiet and in the moment of the hug.

What's your hugging history? Do you hug your dog more than you do certain friends and loved ones? How does it make you feel to hug your pooch? Does it melt away stress, or just get you fretting about your black cashmere sweater suddenly turning the same color as your dog? And how does it make your dog feel? I realize certain dogs may not like being hugged. If you have a significant other, has s/he complained that your dog gets too much of your affection? Let us know!

For now, I sign off with big hugs. (For Jake, that is. Sorry, he's just looking too adorable curled up at my feet all loyal and cozy as write this.)

Photos via Shutterstock: Man hugging dog, woman hugging dog

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Working Dogs Get Their Day on Set of New Postal Stamps

If you like working dogs (and who doesn’t?!) and you still send items by mail, you’ll love the set of four working-dog stamps unleashed by the US Postal Service today. The stamps depict a guide dog, a therapy dog, a military dog (a tracking dog), and a search dog.

Unfortunately these aren’t the right denominations for a typical letter, but if you have anything a bit bigger, they’ll do the trick. They almost make me want to send big fat letters to my friends. They’re too good for my big fat bills, though.

Artist John M. Thompson based the stamps on photographs he composed, and painted them in acrylics, according to the Baltimore Sun (the USPS Store site has been down for hours this morning so I can’t get it straight from the source; it may be up by the time you read this. You can order the stamps directly from there if you want to avoid lines.)

Military working dog groups have been pushing for a standard-letter-priced stamp honoring military working dogs for more than a decade now. They’re glad that the dogs have a nod in this set of stamps, but they are still pushing for a “forever” stamp or set of stamps devoted to these canine heroes. If you want to help this endeavor, head to the US War Dogs Association stamp petition page and click the link. (As with the postal stamp site, this morning the petition site isn’t working, but with luck it should be fixed soon.)

Dogsters, will you be buying these stamps? What do you think of them? Will you be coating your postal packages with them for a while? I’m going to get a few sets of these once the postal link is going again. Even though it may be a long time before I have a reason to use them, I’d like them handy when I need them. They’ll join my Owney dog stamps in my top desk drawer.

View the original article here

People Killing, Maiming Their Pets to Collect on Insurance

Pet insurance fraud has become Britain’s fastest-growing insurance crime, and has even turned deadly for some dogs and cats.  In their owners’ quest for insurance payouts, some pets are paying with their lives. In one brutal scam, people kill pets and then file for early death benefits, according to reports.

Some owners stage fake accidents and injure their pets in order to “fix” pre-existing conditions or to bilk the companies out of more money, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

Fraudulent pet claims quadrupled to $3 million during the last year, but many suspect the figure is significantly higher. The number of claims where fraud was suspected or proven increased by 440 percent for one insurer between 2008 and now.

Less harmful fraudulent activity includes making claims on animals who don’t exist, and filing for amounts that double or more what was paid to vets. Experts say some unscrupulous vets may even be helping with some scams.

“These are particularly worrying types of fraud because it often requires the help of a vet,” says fraud investigator ?Carys Clarke.

All this makes those who ding their cars in order to get insurance money (known as a “crash for cash” scheme) look pretty harmless.

Pet insurance is much easier to dupe than human insurance because there are no easy ways to track pets. I’m sure insurers are working on trying to remedy this. And I’m willing to bet that this isn’t solely happening in Britain.

Can you believe some people will go to these extremes to make money? Perhaps if the punishment fit the crime, some perpetrators would be deterred.

I hope the pet insurance industry can come up with better ways to track claims so pets won’t have to continue to pay the price. And speaking of price, I wonder how this sort of thing affects insurance premiums. Have you noticed your bills increasing of late, Dogsters?

Sources: The Telegraph, Time, the Daily Mail

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Hit Stores That Support Puppy Mills Where It Hurts: Their Wallets

Hi, all. Maria is out collecting stories for her upcoming book on Soldier Dogs and I thought I’d pop in to tell you about an important campaign the ASPCA has started that people who truly love dogs should care about.

I don’t have to tell you about the horrors of puppy mills. We cover them regularly on this very blog, our readers howl back about them in the comments section of any given post and our community has fierce discussions in the Dogster forums about rescued mill pups they’ve helped rehabilitate. It’s sick and sad from every angle you look at it and it infuriates and offends me, personally, when I meet otherwise intelligent people who somehow thought it was OK at one point or another to exchange cash* for a puppy at a pet store.

