About Time! Westminster Dog Show Allows Mixed-Breed Dogs

For the first time in the show's 138-year history, the club makes room for All American Dogs (that's what the club calls mutts, by the way).

The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show has been going on for more than a century, and in every one of the events the doors have been slammed shut on dogs whose only crime is a bloodline that is impure, that forked here and there along the way, that might have hit a brick wall decades back thanks to a frisky Pug who snuck in the back door one fine summer day. 

Mixed-breed dogs. Mutts. Puggles. Labradoodles. Shelter dogs. Happy dogs. After 138 years, all of them, down to the last unidentifiable fella, have finally been allowed entry into the most prestigious dog show in the world. 

The American Kennel Club calls them "All American Dogs." We kind of like that. 

But it's through the side door, to be sure. The mixed-breed dogs get to enter only one event -- the agility trials, which take place at Pier 94 in Manhattan next month. And only 16 out of the field of 228 are mixed breed, according to the New York Times. 

The agility event, which emphasizes speed and accuracy, precedes the dog show's "pageant of dogs," which prizes dogs conforming to breed standard. 

Think of it as the wild pre-party before the formal party.

Club President Sean McCarthy said that adding the agility competition was a way to “make sure we show all aspects of what dogs can do; they’re good-looking, skillful, and talented.”

"Westminster is a celebration of all the dogs in our lives, and that includes mixed-breed dogs," said Thomas Bradley, the show's chairman, according to the Chicago Tribune.

In agility, dogs race around poles, through tunnels and tires, up and down ramps and seesaws, and they jump like crazy. At the more formal dog show, in contrast, the purebred pooches barely get a lap in. 

"It's so exciting," Irene Palmerini told the Chicago Tribune.

She bought Alfie, a fluffy, black-and-white dog, for $99 from her local pet shop. He's entered into the event. 

“He likes to jump, he loves tunnels and he likes the teeter,” she said. “Agility’s been good for him and made a better bond between us.”

Nice work, Westminster. Next year we can expect to see them in the ring, right?

Fox Sports 1 broadcasts the agility trial live from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 8, with commentary by former Olympic diver Greg Louganis.

Via New York Times; photos via WKC Dog Show's Facebook

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A Dog Meme Will Get Jamaica's Bobsled Team to the Olympics

It's crowdsourcing for a good cause -- Internet currency based on Doge called (duh!) Dogecoin.

For the most part, memes are not my favorite aspect of the Internet. As humor, they wear out for me very fast. It's somewhat like being at a party and having one person after another walk up and tell you the same joke, each one of them convinced that they are being clever and witty. Usually, the joke wasn't that funny to begin with, but after the 50th time or so, it's all you can do to make your mouth twitch in a token impression of a smile, rather than braining them with the nearest potted plant.

I should mention at this point that I don't get invited to many parties.

But here's a case in which a meme was made to serve good, rather than evil. Thanks to a fusion of Internet currency with a cute dog meme and crowdfunding, the Jamaican bobsled team will be able to go to the Winter Olympics in Sochi this year.

Dogecoin is an Internet currency that's kind of a rebranded, cuter version of Bitcoin. The logo of Dogecoin is based on the "Doge" meme, which is kind of like the canine equivalent of LOLCAT pictures, which is to say that it can be adorable or annoying, depending on your mood. The meme features broken English words written in Comic Sans font on a picture of Kabosu, a Shiba Inu dog. Some media figures declared it "dead" in December, when Republican legislators started tweeting Doge pictures to attack the Affordable Care Act and budget spending.

However, the success of Dogecoin's crowdfunding campaign for the Jamaican Bobsled Team shows that there may be some life in the old meme yet. On Saturday, Winston Watt and Marvin Dixon learned that they had qualified to compete in the Olympic Games. But the happy news came with some bitter: They didn't have the money to go. So naturally, they did what everyone does in the 21st century: They turned to the Internet.

One of the people who heard the plea was Liam Butler, head of the Dogecoin Foundation. Butler has been a fan since he saw the film Cool Runnings as a kid.

"As someone who grew up in the '90s, Cool Runnings was the ultimate feel-good movie about underdogs out of their element achieving their dreams," he told UPI. "When I was about seven years old, my best friend and I had a billy-cart that his dad built. When we would start our run down his driveway, we would shout out the catchphrase from the movie: 'Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it's bobsled time!'"

With those memories in mind, Butler and the Dogecoin Foundation started up a campaign called Dogesled to send Watt and Dixon to the Olympics. It succeeded in a way that they couldn't have imagined. Not only did the Dogesled campaign raise more than $25,000 in real cash for the team, the value of Dogecoin shot up 50 percent within 12 hours.

"We started without a concrete plan in mind," Butler said. "I sent a few emails out … but that was the extent of it."

Plan or not, the result is that the Jamaican Bobsled Team will be going to Sochi to compete. Jamaican Olympic officials and the Sochi Organizing Committee have said that they will cover Watt and Dixon's transport expenses, but the donations will still be used for equipment and training. It looks like cute dog pictures and a little good will really can take you a long way.

Via Los Angeles Times

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It's #GivingTuesday: Ways you can help dogs in need this holiday season!

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A Poodle Named Dream Adopts an Aussie Puppy in Need

Dream already had one puppy of her own, but when another turned up at the rescue needing a mother, she brought her into her family.

