How Laser Therapy Works

K Laser Class IV Therapy Laser is a non-invasive outpatient procedure for your dog.  Non-thermal photons of light are administered to the body and absorbed by the injured cells.  These cells are then stimulated and respond with a higher rate of metabolism.  This results in increased circulation from the body, an anti-inflammatory reaction, relief from pain and an acceleration of the healing process.

The treatment is simple and the relief your dog will feel is immediate.  Pain relief is provided with just a few minutes of therapy, reducing your pet’s anxiety and increasing their quality of life.

The average visit lasts 10-15 minutes and in some cases only one or two visits are needed. For more chronic concerns such as pain management associated with osteoarthritis, hip dysplasia or degenerative disc disease, regular visits are highly recommended.  Contact your vet to discuss the therapy and whether it is the best option for your dog.

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Anybody Want to Adopt an Adorable Blind Dog AND His Seeing-Eye Dog?

These fellas come as a pair. One is blind. The other helps him get around. They're best friends.

Meet Jack and Chico, two Australian Cattle Dogs who found themselves at the MaxFund Animal Adoption Center in Denver after their owner passed away. Jack and Chico would very much like to be adopted as a pair. 

You see, Chico is blind, and Jack is his seeing-eye dog. Jack accepts no payment or praise for his job. He does it because Jack is his best friend. He's known him all his life -- eight years now, for the both of them. 

"They're inseparable, basically. We walk them together. It's very easy," shelter volunteer Kathy Kelly-Weston told USA Today. "They're housed in the same room together and they really don't like being apart, especially Chico. It makes him kind of nervous."

As Chico writes in his MaxFund adoption blurb, "You see, I've used dog doors, the scent of treats, and other friendly dogs like Jack to help me get along just fine despite my loss of vision."

He's a very intelligent dog, too.

"I'm smart and can open gate latches even though many 'sighted,' dogs couldn't master such a feat!" he writes. "I'm easygoing, friendly, love walks, car rides, water, know 'sit' and 'come,' and I'll brighten your days and make you smile. So come meet me, okay?"

Jack, for his part, chimes in on his own MaxFund adoption blurb, making a play for Chico: "I'm easygoing, playful, and hoping my buddy, Chico, another friendly cattle dog, can come with me to a new home, too. I think you will find that the two of us will be just about as easy to care for as one!"

So if you or anyone you know would like two pretty great dogs who need a home, visit the MaxFund Animal Adoption Center and take a closer look at Chico and Jack. Spread the word, too! 

Via USA Today

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Ouch: Jack the Dog Eats 111 Pennies with His Bagel Crumbs

He really only wanted the bagel crumbs, but the pennies were in the way. What a meal.

In Manhattan the other day, a Jack Russell Terrier named Jack (nice!) had a problem. He wanted to eat a bunch of bagel crumbs, but they were scattered in and around a whole bunch of pennies. 

Wait, let's back up, about two minutes. That's when Jack was on the floor looking longingly at a bag containing a bagel on a desk. Jack was going to get that bagel, so he jumped up on the desk, knocking the bag and a bowl of pennies to the ground. Jack ate his bagel. Then he noticed the crumbs scattered amongst hundreds of pennies. 

What to do, what to do ... 

Jack made a decision. He just ate everything around him, just hoovered up whatever pennies were unlucky enough to be alongside a bagel crumb. You get the good with the bad, you know? The important thing was that he got the good: bagel crumbs. 

“He’s like a voracious Tasmanian devil -- if there’s food, he’s got to get it,” Tim Kelleher, Jack's owner, told the New York Daily News.

"He'll eat anything he can get himself into, whether it's garbage or whatever," he told Today.com.

The problem, of course, is that Jack inhaled 111 pennies. Dogs shouldn't eat 111 pennies. Jack's owner realized as much when Jack wandered up to him and began vomiting. Kelleher didn't know what Jack had gotten himself into, so he simply monitored the dog. Once Jack started vomiting up blood, he quickly took him to the vet. 

That's where he saw the X-ray of 111 pennies in his dog's stomach. And the 111 pennies had enough zinc in them to pose a lethal threat to Jack's liver and kidneys. 

“If Jack would not have had the pennies removed, the consequences would have been fatal,” said Jack's vet, Dr. Amy Zalcman.