But apparently there is a huge disconnect in a staggering number of people’s heads when it comes to puppy mills and pet stores. Many are aware of the harsh conditions at the puppy plants but don’t realize they wind up turning into the cogs in the mill machine when they pay for that cute puppy in the window. It’s only later, when they run into the typical genetic or behavioral/socialization problems that they realize their mistake. (Please note: I am aware that not ALL mill dogs display these issues, but that does not excuse the conditions under which they were born and raised, etc.)

A few days ago, the ASPCA released the results of a poll they’d commissioned Lake Research Partners to conduct on their behalf. From it, these two eye-widening numbers emerged: apparently 78% of consumers don’t know that most pet store puppies come from puppy mills. The poll also found that 80 percent of consumers would not purchase a puppy if they knew the animal came from a mill.

Putting two and two together, the ASPCA has launched the No Pet Store Puppies campaign. At the heart of it is a pledge — and whether you’re a dog, cat, chinchilla or iguana parent, I urge you to take it along with me and encourage friends and family to do the same. The pledge is simple, here’s what mine looked like:

Add your voice and take the pledge over here. After you’ve done so, please leave a comment below to let us know you’re with us on this.

Thanks for reading,

Janine Kahn
Managing Editor, Dogster and Catster

*P.S. Please also note that stores that host adoption days for rescues/shelters are different from stores that SELL puppies.

View the original article here

Are people who bring their cats to shelters ‘abandoning’ them?

Ok now my previous post isnt showing up…I think there are little gremlins in my computer trying to drive me nuts. Little do they know…I’m already there…….one more time:

“Is someone who takes a cat to a no-kill shelter because they have lost their job and their home “abandoning” their cat?”

Yes.

Granted, a no kill shelter is a much better option than a death camp (kill “shelter”) or leaving a pet who hasnt learned how to survive outside like ferals, where they are without someone to care for them.

But this B.S. about “Oh, I lost my job, or home, blah blah yadda yadda, so I cant keep my cat or dog” is just a cowardly, irresponsible, excuse.

You’ll notice that these frauds arent abandoning their human kids, dropping them off somewhere, forever leaving them heartbroken and missing their family, yet they do it to their four legged babies because alot of society has a severe case of ignorance (technical term: Headupthebuttitis), in which the four legged souls of this world are considered “disposable”, whether they are murdered and thrown away in death camps, or dumped off somewhere, it is simply WRONG to violate the promise that one essentially makes when adopting a pet:

To always love them, care for them, protect them, be there for them, and to NEVER abandon them.

If you have money to afford food for your chubby kids, you have money for your cat(s), period.

I once emailed a woman who wanted to give away her cat because “she didnt have money” and reminded her that she was online, paying a monthly fee for having an online service,and that she would save enough money to take care of her cat, if she sold the computer, and thus saving on the monthly fees, and kept her cat.

She had nothing to say.
Because she knew I was right.

If you arent leaving your kids behind, dont leave your cats behind. Period.

If a hotel doesnt accept cats, dont accept the hotel, and find one that DOES accept cats. Many many do.

Adopting a cat is like giving birth: You are FOREVER responsible for your new baby.

There is a double standard that deadbeat pet parents cling to, and it is rooted in the same prejudice that shelter killing is rooted in: Speciesism.

When searching for the right answer to any question, we must put OURSELVES in the position of OTHERS (Treat others the way YOU want to be treated), and in this case, we must ask ourselves this question: “If I was in Morris’s or Fluffy’s situation, would I want my family to abandon ME?”

If the answer is “No” (if you’re honest, it IS “No”), then dont abandon your cat, because they are equally as important and precious as You, I and the rest of us.

Now, if an old 89 year old woman who is confined to a wheelchair and has degenerative
arthritis, is unable to care for and feed her cat properly, then that is a different situation, and a NO kill shelter might actually be better for the cat’s well being, even though He or She would badly miss their loved one.

But using money as an excuse for abandoning your cat or dog, while you still spend money on your human kids, is cowardly and wrong.

Bottom line: If you can take care of, and have room for 190-225 pound human family members, you can take care of, and you have room for a 10-15 pound cat.