A four-year-old Poodle named Dream turned up in an overcrowded shelter in the high desert near Lancaster, California -- dirty, matted, and skinny. Shelter workers labeled her a stray. They didn't even know she was pregnant, but she was, and she gave birth to two tiny puppies on Dec. 2. 

One died right away. The other fought to survive, as Dream, so sickly herself, did her best to nurse him. The pair needed to get out of that shelter and get some real help, and that's when a kind soul spotted Dream and her puppy and pegged them for transfer to the Helen Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe, California. 

It was there her life would change. Not only did Dream and her puppy -- staff named her Cupcake -- get placed in a great foster home right away, but Dream gained a new reason to live: Candy, an Aussie mix puppy who was having a rough go at life. 

On Jan. 10, not long after Dream and Cupcake found their foster home, the Helen Woodward center brought in a mother Aussie mix named Karly and her seven puppies. One of them, Candy, was tiny compared with the rest. She had been getting trampled, struggling to get her mother's milk, and she was left stunted, weak, dehydrated, covered in bite wounds, and suffering from a nasal infection. 

The center's veterinarian, Stephanie Oba, took Candy in, fostering her separately and giving her round-the-clock care. She would get better, but she still needed one thing. She needed a mother. 

Someone on the staff had an idea: What about Dream? Her puppy Cupcake was Candy's age. And the pups looked nearly alike, despite one having a Poodle mom. What if Dream accepted Candy as her own?

Foster Pam Fleischman agreed. Dream met Candy, and immediately took her in. She treated Candy as "though she were the baby she had lost," reports the center.  

“Dream has been an amazingly good mother," said Fleischman. "She is content to spend most of her time lounging with Cupcake and Candy and attentively caring for them. We’re looking forward to seeing how the puppies’ personalities develop during the next month. They are both angels and immediately became the best of friends.” 

This story had a happy ending, but it's not over. Cupcake and Candy will soon need their own homes. The two dogs will be fixed in a few weeks and will be ready to be adopted after that, according to the center. If you're interested, please contact the Adoptions Department at 858-756-4117 (ext. 1) or visit the Helen Woodward Animal Center. 

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Big Fluffy Dog Rescue Tells a Harsh Tale of a Hit and Run

Revlon escaped from her Nashville foster home and was found on the interstate. Surgery is next.

Big Fluffy Dog Rescue, a nonprofit from Nashville, Tennessee, posted an extremely intense and emotional account of their work with a single dog on their Facebook last night. While it's perhaps not an unusual story -- or at least not as unusual as most of us would like -- it does say a lot about the challenges of providing humane support for dogs in a society that's less and less willing to take care of its own.

The post is about Revlon, a dog that Big Fluffy had rescued, and who then escaped from her foster home. The people at Big Fluffy hit the streets and the social networks trying to find Revlon. They were met by a lot of helpful and compassionate people, with one exception: "To the one useless jackass who called and said he hoped she was squashed out flat on the highway, you can suck it and I sincerely wish you pain and suffering."

Despite the willingness of most people to help, there was no sign of Revlon until yesterday morning, when the author reports that dozens of people called in, flooding her with the same piece of bad news: Revlon had been struck by a hit-and-run driver on Interstate 40.

She had part of steel radial tire fragment embedded in her foot and she has possibly the worst blunt force trauma injury to her left hip and femur I've ever seen. Her right hip is dislocated and will have to be pinned and she will be in a wheelchair for several weeks while she heals. We will fix her and she is slated for surgery as soon as the plates that can repair her damaged hips arrive.

Revlon is alive because a woman stopped immediately when she saw the dog get struck and go flying. Despite the intense trauma, the dog dragged herself across three lanes of traffic, with a little help from humans on the scene:

To the man who found an orange cone to help keep traffic away, I say thank you. To the policeman who helped, thank you as well. This dog is alive because of all of you. To Shannon who put this dog in your car and drove her to the vet, you are my hero and I thank you. While it grieves me that the person who hit this dog did not bother to stop or even slow down to look, it comforts me that people cared enough to help one poor dog get out of harm's way.

As I say, the story itself is not that remarkable. After all, many dogs get struck by cars every day, and many don't make it to safety or have a human nearby who can help them to a veterinarian. But the directness and emotion of the account is a good reminder of what dog rescue workers go through on a regular basis. Just like the author, they're in the work because they care about and love these animals, and it can be a wrenching job whether you're a volunteer or paid staff.

And in the case of Revlon, it's an expensive one, too. The Big Fluffy staffer writes that the dog will need at least two or three surgeries, as well as a dog wheelchair to help her with mobility during recovery. That's probably going to come to $5,000 to $10,000:

She will have to endure two and probably three surgeries to repair the damage. If you look closely, you can see the lines where she got nailed by a bumper and you will understand just how lucky this dog is. The left hip is broken in four places and will be plated to provide pain relief and stability. Then we'll deal with the femur and knee. The right hip will be pinned. She won't be able to stand on her own so we'll be investing in a wheelchair while the breaks heal up.

For anyone who wants to help Big Fluffy Dog Rescue with Revlon's expenses, or with their work in general, donations can be made online.

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Give the gift of green to dogs and dog lovers this holiday season!

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DIY: Make dog paw cleaning mitts from old wash cloths!

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