So they operated, fishing out the coins during a two-hour procedure. It went well, and Jack is back to his old self. 

“He’s doing great,” Kelleher said. “He’s driving me crazy again.” 

Via the New York Daily News

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Dogs Make It Better: Goldendoodle Puppies Bring Joy to Sandy Hook Survivors

The pups, who were born on the day of the tragedy, find homes with school staff.

Three weeks after the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy, Laura Feinstein, a teacher at the school, received a letter from a breeder in Texas. She had a litter of nine Goldendoodles. They were born Dec. 14 -- the same day as the massacre. The breeder wondered whether there were any "Sandy Hook staff, families, victims' families, first responders, or anyone in the community affected by the tragedy who might find some comfort in taking on a pup."

There were. Feinstein responded to the breeder, saying that survivors would be delighted, according to a story she wrote about the affair for WTOP.

"I just knew this was going to be a new beginning for my family," she writes. 

Photos were sent, and people picked out their dogs. Feinstein and her family chose a male pup and named him Zeus, "Protector and Ruler of the Heavens."

As the staff waited for the pups to grow up enough to be adopted, the breeder, who is unnamed in the article, sent weekly updates and photos. These offered a bright spot in a school and community under such strain. 

"Those of us on staff who had agreed to take pups were often found huddled during our lunch period sharing photos, a temporary distraction from the struggles we faced adjusting to our new location and our new lives," Feinstein writes. "Whenever I was having a bad moment, I found myself going to the camera roll on my iPhone to sneak a peek at Zeus, who was the positive association I used to overshadow negative thoughts."

On Feb. 16, when the pups were nine weeks old, they arrived at a local airport, where "the reception emotionally overwhelming. It was simply beautiful to see smiling faces and tears of joy."

"I have to say when Zeus was handed to me I smiled like I hadn't smiled in more than two months. His puppy breath and warm little body all snuggled up to you puts you in instant relaxation mode."

Watch a video of Zeus playing with Fernando, Feinstein's black Labrador Retriever:

Feinstein now cares for Zeus with her college-age daughter, and doing so has brought them closer. She ends her article by thanking the breeder for her kindness, and for reaching out: 

"We will never forget what happened on Dec. 14, but a very special person, who had a team of others to support her efforts, did a kind and generous thing for a community of people who were in tremendous pain. I will be forever grateful for that."

Via WTOP

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Unthinkable! Couple Caught Selling Hundreds of Dogs to Labs

The illegally purchased dogs came from shelters, the street, even "free to a good home" pet ads. What the hell?!

You might have never given much thought to how medical researchers get dogs for their labs. The truth might be worse than you imagined. 

On Thursday, according to a story by Philly.com, Floyd and Susan Martin pleaded guilty in federal court to illegally purchasing dogs to sell to research facilities. How many dogs? Hundreds of them. To what institutions? Big ones, like Johns Hopkins and Columbia University.

And they received hundreds of thousands of dollars for those dogs, between 2005 and 2010.

The case throws light on the sordid world of dog-dealing for biomedical research. 

According to the Philly.com, the Martins, who are "random source" dog dealers, "bought their animals by the hundreds from shady individuals known as 'bunchers,' who collect dogs from auctions, shelters, the street, theft, and 'free to good home' pet ads."

Authorities say that two bunchers bought hundreds of dogs from different sources in 10 states, then sold them to the Martins for $50 to $75 each. The Martins then sold the dogs to labs for hundreds of dollars in profit per dog. 

"We’re talking about an abuse-ridden system of acquiring animals for research,” said Nancy Blaney, senior federal policy adviser for the Animal Welfare Institute, a national advocacy group. “‘Random source’ is what it sounds like it is. They can get animals from individuals who respond to ‘free to good home’ ads or animals being stolen. We know because they have been traced through microchipping.”

This is not what people had in mind with the Animal Welfare Act of 1966, which attempted to establish humane standards for animals in labs and regulate dealers who sold to them. 

The Martins are Class B or “random source” dog dealers, a designation that is federally sanctioned but controversial. These dealers may purchase dogs from unlicensed bunchers, but no more than 24 dogs per buncher per year. The Martins ran into trouble by buying hundreds of dogs from just two bunchers. 

The silver lining in all this is that only 3 percent of dogs used in biomedical research in the U.S. come from random-source dealers, and that number is decreasing because of the controversy of using former pets as lab subjects. 