To say otherwise is to condone abandonment.
Abandonment is wrong.

Just put YOURSELF in the pawprints of the abandoned, and tell me, how would you feel if YOUR family abandoned you?

Your cat would feel the same way.

Treat others like you would want to be treated.

Society must stop finding excuses to kill and start finding ways to save lives, and society must stop finding excuses to abandon pets, and instead find a way to keep them.

They love you, and need you.

Ask not what our pets can do for us, ask what we can do for our pets.

P.S. If I were the head of a No Kill Shelter, I would tell anyone who wanted to dump their pets off at my shelter, what I just told everyone else, but I would MAKE CLEAR that if they STILL wanted to abandon their cat, I’d glady take Him or Her and show them what having a TRUE loving family feels like….a family who will love them, like cats love us….unconditionally, forever.

“We humans could learn alot from the higher animals”

Comment by Matt — June 24, 2011 @ 8:28 pm

Matt, your arguments are simplistic and unrealistic.

First of all, it would be ILLEGAL for a parent to just “drop their kid off somewhere” and leave them behind. You CAN legally do that with an animal. You CANNOT legally do that with a child. You may believe that is wrong, but that’s YOUR value system speaking out. Whether or not YOU agree with it, the LAW grants a higher standard of protection to children than to animals, and legally, leaving a child behind is just not something a parent can generally do.

Second, a good share of the programs put in place to help those in need (homeless shelters, food kitchens, etc.) prohibit animals. If you feel THAT is wrong, you’d be in good company with many others here. But presently, that’s the way it is. And if a family in dire financial need wants to get the available help, their pets become a hindrance in this situation, so many make the decision to leave their pets at a shelter in order to obtain shelter for their children.

(And no - someone without a steady source of income cannot simply go blithely “hotel-shopping” to find one that accepts pets the same way a person with a dependable income can. The unemployed person is looking for whatever they can afford, and that’s not likely to include allowing animals. Again, if you think this policy is wrong, you’d be in good company, but so far, that’s the way it is.)

You say “Society must stop finding excuses to kill and start finding ways to save lives, and society must stop finding excuses to abandon pets, and instead find a way to keep them.” and I certainly agree with you there. Take the example of FEMA and Hurricane Katrina.

We all remember the tragic images of pet owners having their beloved animals pulled from their arms before being pushed onto the evacuation buses, and other images of owners sitting on their rooftops with the animals they refused to leave behind - hoping either for rescue or the receding of the flood before they ran out of their food and water.

Congress took note of the human cost resulting from FEMA’s inflexible “no pets” policy and passed the “Pets Evacuation and Transportation
Standards Act of 2006” and so now the FEMA policy says “The Post-Katrina Act amends the IHP provisions of the Stafford Act by authorizing search, rescue, care, and shelter of pets and service animals as a type of essential assistance to be provided after a major disaster declaration.”

In other words, in a disaster, pet owner may no longer be forced by FEMA to leave their pets behind.

It’s a start, and we need to keep up the pressure to get homeless shelters, hotels, motels and landlords to end their “no pets” policies and find ways for food providers (so-called “soup kitchens”) to accomodate pet owners without running afoul of Health regulations.

But we’re not there yet, and so in today’s world with today’s realities of life after catastrophic financial loss, families with pets are put at a MAJOR disadvantage (in addition to those they already face). Rather than having THE ENTIRE FAMILY continue to starve and be homeless, the RESPONSIBLE thing to do is to provide shelter for the pets by leaving them somewhere safe which permits the rest of the family to seek the available help and resources that are out there. That way ALL of you can survive.

And if THAT isn’t an example of “FOREVER responsibility”, then I don’t know what is.

Comment by The OTHER Pat — June 25, 2011 @ 6:07 am

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Food isn’t love for cats or their people

April 12, 2011

No, your cat doesn’t just love you because you feed her. From Dr. Marty Becker and Mikkel Becker in this week’s Pet Connection newspaper feature:

Cats attach to their people out of a social bond, not solely because owners provide food. A study accepted for publication in the journal Behavioural Processes found cat-human relationships closely resemble human relationships. Food is a token of affection, and for humans and their cats, the relationship is similar to a human caretaker and the pre-verbal infant. The study also looked at the difference between bonds of male and female owners and their cats. Cats approached female owners and jumped on their laps more readily than cats with male owners, suggesting that female owners have closer relationships with their cats than do male owners.

And from Gina Spadafori, words of wisdom about pet bunnies:

Want a happy house rabbit? Make sure your bunny’s digs are suitable.

The best indoor spaces for rabbits are both safe and stimulating. They keep your bunny out of trouble when you are away from home, but give him the space to dig, chew, play, stretch, snooze or just sit and think.

The right housing has room for a large litter box, a generous stack of hay, a water crock, toys to chew and toss, and a towel to arrange and rearrange. A surprising must-have: a cardboard digging box, double or triple the size of your bunny.

The right spot will give your rabbit an entertaining view of family members as they cook, clean, talk on the phone, watch TV, use the computer and get ready for — or come home from — work. (Read more here…)

You can read all this and more in this week’s Pet Connection!

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Dog auctions: Where puppy millers do their dirty business

If only I were a fiction writer and the details within this blog post were a product of my imagination. Unfortunately dog auctions are a painful and despicable fact of life.

In case you are unfamiliar with dog auctions, let me fill you in. Envision rooms filled floor to ceiling with crates and cages each housing dogs whose sole purpose in life is to make puppies.

Every dog in the room is identified by the number on the auction tag hanging round his or her neck. There are purebreds of multiple varieties, although some might not be recognizable as such given their lack of health care and horrifically overgrown hair coats.

And, of course, there are plenty of “designer hybrids,” the mutts that are purposefully planned because they are “all the rage” and their litters will earn big bucks for some lucky puppy miller.

Some of the rooms filled with dogs are eerily quiet; these are animals with broken spirits, too scared to vocally protest and too disassociated from their miserable existences to invite attention from the humans peering into their cages.

Six auctions are held every year in Farmerstown, Ohio. In fact, the next one, of 351 dogs, is on April 2.

If you happen to live near Farmerstown, I encourage you to attend. You will be surrounded by puppy millers and their ilk who have come to socialize, discuss their trade, and buy and sell “livestock.” You will also find folks from breed rescue organizations hoping to place some winning bids that will alter the dismal fate of as many dogs as is affordable.

Don’t take a camera with you; it will be confiscated. You see, these are rather covert affairs; journalists and photographers are not allowed. The photographic images accompanying this post were obtained undercover.

On average, 300 to 500 dogs trade hands on any given auction day. The dogs who fetch the highest prices are those with proven fertility records; bitches already pregnant are highly valued. Details about each dog’s breeding behavior and previous litter sizes are provided, but information about basic temperament or breed-specific inherited diseases within the family tree is unavailable because it is deemed unimportant. After all, naive puppy buyers don’t request such information.

If you attend the auction in Farmerstown, be sure to look for Mary O’Connor-Shaver. You will find her at the peaceful protest that is a visible presence on each and every auction day. In my mind Mary is a hero, working tirelessly to convince Ohio legislators to ban dog auctions from her state. I hope you will visit her website. Mary has been a huge source of information and inspiration for me.

What can you do to help eradicate dog auctions and put an end to puppy mills? Here are some suggestions:

1.Educate your friends and family to boycott puppy mills and stores that sell puppies. Let them know that this means never ever purchasing a puppy from a pet store or from an on line source (site and sight unseen). Encourage them to visit their local shelter and contact local breed-specific rescue organizations, or to purchase a puppy from a responsible breeder.

2. If you live in a state that sanctions dog auctions (Ohio, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Arkansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri), write your legislators and appeal to them to stop this madness. And if there are efforts within your state to create legislation banning dog auctions, please pitch in. This might involve organizing rallies, writing letters, and gathering signatures of support.

3. If you don’t reside in a state that sanctions dog auctions, write letters to the governors and legislators of the eight states that do. Let them know you will no longer support their state in terms of travel and commerce until their dog auctions cease to exist.

4. Let your veterinarian know how you feel about dog auctions and puppy mills, and encourage him or her to take a public stance against them. Goodness knows, we see first hand the horrific health issues and accompanying heartbreak produced by puppy mills.

5. If you are a teacher, educate your students about puppy mills and dog auctions. Teach them about responsible ways to acquire a dog. I believe in my heart of hearts that educating children about these issues is the key to success.