Most labs buy from facilities whose dogs are bred for research.

As for the Martins, they made a deal with prosecutors, with Floyd pleading guilty to one count of mail fraud, for which he will serve a year in prison, and Susan pleaded guilty to a count of conspiracy, for which she will be placed on probation.

Via Philly.com

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Just Plain Mean: Burglars Poison Police Dog, Rob Officer's Home

The dog was locked in a kennel -- there was no need for poison. Terrible, terrible, terrible.

This week, thieves staged a brazen burglary in Richmond, CA, at the home of a police officer after poisoning two of the officer's dogs. One of the dogs was a police dog.  

The robbery is as brazen as it is baffling. 

Police say that the officer received a call from him wife at 6 a.m., saying that their 2-year-old black Labrador Retriever, Trax, was sick. The officer came home, locked his police dog, a Belgian Malinois, in a backyard kennel, then took the Lab with his wife to the vet. 

Then, the burglars struck, stealing three sporting guns, two handguns, and some other items. 

"His house was ransacked, and five firearms were stolen as well as numerous personal possessions," Richmond Lt. Bisa French told KGO.

The thieves also poisoned the police dog, who was locked in his kennel. He was no threat. The poisoning makes no sense. 

"They didn't even need to poison the [police] dog -- it was locked up in a kennel," French told the San Francisco Chronicle. "If they wanted to burglarize the house, they could have done it without poisoning the dog."

Richmond officer Joe Avila, who is also a K-9 staff member, says, "Both of the dogs involved in this were locked, secured in kennels. They were of no threat to any burglar. It was obviously an intentional act. They could have broken into the house and committed the crime that they committed without doing anything to those dogs."

The family's Lab ended up dying from the poison-laced meat, but the police dog is expected to pull through. 

"It didn't look good for his partner for quite some time, and luckily he got the attention he needed immediately," said Avila.

Police haven't identified the officer or the police dog, citing security concerns. 

"They're just an extremely hardworking team, one of the most dedicated teams in our unit," said Avila.

"It's frightening that somebody would target him specifically, that they would not only burglarize the house but also harm the dogs," French said.

Via KGO and the San Francisco Chronicle

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Michael Vick's Former Dogs Meet in a Touching Reunion

Six families who adopted dogs meet at a Utah rescue group, sharing stories of recovery.

Michael Vick has been in the news quite recently, showing up at PetSmart to train his puppy and getting his book tour canceled by angry dog lovers. Though it remains to be seen whether anything positive comes from the anger, one group involved with Vick appears to be feeling just fine.  

His former dogs. 

This week, six families who adopted "Vicktory dogs" (so-named after being resuced from the dog-fighting operation) met at Best Friends' Animal Society of Kanab, UT, to mark five years of freedom. 

“The Vicktory Dogs, the dogs from Michael Vick’s kennel, really helped us truly understand that all dogs are individuals,” Judah Batista, the facility’s director of animal care, told Fox 13 News. “To convict the dogs based on their owners is an incredibly unfair thing to do.”

The dogs arrived from Vick's Bad Newz Kennels battered and bruised in 2008, and as they regained their health they were slowly adopted out. The families kept in touch throughout the years, but never met -- until now. 

"It feels like as much of a growing and healing occasion for the people as much as it does the dogs," Richard Hunter, who owns a Vicktory dog named Mel, told ABC News.

Paul, who owns Cherry Garcia, said, "It's been amazing. We're all staying in the same place -- so we have six ex-fighting Pit Bulls staying in the same place -- and you'd never know that these dogs were born, bred, and trained to fight; the furthest thing on their mind is fighting."

The families spent the weekend together at the sanctuary, and the dogs -- Cherry, Handsome Dan, Halle, Little Red, Mel, and Oscar -- got along great.

"They have just had such a great time together. The families have had such a great time meeting in person," said Paul. "Really, to come together as one big family has been a magical moment."

On Monday, the group invited the public to visit the dogs, and more than 150 people showed up. One by one, the families took the stage and related stories about how their dogs came out of their shells, changing from the shy and shutdown animals they were. 

“We want to show the world that they can become adoptable; we want to show the world that they can become normal dogs and be positive influences in their community,” Paul said.

Watch a video of the event: 

Via ABC

Read more about Michael Vick and BSL:

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