6. Please share this post with anyone and everyone you know who loves a dog, and encourage them to take action.

My youngest child attends college in Athens, Ohio. During a recent visit we checked out Petland, the largest pet store in Athens. We found no fewer than three dozen utterly adorable purebred and designer hybrid puppies, undoubtedly puppy mill progeny.

There were plenty of customers in the store that day interacting with the pups and contemplating buying one. I chatted with the store manager about the Boxer pup on display, and asked to see the paperwork documenting if Boxer cardiomyopathy existed in the pup’s lineage. Boxer cardiomyopathy is an inherited heart condition that can prematurely snuff out the life of an afflicted dog.

She responded by saying, “No, we don’t have that paperwork, but no problem because Petland guarantees full refunds on any dogs that develop symptoms caused by an inherited disease.” No problem for Petland, that is. It’s a different story for the dog, or the people who love him.

What are you willing to do to help stop this madness?

Photos taken by an undercover photographer who has asked to be unnamed to preserve his or her ability to continue to do this work. Used with permission.

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Hats off to search and rescue dogs and their handlers

Last night I was watching television, watching the horrifying disaster in Japan, while hugging Bashir. He’s not a huggy dog but I think he realized I needed it. The scope of that disaster is just overwhelming.

And while I worry about the Japanese people and our friends in Japan, I also worry about the search and rescue (SAR) dogs and their handlers who have deployed to Japan. Working in those environments is going to be horrible and incredibly dangerous. I know that’s what they train for but I still worry.

My husband, Paul, and I did search and rescue work a number of years back with our two German Shepherd Dogs, Watachie and Michi. The training process was long and rigorous; for both the dogs and the people. However, I found the dog training portion of it easy; primarily because my dog, Watachie, was a hard working dog and if I could figure out how to teach him something, he was more than willing to do it. He was one of those dogs who couldn’t be distracted by anything. A deer bounding past us in the woods wouldn’t get more than an ear twitch.

My part of the training was more difficult. I had never used a compass in my life and although I had good camping skills, grew up running wild in the woods,  and had never been lost; I had never had formal survival training, either. It was hard to set aside what I knew, “But I’ve never been lost!” and learn new skills.

Running a search and rescue base camp was all new to me, too. My Dad had taught me to read a map but that was a street map; this was entirely different.

I enjoyed the other challenges of SAR training. Learning how search rubble of various kinds, doing obstacle training, teaching Watachie to freeze in place without moving a paw, learning how to search from a boat; all of that was fascinating. Teaching the dogs to ride in a plane was easy – a helicopter was a little bigger challenge. Although Watachie took to it easily Michi had a little more unease. He kept looking up at the rotors, as if to say, “What the — are those?”

By the time Watachie and Michi were retired due to health problems – as well as growing older – they had participated in many searches. Some of the searches had happier endings than others but in all of the searches we felt that we – Paul and I and our dogs – as well as the other members of our SAR unit – had done a good job.

However, we had never been called to a disaster such as what is going on in Japan. My heart goes out to the people of Japan as well as all the search and rescue dogs and their handlers. Good luck, everyone, and be safe!

Photo credit: Michi, not doing SAR work here, but pulling his cart. Photo by Liz Palika.

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The dogs of Almost Heaven Ranch show off their happy feet

February 6, 2011

Sometimes, this veterinarian is a little bit of a hypocrite.

I’ve been on TV telling pet owners that live in colder climates to keep the hair trimmed between their dogs’ toes so that they don’t get ice balls or soak up salty brine off of the sidewalks and irritate their feet.

It’s good advice, but the truth is, some winters we trim the hair on Quixote’s feet and other times like this year we’re letting it grow out. Why? Because we love what Teresa calls his “furry slippers.”

Quora, on the other hand, has two Ticonderoga #2 pencils for legs, and stands digitigrade (only digits on the ground) like Natalie Portman en pointe in “The Black Swan.”

But just because she stands like a ballerina, don’t think Quora’s a softy.

We live in the wilds of Northern Idaho and have both wolves and coyotes as neighbors. Rather than have a flock guard dog like a Great Pyrenees, Komondor or Anatolian Shepherd, we use Quora as a lethal deterrent. Facing her in her pink outfit, the feared predators would die laughing!

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